Theater review: A stunning renewed ‘Glass Menagerie’ at Ross Valley Players

The passage of time has a way of improving some things. Notable among them is the new production of Tennessee Williams’ “The Glass Menagerie” by the Ross Valley Players, through Oct. 14.

Originally produced with a somewhat different cast in spring of 2020, the aspirational production was hampered by the COVID pandemic. That misfortune proved to be a blessing in disguise. The current version stands like Godzilla above the ants compared to the dozen or so productions of the classic family drama seen over the years by this critic, many of them excellent.

Hyperbole, you say? Oh, yes, it’s that good.

Directed by and starring David Abrams (assisted by Richard Squeri), the story is set in a shabby apartment in St. Louis in the spring of 1939, on the verge of World War II. The Wingfields — matriarch Amanda (Tamar Cohn), asocial daughter Laura (Tina Traboulsi) and disaffected son Tom (Abrams) — struggle to survive in the wake of a long-ago departure by an unnamed father and husband, whose portrait still presides over everything in the household.

Tamar Cohn is astounding as Amanda, an aging manipulative Southern belle who has never let go of her glory days attending cotillions in the Mississippi delta, where she was courted by — in her memory — a seemingly endless procession of “gentlemen callers.” Among the North Bay’s most powerful performers, Cohn is at her peak with her portrayal of one of the most tragic characters in the mid-century canon.

Amanda hopes for just one or two such callers to come by for her daughter, a physically and emotionally fragile young woman with limited social skills. Laura has no enthusiasm for her secretarial studies and rarely leaves home except to wander around town. She spends most of her time listening to scratchy old records on the family’s Victrola and managing her collection of glass figurines, the source of the show’s title. Traboulsi mines incredible nuances in the withdrawn Laura.

Ultimately one young man does come by — a gregarious, ambitious fellow named Jim O’Connor (Jesse Lumb). His tentative introduction to Laura appears promising, but soon goes awry when he recognizes that he’s stepped into some extremely dysfunctional doo-doo.

In Williams’ marvelously literate prose, Tom narrates some of the tale from the Wingfields’ “veranda”— the landing of the fire escape outside their apartment’s front door. He’s a frustrated writer toiling in a shoe warehouse while dreaming of adventures far from home. He and Laura both chafe under continual oppression by their mother, but Tom alone displays open rebellion, much of it self-defeating, such as spending money for the household’s monthly expenses on personal frivolities, including making his first payment for merchant mariners’ union dues.

This show is rife with talent. Abrams is among the region’s best, an exceptional Shakespearean actor whose age-appropriate performance in COM’s “Hamlet” was the best this critic has ever seen, a long slog that includes at least 17 productions. He couldn’t be better cast as Tom Wingfied. Lumb is one of the North Bay’s most engaging young actors, always a joy to see onstage. Relative newcomer Traboulsi is riveting as Laura.

But it’s Cohn who anchors this production, presenting Amanda with equal parts delusion, worry, frustration, annoyance, insistence, love and pathos. She has always done great work — “Picnic” and “Dead Accounts” come to mind — but this “Menagerie” may be her finest.

Another aspect of this show that lifts it far above the ordinary is the complete lack of attempts to gussy-up the story or to reinterpret it in a contemporary idiom. An austere set by Tom O’Brien and period-perfect music from Billie Cox ideally complement a rock-bottom, deeply satisfying exercise in good old-fashioned theater craft.

“The Glass Menagerie” is a glorious gift to the entire community. With this production, RVP honors both a great playwright and every member of the audience. Be thankful for it.

Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com

IF YOU GO

What: “The Glass Menagerie” by Tennessee Williams

Where: Ross Valley Players, The Barn Theatre, Marin Arts and Garden Center, 30 Sir Francis Drake Blvd., Ross

When: Through Oct. 14. 7:30 Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays.

Admission: $20 to $35

Information: 415-456-9555, rossvalleyplayers.com

Rating (out of five stars): *****