Page 8-Friday, June 11, 1982-The Michigan Daily
(IContinued from Page?7)
mediately renders a production of it manage for he
void of impact; this is spite of any Laura. She is,,
rescucitating efforts attempted by good complishing this
acting, or by ingenious lighting, set will not see that
design, or costuming. different ideas,
There is shell of a lot of anger in this tral action of th
play. a Gentleman Ca
Admittedly, that anger can be only ner, an event ti
one facet of the entire experience, the narrator's, d
however major a role it may play; Burgwin, per
there is also a great deal of love. and vehementl3
Amanda Wingfield is a woman who Amanda as som
wants nothing but the best she can her children to
show Amandaa
character. The]
her children, th
which they feel f
.AE4 in every momen
375 N MAPLE is very touching
L76913OO~0 casion, especial]
ween Tom and L
Very fortunat
Burgwin has tak
ST2 MARTIN 115 one can go in sh
4D5 characters for(
A starts to sacri
9:15 elements in the 1
shows a very aff
- so affectionat
boggles the min(
leave. How can
55 ; 1 excuse can he re
4:4s Most of the pi
20 CENTURY-FOX FILMS 700n e r

never rises above gentility

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er children, Tom and
alas, so intent upon ac-
s end that she cannot or
her children have very
which makes the cen-
e play, the invitation of
ller for Laura in to din-
hat precipitates Tom's,
desertion of the home.
haps bearing in mind
y rejecting an idea of
ie harpy poised to tear
shreds, chose wisely to
as a more sympathetic
love that Amanda bears
e affection and regard
for her, is very evident
t of the production, and
and affecting upon oc-
ly in the moments bet-
aura.
ely, by the tack that
en, there is only so far
owing the love of these
each other before one
fice other life-giving
piece. Burgwin's vision
ectionate family indeed
e, in fact, that it almost
d when Tom decides to
he we wonder. What
ally have?
roblems in the produc-
Margaret Gonzales'
Amanda. Her Amanda
h--mm - - iiiaid

material she has to work with. The ten-
sion in the play must come from Aman-
da's aggressive championship of her
dreams for her children rubbing up
against their desires and capabilities,
which serves to make Laura shrink,
and Tom rebellious.
Her frustration and unreasoning rage
when her children prove too diffident or
too preverse - in her opinion - to see
the wisdom of her course for them
causes her to wound terribly those
whom she most loves. In her case it
may truly be said that if she did not love
her children so much, she could not
hurt them so badly.
Director Burgwin seems however to
have feared any genuine outburst of
emotion from Amanda, perhaps
because it might look as though she
does not love her children if she is
railing at them. Amanda, therefore, as
Margaret Gonzales plays her, pricks
her children with needles verbally, as
opposed to thrusting them with knives.
One could never get the sense that
Amanda is saying things she will be
sorry for later, and which will
ultimately drive Tom out of the house,
because Gonzales' tone and words in-
flict no agony.
Since Amanda is so curiously
bloodless, Tom, played by Gregg
Henry, is forced to be bloodless as well.
Tom should be burning a lot hotter
when we see him than he is in this

1

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ECTOR 1:
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tion come from
performance as
*- - I ..^1, --11

I

Gonzales
... curiously bloodless
production. However, since Henry has
nobody to play off of, nobody whose
passions are burning as hotly as Tom's
own, to play him with any more anger,
any more force, would make the piece
look lopsided.
A perfect example of this problem is
Tom's-and Amanda's first real blow-up,
at the end of which Tom throws his coat
and upsets Laura's glass menagerie. It
took me the longest time to realize that
Tom and Amanda are actually having
an argument, let alone the hammer-
and-tongs, no-holds-barred donnybrook
that is called for in the text, because
they argue so calmly, so lovingly even,
And when Tom performs the antics
that are supposed to leave the two
ladies "aghast", in Williams' own wor-
ds, Laura is smiling with delight - as
though Tom were playing for her
amusement - and even Amanda looks
as though she wants to laugh. Tom is
supposed to call his mother an "ugly,
babbling old witch" at the end of this
exchange. Amanda has not been a wit-
ch at all; what reason has Tom to call
her one?
The scene between the Gentleman
Caller. (Bill Dawson) and Laura
(Pauline Gagnon) is not, however, at
all bad. Bill Dawson does the best work
I've ever seen him do, although he is the
slightest bit stiff.
Pauline Gagnon's Laura is very nice,
but in the scene with Jim, which after
all shows us the culmination of all
Laura has ever hoped for, she could
show a little more of the effervescence
of which this actress is capable. Laura
is as close to vivacity as she will ever
get, and we should feel a genuine pang
of loss when her dream is shattered for
good.
To switch rather abruptly from one
concern to another, I am taking this
occasion to shudder at the set and the
lighting design. The set, which is meant
no doubt to convery an airy, dream-like
quality, takes on under the cool, distant
lighting the appearance of metal bars,
freezing to the soul.
There is also in the design a feeling of
spaciousness in the apartment that is
not necessarily compatible to the play's
theme - quite the opposite, in fact. The
small, run-down yet cozy cubbyhole
that is the Wingfield home should feel
absolutely claustrophobic by Tom's
departure.
All in all, there is no sense of the
inexorability of Tom's going away,
which the production must build toward
for it to make any sense whatsoever.
The affection that Burgwin takes such
pains to show us proves his downfall
here, for if Tom loves Laura as tenderly
as he obviously does, how can he leave
her, when the mother is so far from
being an overriding force?

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PATRICE
DONNELLY
A ROBERT TOWNE FILM
FRI MON-7:30, 9:45
T. SUN-12:45, 3:00,.5:15,7:30,9:45 (R)

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