Summer and Smoke

by Tennessee Williams

seen at the Duke of York's Theatre on 21 November 2018

Rebecca Frecknall directs Patsy Ferran as Alma and Mathew Needham as John in this West End transfer of the Almeida production seen at their Islington theatre earlier in the year.

This 1948 play is given an impressionistic outing (designer Tom Scutt), which helps enormously with the fluid sequencing of the action, but also underlines the strange extremes of the situation. Rather than attempting to convey a hot Southern summer with a series of realistic sets, the stage is almost completely bare except for seven upright pianos ranged around the semi-circular back wall of the stage (here, a re-creation of the actual back brick wall of the Almeida theatre). Various characters play on the pianos - sometimes all seven are in use, and only Alma never plays one; and occasionally an actor will walk across the tops of the instruments.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

by Tennessee Williams

seen at the Apollo Theatre on 26 August 2017

Benedict Andrews directs Sienna Miller as Maggie, Jack O'Connell as Brick and Colm Meaney as Big Daddy, with Kerry Fox as Big Mamma (replacing an indisposed Lisa Palfrey), Brian Gleeson as Gooper and Hayley Squires as Mae in this Young Vic revival of the play now transferred to the West End.

The play has been reset in a strangely empty space with vast metallic walls and a raked floor containing a bed, a dressing table and a shower; though it was written in 1955 some of the characters use mobile phones and there is a modern substitute for a record player - it is not clear that all this is an advantage, although the visual effect is striking and underlines the fact that all the characters are in different ways trapped.

The Glass Menagerie

by Tennessee Williams

seen at the Duke of York's Theatre on 15 April 2017

John Tiffany directs Cherry Jones as Amanda, Kate O'Flynn as Laura, Michael Esper as Tom and Brian J Smith as Jim in this excellent revival of Tennessee Williams's 'memory play'.

As the play is narrated by Tom, an aspiring poet (who may be seen as a stand-in for the author) we may expect it to be about his own struggle to escape the suffocating atmosphere of his family, and in particular of his over-bearing mother Amanda. She indeed manages the faded hopes of her life by keeping up appearances and talking, talking, talking in a way that would infuriate any young man with any strength of character. Cherry Jones portrays this difficult and at times infuriating woman with immense authority and dignity, which makes her power all the more pervasive, while Michael Esper as Tom shows us something of the strain of living up to such a mother's standards.