By Ron Levitt
Florida Media News
ENV Magazine
It isn’t often that one sees one of the modern world’s most highly regarded plays whose dominant characters are women and comes home feeling that he has just witnessed two talented, up-and-coming male actors in South Florida.
This is by no means a slur on the two female stars in The Glass Menagerie currently at the Broward Stage Door theatre in Coral Springs. These women – a striking, powerful Janet Weakley and charmer Betsy Graver – are excellent as the mother/daughter in the Tennessee Williams drama. It’s just that recent New World School of the Arts alumni David Hemphill and Nick Duckhart are so dynamic in the challenging roles of the brother Tom and the gentleman caller respectively, it would be a disservice to ignore their characterizations. It is a pleasure to see two relatively unknown newcomers to the area’s theatre scene nail their characters so adeptly. Hemphill (formerly in Knish Alley and Summer Shorts ) –as Tom – has the juiciest role and makes the most of it, and Duckhart (who got rave reviews last month in The Whipping Man at Caldwell Theatre) also received well-deserved applause at curtain time for his second act dominance.
What is also interesting about this production of The Glass Menagerie is how different it is in scope and setting to other fabrications of the same play. Director Michael Leeds uses his own sense of imagination in his Stage Door interpretation of the Williams’ classic. The set by the Broward Stage Door team is vintage 1930s. Williams’ characters are just as intense living in their fantasy worlds as they have been in earlier productions , yet, there is a sense of freshness and vitality to this staging. Perhaps it is the acting by four powerhouse performers which catches one’s attention. Of course, one has to respect a script whose every word drips with sensitivity and meaning. Yes, kudos to the playwright (naturally), but a truck-load of ovations to Director Leeds and the stunning cast.
The Glass Menagerie was Williams’ first success, written as a movie (1950) and actually based on his short story (written in 1948) which most say mimicked his own youth. Filmed twice in Hollywood, once in the Orient and even one-time for television, it has become one of Williams’ most produced plays. Who can ever forget (if you are old enough or watch late night TV movies) the Jane Wyman film, for which she received an Academy Award which also starred Gertrude Lawrence and two up and coming actors – Kirk Douglas and Arthur Kennedy ? Or, who can ever forget the first time he or she saw this play or the versions which starred Katherine Hepburn (1973) or Joanne Woodward (1987)? Even in South Florida, the play has been revitalized dozens of times, including just months ago at the New Theatre in Coral Gables.
Yes, the play is an oft-produced and often-seen American original, but this production takes nothing for granted. Its vitality stems from attention to detail and a cast which plays Williams’ words with riveting emotions Williams – one of America’s most highly regarded playwrights – surely would have found this newest interpretation to his liking.
Tom (Hemphill) is the narrator – a wannabe poet stuck in a meaningless factory job so he can care for his family — his living-in-the-past, demanding mother Amanda (Weakley) and his lame, emotionally shy sister Laura (Garver). Tom (that was Williams’ real first name) hates his every-day existence and spends his spare time watching movies in cheap cinemas. Amanda is obsessed with finding a suitor for Laura, who pretends about life with her glass collection. Tom eventually bring a co-worker Jim (Duckhart) home for dinner at the insistence of his mother, who hopes the “gentleman caller” will be the long-awaited suitor for Laura. In a twist of fate, Laura realizes that Jim is the man she admired in high school. Despite his kindly attention to her, he tells her that he is planning to be married. Tom leaves to be on his own – like his father before him – as the mother and daughter remain behind to a questionable fate.
When a theatre group produces a classic which seems new no matter how often you have seen it, then it is entitled to be called “fresh”. Calling a classic play “fresh,” is a well deserved term for this production as well as for its stars – including those two actors who get your attention at an early part of their acting careers.
The Glass Menagerie runs through Nov.1. Call 954 -344-7765 for tickets.
