The Glass Menagerie

Written By Tennessee Williams

Directed by Joseph Giani

At the Quincy House Cage

Through this weekend

THE finest glass may be created in Venice, but the Quincy House Theatricals create a true work of art themselves in their version of Tennssee Williams' The Glass Menagerie.

When the lights in the Quincy Cage come up on Tom, with the frozen figures of Amanda, Laura and Jim in the background, the audience is immediately captivated by the intensity of their expressions. As the other characters remain stationary, Tom begins to tell the heartbreaking story of his sister Laura and his mother Amanda, who spend most of their lives trapped in illusion.

Amanda, an abandoned wife, struggles to maintain her dignity through the memories of her Southern gentlewoman past, especially her days on Blue Mountain, where she imagined herself to be the heartthrob of an abundance of "gentleman callers." Her main purpose in life is to see her children married and successful. In the process of achieving these goals she manages to alienate Tom completely and to cause Laura to withdraw even further into herself.

Shawn Hainsworth gives a wonderful performance as Tom, the highlight of which is when Amanda confronts Tom about his job at the warehouse. Hainsworth exercises amazing control as he begins his speech in a conversational tone and then gradually builds the emotion in his voice to a powerhouse level which reverberates through the Cage and reduces the audience to silent admiration. In this one speech he is able to communicate his raging inner conflict between his loyalties to his mother and to his own desires.

Carolyn Kaufman also does a fantastic job in her role as Laura. In the scenes where Amanda drills Laura about why she quit school, Kaufman makes the audience feel the depth of her pain and embarrassment as she shyly tells her story. Kaufman's dynamic talent shows when she transforms Laura from an overly shy girl nervously playing with the folds of her skirt into the carefree dancing woman she becomes with Jim.

Under Joseph Giani's excellent direction, the relationship between Kaufman and Hainsworth blossoms. Their glances, body contact and delivery clearly make their implied intimacy a reality.

Martha Moore successfully draws the audience into Amanda's twisted sense of old-fashioned reality. Moore combines just the right amount of strength and vulnerability to make Amanda the pitiable matriarch Williams' script intends her to be. Although Jim, played by Anthony Hatch, only appears in the second half of the show, he plays well the role of Amanda's ideal match for Laura.

Due to the small space in the Cage and the illusion themes that run throughout the play, Giani's choice to have the actors mime objects like the telephone, the door and utensils is a good one. All of the cast members, however, need a little practice miming. Sometimes the slamming of the door or the use of forks at dinner do not seem quite realistic.

But this is a minor fault. Kaufman, Hainsworth, Hatch and Moore combine for a performance as special and unique as the unicorn in Laura's Glass Menagerie.