Posted: 2/9/17 at 11:32pm
I'm just getting home from tonight's preview and I fall firmly into the camp of not being very impressed by this revival. I didn't despise it with the rage of a thousand suns or anything- small moments here and there worked for me- but overall I thought it was a mess.
I do lump this Menagerie in with A View From The Bridge, Crucible and Streetcar at St. Ann's from last season. Each of these productions stripped their plays of any time and place in what I can only assume was an attempt at finding a deeper universality than the particular setting the author chose. (Far be it for one of these directors to actually trust a playwright's vision, and of course we're not talking about hacks here who could use the helping hand!) Part of what makes these plays so special IS the specificity of setting though, and in deconstructing and dismantling every thing in the text we are robbed of the richness and detail the authors intended us to experience.
Sam Gold, whose direction of Fun Home, John and The Flick I count up there as some of the best in the past 5 years, seems completely lost in his own mess of a concept here. In fact, Gold almost seems to have contempt for the text, blatantly defying everything Williams writes.
Tom tells us the memory play is dimly lit- the house lights remain on for 30 minutes
Some of Amanda's earliest lines are telling Tom not to push his food around on his plate- Tom is not pushing food around on his plate. Tom doesn't even have a plate in front of him. Tom isn't even at a table!
We are told it is the 1930's- other than the Victrola nothing indicates we are in the 1930's, and that includes set, costumes, acting style, atmosphere- nothing
We are constantly reminded of Amanda's Southern Belle roots- Amanda has been stripped of any trace of an accent or Southern comportment. It comes as a complete shock at the end when Tom says he left St. Louis and the state of Missouri. So that's where we've been all this time! Why keep the line if it hasn't mattered for the whole play?
I could go on, but as you can see from the smallest detail to the bigger picture Gold really doesn't care what Williams has written. He's going to do what he wants to do whether it makes sense or not.
AC nailed the descriptions of the four actors, each in their own plays. Wittrock I guess is the most successful, but even his performance is jarring, being so unlike the other three before him. He's very chipper and energetic, like a version of Dandy without the murderous impulses. Field does mostly good work, but she is allowed to become a complete shrew in places and her party dress is absolutely atrocious and wrong. Mantello could be a great Tom in a different production I think, but right now it's just not quite working as well as I expected. Quinto- a complete revelation in the role- is a tough act to follow; nothing feels half as inspired here as the stage work Mantello last did in The Normal Heart. I did not care for Madison Ferris' Laura at all and I felt her disability was exploited for this production.
I don't understand the cutting of the intermission, but I won't complain about that here because it at least got me out of that theater 15 minutes sooner.
Updated On: 2/9/17 at 11:32 PM
