Posted: 7/11/16 at 3:33pm
I didn't see the revival but have read about Laura making her entrance through the sofa cushions. Can someone describe this moment? Was there any laughter from the audience? It just seems so absurd but then again I didn't see it so I wonder how it played onstage.
Posted: 7/11/16 at 3:34pm
Astonishment comes to mind.
Posted: 7/11/16 at 3:35pm
I don't remember any laughter. It didn't play as absurd.
Posted: 7/11/16 at 3:35pm
There was no laughter either time I saw it. The way it worked, it was like a ghost coming through the couch and then becoming corporeal.
Posted: 7/11/16 at 3:38pm
No laughter either time I saw it, either. It was breathtaking, really. So unexpected, and yet, it seemed so natural. (Not that that makes much sense.)
Posted: 7/11/16 at 3:43pm
I recall seeing a critic or two calling it birth imagery. I understand why, I suppose, but I never saw it that way.
Posted: 7/11/16 at 3:45pm
Now it's starting to make sense to me. Thanks everyone. I wish I had seen that revival.
Posted: 7/11/16 at 4:14pm
I saw this production too, and the scene, the entrance was not absurd, in the mass acceptance of an audience. Different, yes...and I'm sure some people rolled their eyes silently...but I thought it was quite fitting dramatic, and easy to see the symbolism in this production. Again, eye of the beholder...but not ha ha funny at all.
Posted: 7/11/16 at 4:38pm
Not absurd at all. With the low lighting and slow movements, it felt like she was almost a ghost entering the room. Since Glass Menagerie is a memory play, it contributed to the sense that the world existed in Tom's memory and, as Tom warns, may not be exactly what happened.
Posted: 7/11/16 at 4:44pm
You guys are wonderful to describe the moment to me. Now that I have a better understanding of it I'm sure that if I were in the audience it would have moved me to tears.
Posted: 7/11/16 at 5:02pm
It wasn't funny or absurd at all; it was sort of as if Tom had conjured her up out of his memory, so she appeared, almost, out of nowhere.
Posted: 7/11/16 at 5:12pm
Add me to the chorus of people who loved Laura's entrance (and exit, when she disappeared back through the couch at the end of the play). The general surreal atmosphere of the whole production, with that beautiful floating set and the forced perspective fire escape, really emphasized the memory aspect of the play. I had read the play in school when I was younger but had found it a bit dusty/didn't get it, but when I saw this production I was so moved by it.
Posted: 7/11/16 at 6:01pm
As I recall there was a delicacy and quickness to it. I wasn't as impressed with it as many were, but while I didn't find it particularly impactful, I certainly didn't find it jarring or laugh- inducing. Nor do I remember anyone else in the audience having a nervous or tittery reaction.
Posted: 7/11/16 at 7:31pm
I was at an early preview - the second show of their first two show day, so maybe the 4th performance? A fair number of people in the audience laughed. It seemed almost like one of those situations where people weren't sure if it was funny or not, so they laughed just to be on the safe side I guess, so they were "in on it" even though there was no "it"? The entrance itself wasn't terribly graceful - I'd imagine it got better throughout the run.
Posted: 7/11/16 at 7:52pm
I miss this production. Saw it four times and would go again in a heartbeat.
Posted: 7/12/16 at 12:37am
This thread is reminding me just how phenomenal this production was. Laura's entrance was fitting and artful, Cherry Jones and Zachary Quinto were excellent and that has to be one of my favorite sets. It feels like next season is far too soon for another revival, especially when the one done most recently is looked on so fondly by most who saw it.
