Reviews : THE GLASS MENAGERIE
'* * * * ...Despite the aching combination of brittle brightness and sense of missed opportunity that (Blethyn) brings to the part of the aging Southern belle Amanda Wingfield, Braham Murray's luminous proudction is in fact very much an ensemble piece. The intimate in -the-round space adds its own dynamics to the tense interaction between William's four characters, Simon Higlett's ingenious set drawing the audience into the stifling claustrophobia of life in the Wingfields shabby basement....
'Mark Arends makes Tom Wingfield, the narrator of William's autobiographical story, more than ususally complex, bitter and angry from the start. The play feels as much about his personal dilemma as the illusion under which his mother lives or the hopeless prospects of his sister. Arends makes a compelling scene-setter, his long fingers conjuring flickering lights and higly strung music as he establishes the play's context from a memory. His whole body - tight poses, exaggerated gestures and jerky movements - conveys his frustration and anger as deadened by the suffocating expectations of his relentlessly domineering mother, his duty as breadwinner, and the routine of a loathsome job in a shoe warehouse.
'As Laura Wingfield, physically impeded and emotionally cramped, Emma Hamilton - who shares the same slender physique as her stage brother - comes across as every bit as fragile as the menagerie of glass animals glistening in the dark. Her gradual blossoming in the spotlight of the attentions of the long-awaited gentleman caller is all the more heart-breaking. '
The Independent
'...The acting in Braham Murray's revival at the Royal Exchange is too good to miss. Brenda Blethyn is greatly touching, and often quietly amusing, as the faded southern belle - by turns clucky, fragile, manically sociable, Mark Arends' Tom majors in febrile intenseity, and Emma Hamilton shows huge promise as Laura, gently unfurling under the bright-eyed gaze of Andrew Langtree's visiting angel - or handsome devil. She so wants to fly the nest, but her wings, poor thing, are broken. '
The Daily Telegraph
'Blethyn is a matriarch in a million - her gutsy, fighting mama is a real tour de force and absolutely fits the production.'
The Observer
'* * * * Tennessee Williams' first great play gets an impeccable production from Braham Murray that is bitterly funny, sadly moving and never sentimental.'
The Sunday Times