Much mainstage 20th-century theatre was a mercurial blend of three principal forms: melodrama, expressionism, and realism or naturalism. The Glass Menagerie (1944) was classified by author Tennessee Williams as a “memory play”, and it includes all three styles. Black Swan State Theatre Company of WA’s new production, directed by Clare Watson, reworks these elements to offer a production that is elegant and dreamy, like looking through gauze, even if the balance is not altogether smooth.

Mandy McElhinney and Joel Jackson in The Glass Menagerie. Photo © Daniel J Grant

The play is set in a worn St Louis tenement, which son Tom (played by Joel Jackson) shares with domineering mother Amanda (Mandy McElhinney) and his hopelessly shy, neurotic and lame sister Laura (Acacia Daken). Early on, we find that Laura has failed at her typing course and now lives in dreams and through contemplation of her collection of decorative glass animals. Amanda is a fallen Southern belle abandoned by her no-good husband and does not work, so it is up to Tom to support the trio through his tedious employment in a shoe warehouse.

Amanda, projecting her...