The Glass Menagerie

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The Glass Menagerie

Full-Length Play, Drama  /  2w, 2m

Tennessee Williams

Tennessee Williams’s celebrated autobiographical memory play – a drama of great tenderness, charm and beauty – is a moving portrait of a troubled American family led by a determined but delusional mother.

Image: 2017 Broadway Production (Julieta Cervantes)

The Glass Menagerie

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  • Cast Size
    Cast Size
    2w, 2m
  • Duration
    Duration
    More than 120 minutes (2 hours)
  • Audience
    Target Audience
    Adult
Accolades
Accolades

  • Winner! 1945 New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best American Play
    Winner! 2014 Drama League Award for Distinguished Revival of a Play
    Winner! 2014 Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Revival of a Play
    Nominee: 2014 Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play
    Nominee: 2017 Olivier Award for Best Revival of a Play

Details

Summary

A faded remnant of Southern gentility, Amanda Wingfield lives in poverty in a dingy St. Louis apartment with her son Tom and daughter Laura. Focused on securing their future but shattered by her husband’s abandonment, Amanda collides with her children’s dreams and ambitions. While Tom feels trapped by his life – seeking escape through alcohol and the movies ­– Amanda pressures her sensitive, physically handicapped daughter Laura to find a husband, crushing their relationship and Laura’s fragile self-esteem. As attentions turn to securing a suitor for Laura, Tom invites his acquaintance Jim to dinner, and the fine thread that connects dignity to desperation is pulled taut as their mother sees a possibility for her daughter. A drama of great tenderness, charm and beauty, The Glass Menagerie is one of the most famous plays of the modern theatre.

History

The Glass Menagerie premiered on Broadway at the Playhouse Theatre on March 31, 1945. Directed by Eddie Dowling and Margo Jones, the production featured Dowling, Julie Haydon, Anthony Ross and Laurette Taylor. The play returned to Broadway seven times, most recently in a 2017 revival starring Sally Field, Sally Field, Joe Mantello, Madison Ferris and Finn Wittrock.

Keywords
Performing Groups

AMANDA WINGFIELD – The mother. A little woman of great but confused vitality, clinging frantically to another time and place. Her characterization must be carefully created, not copied from type. She is not paranoiac, but her life is paranoia. There is much to admire in Amanda, and as much to love and pity as there is to laugh at. Certainly, she has endurance and a kind of heroism, and though her foolishness makes her unwittingly cruel at times, there is tenderness in her slight person.

LAURA WINGFIELD – Her daughter. Amanda, having failed to establish contact with reality, continues to live vitally in her illusions, but Laura’s situation is even graver. A childhood illness has left her disabaled, one leg slightly shorter than the other, and held in a brace. This defect need not be more than suggested on the stage. Stemming from this, Laura’s separation increases till she is like a piece of her own glass collection, too exquisitely fragile to move from the shelf.

TOM WINGFIELD – Her son and the narrator of the play. A poet with a job in a warehouse. His nature is not remorseless, but to escape from a trap he has to act without pity.

JIM O’CONNOR – The gentleman caller. A nice, ordinary, young man.

  • Time Period 1930s
  • Setting

    An alley in St. Louis. The 1930s and the past.

  • Features Period Costumes
  • Duration More than 120 minutes (2 hours)
  • Cautions
    • Alcohol

Media

“One of the immortal masterpieces of 20th-century theatre.” – The Washington Post

“Tennessee Williams’s classic about sibling love and family dysfunction.” – The Guardian

“[A] sad, delicate drama of a struggling family in extremis.” – The New Yorker

Photos

  • The Glass Menagerie

    Image: 2017 Broadway Production (Julieta Cervantes)

  • The Glass Menagerie

    Image: 2017 Broadway Production (Julieta Cervantes)

Licensing & Materials

  • Minimum Fee: £85 per performance plus VAT when applicable.

    Please submit a license request to determine availability.

Scripts

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Authors

Tennessee Williams

Tennessee Williams
Tennessee Williams (1911-1983) explored passion with daring honesty and forged a poetic theatre of raw psychological insight that shattered conventional proprieties and transformed the American stage. The autobiographical The Glass Menagerie brought what Mr. Williams called “ ...
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