In 24 years of attending the Devonshire Park Theatre, I have rarely had an experience to equal the performance last week of Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie.
It was akin to having a piece of the National Theatre in our midst.
At the apex was the glory of the Oscar-nominated Miss Brenda Blethyn giving the most intense and thrilling powerhouse performance of Williams' own complex mother. She pulled out al
l the stops in a range of emotions and somehow still had the energy for a final and chilling outburst. The woman was superb.
No less so were the three young actors who worked with her and rose to her every level. The use of music and lighting were on a scale I cannot recall having seen before at the Park.
But above all was the script, probably the best as well as the first that Tennessee Williams wrote. It proved conclusively that from the simplest and the most meagre of material: a single episode in ordinary tenement life in St Louis in 1938 - and without the use of any uncivilised language - can come two-and-a-half hours of thought-provoking life and truth.
I have had other evenings such as this at the Park: watching Sian Phillips as Marlene Dietrich, or Michael Frayne's Copenhagen. But The Glass Menagerie will stay in the memory as a special for a long time to come. Edward Thomas, Collington Close
Just a word of appreciation to Eastbourne Theatres for the wonderful production of The Glass Menagerie last week. I feel privileged to have been among the audience for Wednesday's matinee which I'm pleased to say played to a packed house. Brenda Blethyn was inspired of course, but each of the other three actors gave star performances. The set, lighting and music all blended to produce an amazing experience. Doubtless it will receive rave reviews in the West End, but I feel proud that Eastbourne saw it first.
J Costa, Hampden Park
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