He might as well be an actor assembled specifically for Joe Colarco’s Old Globe production of Tennessee Williams’ “The Glass Menagerie.” His program biography reveals nothing about Michael Simpson other than to say this is his theatrical debut. Thus, the critic is left to her own devices (even Google was no help) and her opening night experience of the actor, who plays the role of Tom. Had I cloned the handsome lad, his diction would be crisper, his accent a bit more influenced by his Southern belle mother’s and his performance less Act One Hamlet and more, say, Prince Hal. His performance is more the manic than the depressed incipient alcoholic/homosexual. However, I am no scientist, only a listener with a keen ear that missed as much as 30 percent of his emanations, perhaps due to first time on stage, which is even more challenging by playing in the round upon the Cassius Carter Centre Stage.
Mare Winningham is starchy and collected, though much less the scheming Amanda than the more helpless Blanche. Having been deserted by her wastrel husband ” “a telephone man who fell in love with long distance” ” some years before, the woman has few resources other than wit with which to launch her “different” children. She relies on Tom’s small salary to make ends meet. Tom, who “goes to the movies” way too much, is truly in jeopardy of losing his job for lack of sleep. He doesn’t care; he has plans to join the merchant marine.
Michelle Federer’s portrayal of Tom’s sister, the shy, crippled and fragile Laura, is perfect in pitch and tempo, and Kevin Isola’s Gentleman Caller looks, moves and sounds like he’s fresh from a Dale Carnegie course. His character, Jim O’Connor, is the only voice of truth heard in this tragic 1937 St. Louis family, fraught with denial and fueled by deception. Amanda had hoped to unload Laura on Jim, but he is already engaged to someone else, so everyone’s hopes are dashed.
Williams’ largely autobiographical work, which played on Broadway in 1945 and was his first major success, allows us to glimpse post-Depression America as it was and frighteningly could be again.
Colarco commences the memory play with Tom, wearing a woolen sailor’s cap, returning years later to the deserted apartment to spin the tale. He lifts a dust cover from the table that holds Laura’s glass menagerie and the music she used to play on the phonograph emanates from beneath it. Simpson’s movements in this scene are those of a ballet dancer, so is his intense silent emotion. Michael Fagin’s wood-toned set is extremely effective, Anne Kennedy’s period costumes quite entrancing. Both Chris Lee’s lighting and Lindsay Jones’ sound enhance the tone of the work.
“The Glass Menagerie” continues at 7 p.m. Sundays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, and 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays through May 18 in the Cassius Carter Centre Theatre, Old Globe, Balboa Park. For tickets and information, visit wwwtheoldglobe.com or call (619) 23-GLOBE.
