Jessica Lefkow directs Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie for the Faust Festival with a sure hand, and obvious affection for the American
classic. Humour and pathos are conveyed through polished ensemble playing, and the distinctive cadences of Williams' script worked their spell on an appreciative first-night audience.
Set in the St Louis of the 1930s, three family members each have their own way of dealing with dissapointment. The mother, Amanda, takes refuge in her memories of her girlhood as a Southern belle, her '17 gentlemen callers' and plans for her children. The disabled daughter, Laura, retreats into a protective shell with her glass animal
collection; while the son, Tom, desperate about his soul-destroying job and his mother's attempts to control his life, writes poetry, goes out 'to the movies' and plans his escape.
Into this enclosed family circle comes a visitor. He is a figure of dreams for Laura and her mother, but he has dreams of his own.
Scott Thomas Sauer is outstanding as Tom. His mobile, expressive face and flexible voice show a range of emotions: sulky, resentful and unwillingly obedient as the son ('I'll rise - but I won't shine'); tender and protective towards his disabled sister Laura; adding an edge of dry humour and sardonic bitterness as the narrator and drawing the