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Review: Deft 'Menagerie' transports audience

The cast offers an intimate look into the psyche of each of Tennessee Williams' characters.

By APRIL BOYLE

FREEPORT - No matter who you are, or what cards life has dealt you, it's a sure bet that you've felt the sting of disappointment at some point in life.

Admittedly, some people are dealt better hands than others, but even a person who appears to have the perfect life can draw the card of frustration, unfulfillment or all-out disillusionment. And we all have our ways of dealing, escaping or both when harsh reality sets in.

The Freeport Factory Stage launched its 2012 season Friday night with a revealing look at the coping skills of the Wingfield family, in Tennessee Williams' "The Glass Menagerie."

"I give you truth in the pleasant disguise of an illusion," Tom Wingfield (Jonathan P. Guimont) tells the audience at the opening of the play, as he slowly traverses the stage, taking deliberate drags from a cigarette that illuminates his face in the dimmed light.

The play is based on Tom's memories of his life in the 1930s, "when the huge middle class of America was matriculating in a school for the blind ... their fingers pressed forcibly down on the fiery Braille alphabet of a dissolving economy."

He introduces the audience to the characters: himself; his mother, Amanda (Julie George-Carlson); his sister, Laura (Elizabeth Somerville); his father, who appears only as a smiling picture on the wall; and a gentleman caller (David Currier), who Tom describes as "the long-delayed but always expected something that we live for."

Williams' descriptive phrasing popped Friday, narrated by Guimont's Tom, each line delivered with all the right emphasis.

As the memories flooded Tom's mind, he slipped into the past of his recollection, taking the audience along for the ride. And by the time the waterslide of disenchanted dreams reached its end, the audience intimately knew the psyche of each member of the Wingfield family.

The Freeport Factory Stage's production of "The Glass Menagerie" is directed by Jeri Pitcher and stars a well-chosen four-member cast of actors who really delved into the depths of their characters Friday.

Guimont's Tom boiled with frustration; George-Carlson's Amanda vibrated with anxiety; Somerville's Laura appeared as fragile as the glass animals she treasured; and Currier's gentleman caller was a well of unquenchable hope.

What's your flight of fancy? Maybe you're someone like Tom, who escapes his dead-end life by living vicariously through the movies, or Amanda, who sidesteps reality by reliving the glory days of her youth.

Possibly you're Laura, a young woman obsessed with her glass menagerie, or the absentee father, "a telephone man who fell in love with long distance."

Williams crafted a story that weaves a little of all of us into his characters, whether we like to admit it or not.

And the Freeport Factory Stage's cast members deftly bare their characters' souls, allowing the audience to not just feel for the characters, but also feel a connection to them.

April Boyle is a freelance writer from Casco. She can be contacted at:

aprilhboyle@yahoo.com