the glass menagerie

Transcription

the glass menagerie - State Theatre Company of South Australia

Study Guide
4 – 26 May, Dunstan Playhouse
Table of Contents
Table of Contents............................................................................................................................ 2
THE GLASS MENAGERIE ............................................................................................................. 4
Tennessee Williams ................................................................................................................ 4
CAST/CREATIVE TEAM................................................................................................................. 4
Duration .......................................................................................................................................... 4
PLAYWRIGHT ................................................................................................................................ 5
Tennessee Williams .................................................................................................................... 5
Autobiography or Fiction? ........................................................................................................... 7
DIRECTOR ..................................................................................................................................... 8
Adam Cook ................................................................................................................................. 8
Director's Notes........................................................................................................................... 8
Questions for the Director ........................................................................................................... 9
ACTOR PROFILES....................................................................................................................... 11
Nic English ................................................................................................................................ 11
Anthony Gooley ........................................................................................................................ 12
SYNOPSIS ................................................................................................................................... 14
PLOT ............................................................................................................................................ 15
Break-down ............................................................................................................................... 15
CHARACTER PROFILES ............................................................................................................. 19
Amanda Wingfield ..................................................................................................................... 19
Laura Wingfield ......................................................................................................................... 19
Tom Wingfield ........................................................................................................................... 20
Jim O'Connor ............................................................................................................................ 20
Mr Wingfield .............................................................................................................................. 20
THEMES ....................................................................................................................................... 21
Imprisonment & Escape ............................................................................................................ 21
Family ....................................................................................................................................... 21
Guilt .......................................................................................................................................... 22
Symbolism ................................................................................................................................ 22
Reality ....................................................................................................................................... 22
Narrator..................................................................................................................................... 23
Homosexuality .......................................................................................................................... 23
SET & COSTUME DESIGN .......................................................................................................... 24
Original Stage Directions........................................................................................................... 24
DESIGNER PROFILE ................................................................................................................... 25
Victoria Lamb ............................................................................................................................ 25
Set Design ................................................................................................................................ 26
Costumes.................................................................................................................................. 26
Questions for the Designer........................................................................................................ 26
INTERESTING READING ............................................................................................................. 28
Memory Play ............................................................................................................................. 28
Style .......................................................................................................................................... 28
SLIDES ................................................................................................................................. 28
MUSIC .................................................................................................................................. 29
1930s Depression ..................................................................................................................... 29
FILM & TV VERSIONS ............................................................................................................. 30
Guernica – Spanish Civil War ................................................................................................... 31
Mythology of Unicorns............................................................................................................... 32
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Study Guide: The Glass Menagerie
by Robyn Brookes
© 2012
Merchant Marine ....................................................................................................................... 33
GLOSSARY .................................................................................................................................. 34
ESSAY QUESTIONS .................................................................................................................... 37
English Questions ..................................................................................................................... 37
Drama Questions ...................................................................................................................... 38
Immediate Reactions ................................................................................................................ 40
Design Roles............................................................................................................................. 41
FURTHER RESOURCES ............................................................................................................. 42
References ................................................................................................................................... 42
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State Theatre Company of South Australia presents
THE GLASS MENAGERIE
Tennessee Williams
4-26 May, Dunstan Playhouse
CAST/CREATIVE TEAM
Kate Cheel
Nic English
Anthony Gooley
Deirdre Rubenstein
Laura Wingfield
Jim O’Connor
Tom Wingfield
Amanda Winfield
Adam Cook
Victoria Lamb
Mark Pennington
Stuart Day
Simon Stollery
Bridget Samuel
Kat Braun
Director
Designer
Lighting Designer
Composer
Voice & Dialect Coach
Stage Manager
Assistant Stage Manager
Duration
Approx: 2 ½ hours (including interval)
DWS performance followed by a 20 – 30 min Q&A session
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PLAYWRIGHT
Tennessee Williams
(1911 – 1983)
Tennessee Williams was born Thomas Lanier Williams III in Columbus,
Mississippi, in 1911. He earned his nickname in college when his
classmates started calling him Tennessee due to his Southern accent. His
father, Cornelius Coffin Williams was a traveling salesman and a heavy
drinker. His mother, Edwina was the daughter of a clergyman. Along
with his sister Rose and brother Dakin, they lived with Edwina's parents
in Mississippi until Williams was seven when the family moved to St
Louis.
