Review: THE GLASS MENAGERIE at Hershey Area Playhouse

"For time is the longest distance between places" but in the case of an iconic play like The Glass Menagerie, time seems to melt away. Tennessee Williams based the play on his 1943 short story "Portrait of a Girl in Glass." The Glass Menagerie premiered in 1944 in Chicago where it caught the attention of critics Ashton Stevens and Claudia Cassidy. With their help, the producers were able to move the play to Broadway, where it opened at the Playhouse Theatre in 1945. In The Glass Menagerie, the character Tom serves as both narrator and character in a play that is memory and yet somehow very real and present. The Glass Menagerie runs April 4-April 14 at Hershey Area Playhouse.

This production is visually very beautiful. The set pieces, from the fire escape that dominates the upstage area to the period typewriter and radio to the glass menagerie down center, were clearly carefully selected to create the family's St. Louis apartment while highlighting the themes of memory and faded hopes and dreams. The costumes are also well-suited to the time period and to the characters.

The Glass Menagerie is one of those shows that can be intimidating for actors. The complexity of the characters and range of emotion requires finesse in direction and acting. The cast and crew at Hershey Area Playhouse deliver solid performances. From the initial monologue, the audience can feel Tom's yearning for change and adventure. In the first scene, we get a sense of Amanda's deep love and devotion for her children as well as her longing for the past and of Laura's nervous and sweet nature. In act two we meet the larger than life gentleman caller, Jim.

Adam Estep takes command of the stage from the moment he steps on as Jim. He is gregarious and seems to take everything in stride. Estep demonstrates skill in using his voice, stride, and gestures bring out Jim's confidence, control over the situations in which he finds himself, and ambition. His encouragement of Laura to be confident is sincere, and when he says that if he were her brother, he would help her overcome her shyness, he delivers the lines so fervently that the audience senses that he wishes he really could help her. While I've seen this role played with more suavity, I appreciate Estep's interpretation. He brings an energy to the second act that leads us smoothly toward the climax of the play.

The daughter, Laura, is portrayed by Kim Greenawalt. It is not an easy role, and Greenawalt handles it well. She is consistent with her limp and awkward speech pattern. I would have liked to see more of her timidity and meekness right from the beginning of the show. At the beginning, it comes across rather flat, but by about halfway through the show Greenawalt hits her stride and really brings Laura to life. The audience can really feel the sense of escape and comfort she gets from her glass menagerie when she polishes it. She particularly shines in the final scene when Laura begins to come out of her shell only to have her heart broken. Greenawalt shows great range of emotion in this final scene.

Nancy Parson takes on the character of Amanda, the former southern belle who regales her children with stories of her past and dreams of a life of love and good fortune for her children. Parson does a wonderful job with the southern charm, but I found myself wishing there was more vivacity in the character to more fully differentiate Amanda from her daughter. Among Parson's best scenes are Amanda's arguments impassioned with her son, Tom, the scene in act two when she girlishly flirts with Jim on behalf of her daughter, and the final scene when she we feel her devastation as her dreams for her daughter disappear.

Rounding out this talented four-person cast is Tyler Chick as Tom. As the narrator, Chick lends a sense of gravitas and poetry to his monologues, painting the picture of Tom's memories and drawing the audience into the scene to come. While I personally felt that the final monologue could have had more passion, it was consistent with the previous monologues, which served to bring the play full-circle. Chick is wonderfully convincing in his acting within the scenes as well. His facial expressions during the arguments with Amanda are perfect, and several times throughout the show we can see and feel Tom's tender care for his sister through Chick's expression and vocal inflections. In his portrayal of Tom, Chick uses a particular economy of movement that makes it feel like Tom is a caged animal seeking escape, which is perfect for that part.

While there were times when I felt that there could have been more variety of emotion in the performances during the first act (which could easily have been a case of opening night jitters), overall, this production of The Glass Menagerie at Hershey Area Playhouse is authentic, touching, and beautiful. For anyone who has ever felt trapped, ignored, or disappointed, The Glass Menagerie will speak to you. You do not want to miss this production at Hershey Area Playhouse, so get your tickets today at www.hersheyareaplayhouse.com.

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