The Glass Menagerie, In Tandem’s season opener, remains one of the most elusive of Tennessee Williams’ works, lacking the overt neurotic aggressiveness that so distinguished his later dramas. The story of Amanda Wingfield’s attempts to maintain the illusion of long-lost Southern gentility within her small household (while smothering her children’s initiative with her obsessive nagging) remains not just a play of lost illusions but one of misplaced tenderness, an unusually understated effort for Williams at this stage of his career. Here, gentility serves as a guise for family affection. Amanda is not as pathological as Blanche DuBoise. She only wants to be a good mother but is trapped by her dreams of the past.
One of Milwaukee’s finest actresses, Angela Iannone’s powerhouse interpretation of Amanda, while consistently exciting as the play’s centerpiece, offers histrionic elegance as the driving force, sometimes at the expense of warmth and vulnerability. Iannone is too self-assured a performer for morbid woolgathering, but is never less than exciting. Many will consider this a fair tradeoff considering the unusual reticence and quiet subtlety of this drama, which benefits from her spiky characterization. She does provide gentler moments of tender reflection in the second act while musing over lovely reminiscences of the past.
Yet the drama remains an ensemble work. A fine supporting cast gives variety and focus to Amanda’s domination. As Tom Wingfield, John Glowacki seems too good looking and self confident to tolerate his mother’s overbearing behavior, but the actor skillfully conveys his sense of resigned tolerance of his mother’s misplaced motives. Grace DeWolff as the shy repressed Laura Wingfield, self-conscious of her limp, has a touching scene with the “gentleman caller,” sensitively played by Rick Pendzich. She gives this tender play its true humanistic universality.
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The simple, undramatic parting of those two gives the play a quiet, unobtrusive, heart-wrenching poignancy that underscores the silent poise of The Glass Menagerie and defines its status as great theater. It’s the failure of the little dreams that ultimately matter.
In Tandem Theatre’s The Glass Menagerie runs through Oct. 19 at Tenth Street Theatre, 628 N. 10th St. For tickets call 414-271-1371 or visit intandemtheatre.org/season/tickets.
