Everything you need to know you DIDN’T learn in Kindergarten
August 3, 2011Keith Joseph Landry
August 5, 2011It takes a great man to withstand ribbing, and who better, or greater, than the legendary Tennessee Williams to poke fun at.
The Bayou Playhouse’s latest offering, “The Glass Mendacity,” takes a hilarious jab at the 100-year-old playwright’s three most celebrated American classic dramas: “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” “A Streetcar Named Desire” and “The Glass Menagerie.”
And the show reunites favorites Spud McConnell, Randy Cheramie and Liam Kraus on the Lockport stage.
Penned by Maureen Morley and Tom Willmorth, “The Glass Mendacity” is for hearty theatre lovers who like their plays shaken, not stirred. The play is to the classics what Fractured Fairy Tales are to our favorite childhood stories.
For instance, the story is set at Belle Reve, the long-lost homestead of “Streetcar’s” DuBois family, as in Blanche DuBois. Here we find Big Daddy (McConnell and Cheramie trade off playing the family stalwart icon on different nights), Big Mama and their offspring. And what a brew it is!
There’s Amanda of “The Glass Menagerie,” who wiles away her day reminiscing about past gentlemen callers from her younger days; daughter Blanche, from “Streetcar” fame, now married to Stanley Kowalski, who is a few watts shy of a small appliance bulb as she veers away from sanity and is known for randomly belting out choruses of lewd sea chanties; painfully shy, handicapped sister Laura, who plays with her glass menagerie and generally annoys the rest of the family; brother Brick, the strong, silent type who broods about alcoholism and homosexuality, while his wife, Maggie, runs around trying to catch poor Stanley’s eye. And poor Stanley, much like his “Streetcar” presence, spends his time in his undershirt drinking beer. A gentleman caller who woos both Blanche and Laura, all the while dispensing free legal advice to Big Daddy, rounds out the cast. Tami Rocheledet of Houma and New Orleans actors Travis Resor, Heather Keller, Abby Lake and Lucas Harms play those parts.
Spoil alert: a store mannequin adeptly plays Brick.
Williams’ fans will recognize the script as a mish-mash of all three classics, with plenty of puns delivered by some of the Lockport stage’s most dynamic performers.
“These characters are such cartoons and so outrageous that just the dialogue itself is funny,” said Bayou Playhouse director Perry Martin. “It’s extreme concepts of Tennessee Williams, but it’s funny in its own right.”
“The Glass Mendacity,” a staged reading, marks the closing of Bayou Playhouse’s third season.
“Don’t let the words ‘staged reading’ fool you,” said Liam Kraus, this production’s director and a familiar face on the Bayou Playhouse stage. Kraus most recently appeared in “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” as Brick. “It’s a full evening of entertainment and you’ll laugh out loud all night whether you know Tennessee Williams’ work or not.”
The theatre’s artistic director, Perry Martin, concurs.
“If you enjoyed ‘A Confederacy of Dunces,’ you’ll love ‘The Glass Mendacity,'” he said.
“Dunces” starred McConnell and sold out performances quickly. McConnell’s appeared in several Bayou Playhouse productions, including “The Kingfish” and “Ain’t Dat Super.”
Cheramie, recognized as well as the executive director and instructor at Nicholls State University’s John Folse Culinary Institute, starred in “Rising Water” and, most recently, as Big Daddy in the Lockport theatre’s production of “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.”
‘The Glass Mendacity’
Where: Bayou Playhouse, 101 Main St., Lockport
When: Aug. 5-7 and 12-14 Cost: $23
For More Info: 1-888-99-BAYOU or www.bayouplayhouse.com
