11 to 18 April 2002
in the Theatre Upstairs
The Glass Menagerie
by Tennessee Williams
directed by Carl Boardman
In 1945 people were faced not so much with their future but by an immediate past that would take a lifetime to assimilate. That year also saw a rapturous reception meted out to The Glass Menagerie, in which Tom Wingfield urgently needs to exorcise the ghosts of his own recent, and similarly terrible, past. He introduces us to his mother and sister — the extraordinary Amanda and Laura — and tells a deceptively simple tale about the fateful visit of the Gentleman Caller. However, Tom finds out that strange things happen when you call up the past...
A major theatrical turning point, The Glass Menagerie weaves street-talk and dream poetry together to speak unforgettably of the torn world that Williams's characters inhabit.