The family moved sixteen times in ten years and as a result Williams
retreated into himself and started writing and making up stories. During
this time he became close to his sister Rose.
In 1929 he went to the University of Missouri to study journalism, before
he dropped out of school and ended up working at a shoe company, the
job, he recalled as, 'living death." To survive he spent his nights writing stories, poems and plays. He stayed
working there for three years before suffering a minor nervous breakdown. Sent to Memphis to recuperate he
joined a local theatre group before returning to college at Washington University in St Louis. The theatre
group produced his plays, The Fugitive Kind and Candles to the Sun. He finished his studies at the
University of Iowa and graduated in 1938. Sadly around this time his sister, Rose suffered mental illness and
underwent intensive brain surgery and spent most of her life in a sanatorium.
Williams moved to New Orleans where he changed his name to Tennessee and continued to write plays. He
won a play-writing contest before finding a job as a scriptwriter for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in Hollywood.
Around 1941, Williams began the work that would become The Glass Menagerie, which evolved from his
short story entitled “Portrait of a Girl in Glass." The play was staged in Chicago in 1944 to rave reviews
before going to Broadway the following year, where it won the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award. This
earned him, fame, fortune and critical success. Two years after The Glass Menagerie, Williams won another
Drama Critics’ Circle Award and a Pulitzer Prize for A Streetcar Named Desire and won these prizes again
in 1955, for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
The impact of success created problems for Williams who suffered alcoholism, depression, loneliness and
insanity. Being homosexual in an era and culture unfriendly to homosexuality affected his work and he
began using drugs. He suffered a period of intense depression after the death of his longtime partner in 1961
and, six years later, entered a psychiatric hospital in St. Louis. He continued to write, although most critics
agree that the quality of his work diminished during this time.
His life’s work adds up to twenty-five full-length plays, five screenplays, over seventy one-act plays,
hundreds of short stories, two novels, poetry, and a memoir; five of his plays were also made into movies.
With his innovative drama and sense of lyricism he had a profound effect on American theatre and on
American playwrights and actors.
He died in his New York apartment in 1983 at the age of 71 years.
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PLAYS
The Glass Menagerie (1944)
A Streetcar Named Desire (1947)
Summer and Smoke (1948)
The Rose Tattoo (1951)
Camino Real (1953)
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955)
Orpheus Descending (1957)
Suddenly, Last Summer (1958)
Sweet Bird of Youth (1959)
Period of Adjustment (1960)
The Night of the Iguana (1961)
The Eccentricities of a Nightingale (1962)
The Milk Train Doesn't Stop
Here Anymore (1963)
The Mutilated (1965)
The Seven Descents of Myrtle (1968)
In the Bar of a Tokyo Hotel (1969)
Will Mr Merriweather Return
from Memphis? (1969)
Small Craft Warnings (1972)
The Two-Character Play (1973)
Out Cry (1973)
The Red Devil Battery Sign (1975)
This Is (An Entertainment) (1976)
Vieux Carré (1977)
A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur (1979)
Clothes for a Summer Hotel (1980)
The Notebook of Trigorin (1980)
Something Cloudy, Something Clear (1981)
A House Not Meant to Stand (1982)
In Masks Outrageous and Austere (1983)
Novels
The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (1950)
Moise and the World of Reason (1975)
Screenplays and teleplays
The Glass Menagerie (1950)
A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
The Rose Tattoo (1955)
Baby Doll (1956)
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958)
Suddenly, Last Summer (1959)
The Fugitive Kind (1959)
Ten Blocks on the Camino Real (1966)
Boom! (1968)
The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond (1957)
Short stories
The Vengeance of Nitocris (1928)
The Field of Blue Children (1939)
The Resemblance Between a Violin Case and a
Coffin (1951)
Hard Candy: A Book of Stories (1954)
Three Players of a Summer Game and Other
Stories (1960)
The Knightly Quest: a Novella and Four Short
Stories (1966)
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One Arm and Other Stories (1967)
The Malediction
The Poet
Chronicle of a Demise
Desire and the Black Masseur
Portrait of a Girl in Glass
The Important Thing
The Angel in the Alcove
The Field of Blue Children
The Night of the Iguana
The Yellow Bird
Eight Mortal Ladies Possessed: a Book of Stories (1974)
Tent Worms (1980)
It Happened the day the Sun Rose, and Other Stories (1981)
Autobiography or Fiction?
