Presented by special arrangement with The University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee.
Reviewed by Frank McKone
March 29
Cast & Creatives
Tennessee Williams. Playwright. ...
Liesel Badorrek. Director. ...
Danny Ball. Cast - Tom Wingfield. ...
Blazey Best. Cast - Amanda Wingfield. ...
Bridie McKim. Cast - Laura Wingfield. ...
Tom Rodgers. Cast - Jim O'Connor. ...
Grace Deacon. Set & Costume Designer. ...
Verity Hampson. Lighting Designer.
Photos by Prudence Upton
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| Blazey Best, Bridie McKim, Danny Ball as Amanda Wingfield, daughter Laura, son Tom The Glass Menagerie, Ensemble Theatre 2025 Photo: Prudence Upton |
Do your very best to get to Sydney’s Ensemble Theatre, on the Harbour at Kirribilli, no matter what the weather, for their production of Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie. You have till April 26th. It’s a classic.
How ironic is my shock as actor Tom Rodgers, as the smartly brylcreemed “gentleman caller” Jim, clumsily trying to dance with crippled terribly shy Laura, knocks over and smashes her beautiful but fragile glass model rearing horse (or rather, unicorn). The whole audience gasped as one; and were horrified again as her brother Tom (Danny Ball in a consistently steady performance) threw another handful of precious glass, smashing it into the image of the face of his father; and like me were in tears for Bridie McKim’s delicately played Laura, left alone in her crippled world.
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| Bridie McKim and Blazey Best The Glass Menagerie, Ensemble Theatre, 2025 |
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| Bridie McKim as Laura and Tom Rodgers as Jim O'Connor in The Glass Menagerie, Ensemble Theatre 2025 |
Why is the power of this wonderful Ensemble Theatre production, so ironic? On the very day as I watched The Glass Menagerie, in The Saturday Paper,
Rick Morton was quoting from “the questionnaire sent by US officials to
Australian researchers and institutions, seeking to determine whether
their work complied with Donald Trump’s promise to cut funding from
projects that support a ‘woke’ agenda.”
“Can you confirm that this is no DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion] project, or DEI elements of the project?”
How
even more ironic is it that Tennessee Williams’ character, gentleman
caller Jim, is described by brother Tom when they were at high school,
as so popular that within five years he could have become the President
of America! And now, at 22, like Tom, he works in an Amazon-like
warehouse, and is soon to marry Betty.
So sorry, Laura.
As
I write, the Australian Broadcasting Commission is reporting on the
problem of “boys’ culture” made so much worse by social media today. Has
nothing changed since 1944? Then, Tennessee Williams sent the boys
like Laura’s father in the Depression and now her brother in wartime off
to seek “adventure”, leaving their women frantic – like her mother,
Amanda Wingfield, played to perfection by Blazey Best.
So the
final irony as I see it is that theatre, as produced by Ensemble
Theatre, shows us the heights of human empathy in the teamwork of
wonderful actors, and of human intelligence and understanding in the
work of director Liesel Badorrek and her team of designers, set makers
and stage managers, in presenting a great American tragedy of failing
human relationships, just as true in this century as a century ago.
Theatre
may be an illusion, but this work reveals the truth of how our real
world is still no more than a collection of beautiful but yet so fragile
possibilities, so easily accidentally knocked over – or so deliberately
smashed by Presidents seeking adventure.
Tennessee Williams
saw World War 2 as the result of economic depression – a way of escape
for the boys (though, in another irony not covered in his play, often a
way into work for women, at least while the fighting continued). It’s
not unreasonable to expect that tragedy may be repeated in World War 3.
The Glass Menagerie is not just, as Ensemble Theatre says,
“Williams’ timeless portrait of a shattered family” but an image of a
shattered humanity.
Unfortunately President Donald Trump’s approach to theatre on The Apprentice
surely means he sees Tennessee Williams as ‘woke’; and his performance
in the White House attempting to intimidate President Volodymyr
Zelenskyy – who actually ironically has been a seriously successful
professional satirical comedian – showed Trump to be the worst kind of
ham actor, dangerous because he has no self awareness.
So we ordinary people are left like Laura to a seemingly unfulfilling future. But the strength of Ensemble’s production of The Glass Menagerie
can be measured by the depth of the silence achieved by Danny Ball and
Bridie McKim in the moment which ends the play. Theatre of this
outstanding quality makes life worthwhile, no matter what.
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| Bridie McKim as Laura in The Glass Menagerie, Ensemble Theatre 2025 Photo: Prudence Upton |
©Frank McKone, Canberra
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