The American theater classic that launched Tennessee Williams’ career, “The Glass Menagerie” tells the story of the Wingfield family struggling to survive the Great Depression-and to stand each other. Mr. Wingfield has abandoned the family, leaving his son Tom (Cameron Young), fresh out of high school, to work a warehouse job in order to provide for them.

 

Tom longs for adventure and a career as a writer but is weighed down by his responsibilities to a handicapped sister, Laura (Lauren Berg), and a controlling mother, Amanda (Davis Byrd). Amanda wants her daughter to find a good husband who’ll take care of her. Both characters place all their hopes on the arrival of a Gentleman Caller (Logan Cobb) who comes to meet-and hopefully marry-Laura.

 

The four-person cast, all UNCW students, shows an impressive mastery of such an emotionally complex script.

 

As Tom, who narrates the play, Young balances sardonic wit with pathos. His exasperation with his mother boils constantly under the surface, yet he lets compassion for his family bleed into the narration.

 

Byrd gives a textured performance. Her Amanda is so sure of her good intentions that even when she yells at or guilt-trips her children, we understand her, even pity her. She also does a fine job capturing the physicality of a 50-year-old woman.

 

In act two, we get a break from the Wingfields’ bickering and bullying as the Gentleman Caller tries to coax Laura out of her shell. Cobb plays the scene with an incredible gentleness, and Berg, unafraid to grapple with Laura’s social anxiety, makes him work to get close to her.

 

Though Tom is traditionally the audience’s guide, director Anne Berkeley brings Amanda and the Gentleman Caller downstage to deliver spotlit monologues. By spreading the play’s focus around, Berkeley asks us to understand the struggle and disappointment behind Amanda’s overbearing parenting style. She also highlights the play’s oft-ignored examination of America’s Depression-era thirst for political and economic reform-and the individualist American Dream mentality, embodied by the Gentleman Caller, which killed it.

 

Last but not least, the set:

 

For “Menagerie,” UNCW’s set designer Gregg Buck has built the most gorgeous set I’ve ever seen in Wilmington. I’m not exaggerating. If you can’t see the show, break into the theater at night (knock out a window if you have to) and marvel at the stage for a few hours.

 

Because the play is a “dream play,” Buck’s set is saturated in symbol. The little glass animals of Laura’s menagerie hang over the stage, reaching all the way to the fly loft. Mr. Wingfield’s absence hangs over the stage in the form of a larger-than-life portrait, and handwriting-presumably Tom’s writings-covers the parchment-colored walls. The action takes place in the Wingfields’ apartment right at the lip of the stage, which complements the play’s confessional flavor. The apartment has no walls, so the audience can always see the fire escape behind it, where Tom escapes to smoke and address the audience.

 

Overall, it’s a wonderful performance of a wonderful play, and everyone should go (so no one gets arrested for breaking in to see the set).

 

“The Glass Menagerie” performed on the main stage in the Cultural Arts Building, Sept. 27-30 and will play Oct. 11-14. Shows start at 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and 2 p.m. on Sundays. Tickets are $12 for the general public, $10 for UNCW employees and $5 for students. To purchase tickets, go the Kenan Box Office on campus, call (910) 962-3500, or visit http://www.uncw.edu/arts/boxoffice.html.