Play Review

The Glass Menagerie

Date: 1973

Director: Anthony Harvey

Amanda Wingfield: Katharine Hepburn

Tom Wingfield: Sam Waterston

 Laura Wingfield: Joanna Miles

Jim O'Connor: Michael Moriarty

          The Glass Menagerie is a film adaptation of the play The Glass Menagerie written by Tennessee Williams.  The 1973 version is almost identical to the play because it does not have too many differences between the play, including the setting, scripts, and light.  The first scene is Tom walks along a river, and the setting is dark.  After he sits on the side of the river, he memorized his family, Laura, and Amanda.  Then, the story begins with Amanda's talking on the table in the evening, which is the same as the play told.  The play mentioned Tom enters the room and sits at the table when Amanda is talking, however, the film begins with Amanda's talking when Tom is already at the table.  In addition, in the film, Amanda talks to Laura at first and then accuse Tom pushing food with fingers, but in the play, the script does not clearly show who Amanda is talking to.  Therefore, in the film, the plot makes the story more intense and clear.  The main plot is the same as the play: Amanda is nagging to Tom and Laura, Tom always argues with Amanda and goes to "movie", Laura addicts to the glass menagerie and meets Jim, and in the end, Tom leaves home.  In the end, when Tom mentions that Laura touches his shoulder and he asks Laura to blow out the candles, Amanda is standing near Laura.  In the film, the scene is clearly an illusion, but in the play, it does not mention Amanda, and the scene is showed ambiguously.  The film specifically demonstrates a feeling of sadness and a feeling of regret.  We can clearly see that when Tom is sitting near the river and memorizing his story with Laura and Amanda, his face is full of sorrow.  He seems that he is crying.

          The staging is under the expectation because the play depicts the setting really well.  The room is small, and the clothes and the furniture look old.  The telephone and the tape player show the time of the play.  Moreover, the dancing hall is opposite to their apartment, which also follows the description in the play.  The music is an unexpected surprise to me because you cannot imagine what the music will be even if there are many music cues written in the play.  At the beginning, the scene is dark, and a person is walking on the street alone.  We can know later that the person is Tom. With the scene and the scenes after, the music is played by the piano solo.  The music is slow and simple.  There is no many complicated chord or notes combination.  The melody is played alone without many accompaniment chords.  The eighth step notes close to each other and is plated in a slow and continuous tempo.  Moreover, the notes are neither played in a low pitch nor a really high pitch, the music is sound comfortable.  Compare to the other pieces of music I heard, I have to say that the music does not show too many emotions.  It is not sad, and it is not full of regret.  The melody is played over and over again in the same pitch, same tempo, and same notes.  With the scene that Tom is sitting by the river alone, the music shows quietness with a little bit lonely, but not too strong.

          I like the acting of the actress of Laura.  When the gentleman caller, Jim, lifts Laura up and kisses her, there is a slow camera shot that records the faces of them closely.  Laura is enjoying the kiss.  After the kiss, Laura is still intoxicated in Jim's kiss and Jim's hug.  She closes her eyes and relaxes her body and leans on Jim's shoulder.  However, the camera changes to Jim's reaction.  Jim is shocked, and his open eyes and the frown shows how Jim does not appreciate the happening.  I love the reaction that the actress of Laura show.  After Jim pushes Laura off his hug and opens a distance between Laura and himself, Laura's head is too blank to make any reaction.  Therefore, Laura still keeps the gesture of hugging Jim.  Laura's face shows stagnancy, shocking, and sadness.  She is quiet standing near to a table, and all of the facial expressions and the gesture makes me feel so sorry for her.  It brings me a huge sympathy to Laura, and I begin to appreciate the fantastic acting of Joanna Miles.

          In the end, I think the film clearly expresses the plot and the theme of the original play.  It is worthy to watch, even though sometimes there are a lot of monologue-like conversations between Amanda and other characters.  Moreover, the film gives a great idea about how to show the story on a small stage because the setting in the play happens in a small room basically.  It tells us how to make the story enjoyable even though there is not a dramatic plot and actions.  We can make the story more attractive by showing our detailed gesture when we make an action and emotion when we say a lot of redundant lines.