Brother and sister at center of an intimate ‘Glass Menagerie’
Kerry Reid, Chicago Tribune
★★★
Director Kevin Theis’ staging of Tennessee Williams’ first great theatrical success doesn’t muck about much with what we’ve come to expect from this memory play…the relationship between Christian Gray’s Tom and Zoe Palko’s Laura offers insights into the real emotional heart of the play that are sometimes glossed over in favor of The Amanda Wingfield Show.
‘Menagerie’ seethes with dark, intense energy
Catey Sullivan, Chicago Sun-Times
[T]his staging is all about Tom, and not just because Gray bears an eerie resemblance to the portrait of Amanda’s long-gone husband hanging prominently in set designer Michael Lasswell’s rendition of a shabby St. Louis parlor. What’s really striking about this Glass Menagerie is how thoroughly grounded it is Gray’s portrayal of a man about to explode with a force that will propel him away from his family forever.
It’s thanks to the central power of Williams’ “bastard son of a bastard” as well as Zoe Palko’s cringing, quavering Laura that The Glass Menagerie works as well as it does.
Those Who Live in Glass Houses
Doug Deuchler, Oak Park Wendesday Journal
Belinda Bremner is remarkably forceful yet haunting as Amanda Wingfield. She’s a bossy, badgering but funny and devoted mother of two grown-up children: her restless, would-be writer son and her disabled, painfully shy daughter. Bremner displays a commanding stage presence, communicating a depth of nuance and emotion in a role so complex that, in lesser hands, might become a shrill caricature of a ridiculous, overbearing monster.
Zoe Palko is quite convincing as withdrawn Laura, an inhibited, lonely young girl who spends her days focusing on her glass animal collection and playing old Victrola records. Palko’s performance brings out Laura’s fragility and utter defeat.
Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie
Ed Vincent, Oak Park Journal
★★★★
This is the best live performance of The Glass Menagerie, that we have yet to see. I may have to go back again and see it myself a second time. It is highly recommended and hats off to Director, Kevin Theis for his talented job of giving this play such a great performance and Michael Lasswell for a great set design.
