{"id":486004,"date":"2010-03-29T18:12:06","date_gmt":"2010-03-29T22:12:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.downtownphoenix.com\/blog\/?p=2250"},"modified":"2010-03-29T18:12:06","modified_gmt":"2010-03-29T22:12:06","slug":"%e2%80%9cglass%e2%80%9d-done-with-class","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/486004","title":{"rendered":"\u201cGlass\u201d Done with Class"},"content":{"rendered":"

As someone who before Saturday\u00a0hadn’t\u00a0seen to a proper play in\u00a0an alarming\u00a0number of\u00a0years, I possess neither the experience nor desire\u00a0to\u00a0break “The Glass Menagerie”\u00a0<\/a>down line by line.<\/p>\n

However, what I can tell you with supreme confidence is that “Menagerie,” playing thru April 11 at Herberger Theater<\/a>, is well worth the price of admission.<\/p>\n

\"MenagerieResized\"Director Juliette Carrillo’s treatment of the Tennessee Williams’ classic–widely\u00a0believed to be an autobiography of Williams’ life during his artistic awakening–is\u00a0daring\u00a0while giving the proper amount of respect to a classic.<\/p>\n

1930s-set “Menagerie”\u00a0is the story of the St. Louis tenement-dwelling Wingfield family–Mother and former Southern Belle Amanda with her\u00a0false sense of entitlement and love of melodrama,\u00a0and siblings\u00a0Tom and Laura [played by Noel Joseph Allain and Barbra Wengerd, pictured left], older brother stuck\u00a0towing the line\u00a0as man of the house\u00a0and\u00a0awkward\u00a0younger sister who\u00a0alternates getting done in by physical and social\u00a0limitations .<\/p>\n

Desperate to\u00a0erase her own life’s failures (most notably\u00a0marrying “a telephone man who fell in love with long distance”) Amanda\u00a0tries most unsuccessfully\u00a0to will her children to happiness. And while the smothering\u00a0mother\u00a0celebrates the pending arrival of a long-awaited Gentleman Caller for her daughter, the audience is left\u00a0to cringe\u00a0with the knowledge that no good can come from the visit. Yes, true to Tennessee Williams form, “The Glass Menagerie” is a deep,\u00a0character-driven tale.<\/p>\n

In a twist, Carrillo forces the four-person cast\u00a0(five if you count sensational violinist Jay Goldin) to begin the play on a\u00a0naked stage, introducing the Wingfield\u00a0apartment set piece by piece in a visual crescendo that compliments\u00a0the rising action of the script. It’s a bold move that really\u00a0worked for me. Carrillo also deserves a high five for getting more out of a cream-colored curtain than Martha Stewart.<\/p>\n

Among\u00a0the acting performances, Brian Ibsen’s turn as\u00a0Gentleman Caller Jim O’Connor really stood out.\u00a0His much-needed energy helped the story get where it needed to go at at time when the pace was lagging. Catalina Mayard (Amanda) also\u00a0gets credit for keeping a\u00a0generally abrasive\u00a0character\u00a0mostly sympathetic.<\/p>\n

I could go on and on trying to impress you with how closely I paid attention but, again, this isn’t one of those reviews. The bottom line is that “The Glass Menagerie”\u00a0is thought-provoking entertainment that leaves you wanting more.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As someone who before Saturday\u00a0hadn’t\u00a0seen to a proper play in\u00a0an alarming\u00a0number of\u00a0years, I possess neither the experience nor desire\u00a0to\u00a0break “The Glass Menagerie”\u00a0down line by line. However, what I can tell you with supreme confidence is that “Menagerie,” playing thru April 11 at Herberger Theater, is well worth the price of admission. Director Juliette Carrillo’s treatment […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5072,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-486004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5072"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=486004"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486004\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=486004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=486004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=486004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}