Theatre Review: Theatrical Outfit’s powerful and poetic production of ‘The Glass Menagerie’

Devon Hales in Theatrical Outfit s production of The Glass Menagerie Photo by Casey G Ford Yes I have tricks in my pocket I have things up my sleeve I give you truth in the pleasant disguise of illusion How plenty of students have read these opening words from Tennessee Williams legendary play The Glass Menagerie at this time on view at Theatrical Outfit Far more I fear than have seen the play especially a production as poetic and powerful as this one Artistic Director Matt Torney s shimmering magnetic version of the play will run through Nov with a couple of added two-a-day performances check the schedule thoroughly at theatricaloutfit org That s the thing about masterpieces when they re done well by an inspired gifted cast You have a sense of discovery as though you had never seen it before never heard the familiar words or been mesmerized by Laura s little glass animals and you re charmed Terry Burrell Devon Hales and Stephen Ruffin Photo by Casey G Ford While Menagerie is a play of almost ineffable delicacy poignance and intimacy it can also knock the breath out of you you may have forgotten this I m going to assume you have a few degree of familiarity with the work Do you remember the Wingfields The play is largely autobiographical There s Tom the playwright s real name and played here beautifully by Stephen Ruffin the would-be writer caught in a soul-corroding job in a shoe warehouse his slightly crippled painfully shy sister Laura a touching performance by Devon Hales Tom tells us up front that the play is memory And there is Amanda their well-meaning yet unintentionally selfish mother based on Miss Edwina Williams own mother whom the playwright s erstwhile pal Gore Vidal called one of Tennessee s monster women Veteran Atlanta Broadway actress Terry Burrell does the honors here beautifully with subtlety wit and power The play incidentally is set in pre-World War II St Louis when the world was lit by lightning Terry Burrell and Stephen Ruffin Photo by Casey G Ford Amanda raised her children in a nice home in the Mississippi delta But her husband s departure a telephone man who fell in love with long distance says Tom has forced her to move with her children to a small apartment in St Louis But she loves nothing more than to regale her captive audience with bygone times when she was the queen of the cotillion inundated with beaucoups of gentlemen callers Laura s aforementioned physical infirmity and painful shyness worry Amanda and she asks Tom to ask several nice young man at the factory to come for dinner so that he may be Laura s date or gentleman caller as she would say Williams through Tom calls him the long delayed but constantly expected something that we live for and here his name is Jim Matt Mercurio in a touching delicate performance During dinner the lights go out Tom has not paid the lighting bill and we are suddenly in the midst of the greater part tender exquisite scene in American drama as Laura and Jim have a charming heartbreaking colloquy I can t watch it without tearing up Even the playwright is moved At one point his stage directions say The holy candles in the altar of Laura s face have been snuffed out My one quibble with the entire evening happens in the scene between Laura and Jim I beg lighting designer Ben Rawson to cheat a bit so the audience can see their faces better Yes we have candles but they re not enough In the author s production notes he implies that a slight modification of lighting is manageable Doing so would make this powerful moment even more so Ladies and gentlemen you need to see Theatrical Outfit s production of The Glass Menagerie It is a cornerstone of American drama You ll thank me and yourself The post Theatre Review Theatrical Outfit s powerful and poetic production of The Glass Menagerie appeared first on Rough Draft Atlanta