I'll be honest upfront, this is not my favourite Tennessee Williams play. In the context of his works it lands around the point where his plays start to become semi-self-parodies, a mixture of southern sterotypes yelling around a grand mansion in a "who's going to inherit the estate" story that plays like a thinner version of Lillian Hellman's "The Little Foxes", also slightly distorted by Williams deciding that the first two acts should largely take the form of two of the most dynamic characters, Maggie and Big Daddy, having a conversation with the sullen, moody, undemonstrative Brick, with the third act carrying the weight of the actual plotting (and being the part of the play most likely to get rewritten, with about four different versions of Act 3 in circulation).
Rep's production does reasonably solidly by the material, due to some strong casting decisions and a gorgeous Cate Clelland set design. Victoria Tyrell Dixon's Maggie is compelling, mercurial, rageful and able to handle the vast amounts of material Act one gives her, consistently fascinating and attention-drawing. Michael Sparks carries most of Act two on his back as the irritable patriarch, only slightly aware how little he's really connecting to his son as he continues to impart his opinions. Teig Saldana plays Brick as he is written, irate and compelled more by the desire for alcohol and his lost memories of greatness than anything he's actually in the room with, but he manages to handle the shifts in act three better than most versions I've seen, and keeps a character who I've found irritating in the past from completely losing me. Lanie Hart's Mae has a wig that does a lot of the performing for her, a contained, conniving bob that shows her small-town avaricious self, in a pristine white dress with a maternity bump, constantly assured she's the one who knows best. Ryan Erlandsen as her husband-and-partner-in-crime, the odious Gooper, has all the self-important pride the character needs. Liz St Clair Long as the hyper-emotional Big Mama rolls with every insult that Sparks throws her way, convinced her smothering-kind-of-love is secretly welcomed by everybody.
It's inherent in the writing here, but it never quite feels sensible that all these people would be rushing into the bedroom of Brick and Maggie to lay out cunning plots and schemes, but there's a strong blocking sense around the space giving characters space to do their manouvres without losing the connections between them. Cate Clelland's set gives us a gorgeous mansion bedroom, dominated at centre by the liquor cabinet where Brick is constantly drawn to just one more drink.
In short, while this isn't a play I love, it's quite a solid production of it, showing it off to good advantage with a solid cast.
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