Montgomery Playhouse Handles Williams's 'Menagerie' With Care

Tom (Jove Graham, above) and Laura (Cassandra Redding) struggle to discover their identities in "The Glass Menagerie" by Tennessee Williams. (Photo By Kay Coupe)

Montgomery Playhouse is proving that there still is plenty of life in Tennessee Williams's classic drama "The Glass Menagerie," with a sturdy production that makes it clear why Williams's work endures. Faithful to the playwright's vision and verse, but lighter than is often the case, it is a bracing and thought-provoking glimpse into denial and desperation.

Director Steve LaRocque has a deft touch with the material, understanding that Williams may have been a tortured soul, but also that he had a wry aspect to his view of the world. That delicate touch, and a subtly compelling performance from Jane Squier Bruns as the matriarch of a poor and emotionally constricted family, combine to make this an absorbing production.

Amanda Wingfield (Bruns) is a faded Southern belle living in a dingy St. Louis apartment with her two grown and troubled children in the 1930s, clinging to memories of a youth spent in gentility. It is quite easy to see her as a monster who reduces her children to emotional cripples to control them. But Bruns concentrates on the woman's eccentricity, melancholy and ultimate vulnerability, making her less vivid, perhaps, but no less interesting. She remains a controlling presence, but through passive-aggressive means rather than overt domination. Of course, that's no less confining to her son Tom (Jove Graham), through whose eyes we see this story. Tom, who may be viewed as Williams's alter ego, escapes into a secret life that he explores late at night in the bars, telling his mother and sister he's "at the movies."

With Amanda escaping into the past and Tom fleeing into nocturnal escapades, Laura Wingfield (Cassandra Redding) hides herself away from the world, living as a shut-in who lavishes attention on a collection of glass animal figurines. She has allowed a deformed foot to define her, but she is crippled emotionally much more than physically. All three are too fragile to deal with the brutal truths of their lives, and Tom is planning to run away, regardless of the fact that his sister and mother would lose their primary means of support.

Williams gives his characters one last chance to save themselves as Tom arranges for a "gentleman caller" to visit Laura, an event Amanda is convinced will rescue them. Jim (Brandon Gowen) may or may not turn out to be a catalyst for change, but whatever happens won't be what Amanda expects.

The actors take time to savor the language, but the energy never flags. Scenes between mother and son fairly crackle with tension as he tries to control mounting resentments and she blindly blunders on. It's not easy to avoid overt melodrama with this role, but Bruns steers clear of that, and her Amanda is quite unaware of the deleterious effect she has on those closest to her.

Graham's hard edge as Tom seems slightly out of place with this gentler Amanda, but Williams wrote this play in a different era, and Tom's deep sexual conflict is only vaguely hinted at, making the portrayal a challenge. Redding is effective as Laura, creating a pitiable creature who is comfortable with the idea that the world outside the apartment is no place for her. Gowen rises to the task of negotiating the tricky turns Williams crafted for the "gentleman caller" and avoids the easy route of making him a villain.

The intimate Arts Barn is a good setting for this play, with David Jones's simple apartment design looking suitably claustrophobic on the small stage, but also accommodating the "exterior" scenes nicely and helping to put a nice shine on "The Glass Menagerie."

"The Glass Menagerie" continues through March 12, performed by Montgomery Playhouse at the Gaithersburg Arts Barn, 311 Kent Square Rd. in Kentlands. Showtime is 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays with Sunday matinees at 3 p.m. For information, visithttp://www.montgomeryplayhouse.org. For tickets, call 301-258-6394.