Review
Bouffon Glass Menajoree
Brick Theater
September a6, 2006
VanLoan
vanloan@nyconstage.org

Part of the New York Clown Festival, Bouffon Glass Menajoree is billed as a parody of a beloved American classic. Directed by Eric Davis (Red Bastard), he applies the same bouffon effects from his solo show to this version of Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie. These include the oversize costuming, the grotesque and distasteful characterizations and aggressive audience manipulation. While they worked to sensation effect for the Red Bastard; the results leave much to be desired.

Whereas the Williams work is certainly ripe for parody, the bouffon approach comes across as sophomoric and stupid. The over blown costuming works somewhat in the case of Amanda who is constantly eating (and spewing food) to minimize the stress of her children's fate. Laura vulnerability is characterized by her wearing of mounds of diapers and petulant stomping about (her 'slight defect'). Tom's latent alcoholism is expressed by drinking an actual six-pack onstage and passing beers out to the audience. When Amanda mentions the "little silver slipper of a moon", Tom goes into the audience and drops his trousers to "moon" his mother. The actor Lynn Berg makes further hash of the part by not knowing his lines. The only truly creative effect of the evening is the huge broken dreamcatcher that spans the Wingfield apartment; an apt symbol for the broken dreams of the family.

Each evening, a male audience member is brought on stage to play the Gentleman Caller. The evening I saw the play the young man (beer in hand) gamely did as he was told and improvised the classic scene in front of the glass figurines with Laura (actress Aimee German). It is to the utmost credit of Tennessee Williams' talent that the scene was still able to be both moving and poignant in spite of the perverse circumstances it was presented. Even at 50 minutes, the puerile nature of Menajoree is difficult to take.

...end