Review by Markus Hamence – The Glass Menagerie – Performance date: Wednesday 19 November 2025, The Odeon, Norwood, South Australia
Glass breaks so easily. No matter how careful you are.
In a small apartment in 1930s St Louis, Amanda Wingfield and her two children, Tom and Laura, spin singular and separate dreams.
State Theatre Company South Australia’s The Glass Menagerie, with Shannon Rush as director, emerges as a beautifully sculpted, emotionally tuned exploration of memory, longing and the quiet battles we fight behind closed doors. This production doesn’t rush. It breathes and it simmers. It knows the power of silence and the weight of unspoken truths, and it delivers Williams’ classic with a fresh, contemporary rhythm that feels perfectly in step with today’s audiences. Rather than leaning into nostalgia, it treats the play like a living, shifting echo chamber of regret and hope – allowing the text to unfold with the kind of nuance that rewards listeners who tune into the fine print of human relationships.
On the set-side, Mark Thompson (Set Designer) conjures a domestic interior caught between grace and decay – faded wallpaper, vintage furniture, and architectural echoes of a once-grand past, all filtered through the lens of memory. The staging within the intimate Odeon Theatre amplifies this by anchoring the realism while also layering dream-like touches: subtle distortion in perspective and lighting that hints at the emotional weight behind the action.
For the costumes, also Thompson, situates the characters firmly in their era while colouring their emotional states. Amanda’s faded Southern belle attire suggests past glamour now worn thin, Laura’s soft, delicate fabrics echo her fragility, and Tom’s work-aday clothes contrast with his restless spirit.
The Cast:
Amanda – Ksenja Logos
Tom – Laurence Boxhall
Laura – Kathryn ‘Kitty’ Adams
Jim – Jono Darby
“Rather than leaning into nostalgia, it treats the play like a living, shifting echo chamber of regret and hope…” – Markus Hamence
Tom (Laurence Boxhall) frames the story with a restless, modern energy – his narration feeling like a late-night confession rather than a period monologue. He’s torn between staying grounded in the life he was handed and vaulting towards something bigger and brighter. Laurence’s performance captures that inner friction with sharp emotional detail, delivering scenes with a raw honesty that cuts straight through the romantic haze that sometimes clouds productions of this play. His presence anchors the evening, giving us, the audience, a guide through the fragile world of the Wingfield family without ever softening the edges.
Amanda (Ksenja Logos) is a standout – a bold, textured performance that digs deeper than Southern charm and fading glamour. Here, she becomes a woman fiercely holding together the shards of her world with sheer willpower. Her optimism is both theatrical and tragic. Her memories of her girlhood aren’t played as airy fantasy; they’re a survival mechanism. This makes every attempt to shape her children’s lives feel more urgent, more heartbreaking, and more human. Watching her shift between buoyant social sparkle and stark maternal desperation is one of the production’s delights.
“Laura’s portrayal is luminous – quiet but charged, delicate but never passive…”
– Markus Hamence
Laura’s (Kathryn ‘Kitty’ Adams) portrayal is luminous – quiet but charged, delicate but never passive. She becomes the still point in the emotional cyclone, drawing the audience in with micro-expressions and subtle movements that reveal more than words ever could. This version of Laura has agency, depth and an interior world that feels vast. Kathryn’s scenes feel suspended in time, giving the production its emotional oxygen. Her bond with Tom – full of tenderness and frustration – adds another layer to the family tension, shaping the whole story into something deeply relatable.
Production Images by Matt Byrne
The Gentleman Caller (Jono Darby) arrives like a breath of fresh, bittersweet air. He’s optimistic, charming, and utterly unaware of the tectonic emotional plates shifting beneath the Wingfield household. His interactions with Laura are handled with sensitivity and an almost aching realism. The dance between possibility and disappointment in their scene together is the heart of the production – a shimmering, heartbreaking moment where you can feel both characters trying to step into a better version of themselves, only to find the world slipping back into familiar patterns.
All four cast members are brilliant in their character portrayals. Ksenja, Laurence, Kathryn and Jono seamlessly blend their energies on-stage creating a story that drags you in and takes curiously into Tennessee’s world. State Theatre Company have an uncanny ability to continuously nail their casting. And it’s obvious the actors flourish under the warm and honed directorship of Rush. Sublime work from everybody..
“The lighting shifts like emotional weather, drawing out the play’s dreamlike quality without losing its grounded humanity…” – Markus Hamence
Visually, the production is a brilliant spectacle of mood and drama. The lighting (Gavin Norris) shifts easily like emotional weather, drawing out the play’s dreamlike quality without losing its grounded humanity. The sound design (Andrew Howard) adds a subtle cinematic texture, reinforcing the idea that memory is never still – it crackles, glows and distorts. The set, minimal and atmospheric, becomes a frame for the performances rather than a distraction, allowing the audience to sink deeper into the emotional terrain of the piece.
Overall, and to wrap up, State Theatre Company South Australia delivers a Glass Menagerie that feels both timeless and thrillingly current. It honours Williams’ lyricism while boldly leaning into the raw emotional truth beneath it. This production lingers. It resonates. It taps into the universal tension between wanting to escape and wanting to be held. It’s a standout piece of theatre that showcases the company’s gift for taking classics and making them pulse with contemporary life.
A standing ovation.
The Glass Menagerie
State Theatre Company South Australia
The Odeon
15 Nov – 7 Dec 2025
Ticket Link
More State Theatre Company South Australia Online
Interview with Jono and Laurence…