In many ways The Glass Menagerie reflected the lives of Tennessee Williams and his family. The
Williams' inhabited a modest apartment after moving from the grandfather's home to St Louis. In this
apartment he could hear strains of music from a nearby ballroom, recreated in the play as the Paradise
Dance Hall.
Williams, like his counterpart Tom, worked at a shoe company whilst dreaming of becoming a writer. His
real name was Thomas Lanier Williams and in his youth was known as Tom.
Williams' sister Rose (the model for Laura) was mentally challenged and like Laura loved to play old
phonograph records. She was enrolled at a Business College, but couldn't handle the pressure and stopped
going to classes without telling her mother. She also collected glass ornaments. Both Laura and Rose were
seen by Williams as being shy, quiet, but lovely girls who were not able to cope with the modern world. It
is also reported that he brought home a gentleman caller for Rose called Jim Connor.
The character of Amanda was the 'spitting image' of his mother, Edwina who reminisced about the Deep
South. One family account suggests that Edwina had thirty gentleman callers in a single day, but like
Amanda, Edwina fell in love with a travelling salesman, who eventually settled in St Louis.
There are also some differences. Unlike Mr Wingfield who is talked about, but isn't present in the play,
William's father worked in a shoe factory and lived with them, and of course there was a younger brother.
By leaving out his father in the story Williams is able to focus on the three members of the Wingfield
family, who are haunted in different ways by the father's absence. He also portrays the father as mysterious
and romantic, something that Tom aspires to emulate, but it also raises the guilt Tom feels if he leaves
Laura and Amanda.
Unlike Laura, Rose had no trouble attracting male visitors, but by the age of twenty-four she was in danger
of being 'left on the shelf'. Williams felt helpless over his sister's illness and it troubled him for the rest of
his life, partly because he wasn't much assistance to Rose when she needed him the most. He repeatedly
attempted to exorcise the memory of his sister's decline through his writing.
The Glass Menagerie was written in part to help him come to terms with his sister's illness and perhaps his
guilt over not having taken more measures in trying to prevent her operation. "It is the saddest play I have
ever written. It is full of pain. It's painful for me to see it."
DIRECTOR
Adam Cook
The Glass Menagerie marks Adam’s final production as Artistic
Director of the State Theatre Company of South Australia, a position he
has held since 2005, the longest tenure in the history of the Company.
His directing credits for the Company include The Ham Funeral, Three
Sisters, November, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
(Abridged), Entertaining Mr Sloane, The Price, King Lear, Mnemonic,
The Cripple of Inishmaan, Architektin, Blue/Orange, LyreBird: Tales of
Helpmann, Hamlet, Uncle Vanya, Life x 3, Noises Off, The Government
Inspector, Crow, The Shifting Heart and The Daylight Atheist.
Graduating from the NIDA Directors Course in 1988, he has since
directed over 80 productions across Australia, London, Canada and the
United States for the Sydney, Adelaide, Melbourne and Brisbane
Festivals, Melbourne Theatre Company, Company B Belvoir, Sydney
Theatre Company, Ensemble, Sydney Opera House Trust, NIDA,
Queensland Performing Arts Centre, La Boite, Q Theatre, Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, Opera
Australia, Griffin Theatre Company, Bell Shakespeare, OzOpera, Playbox, Festival of the Dreaming,
Windmill Performing Arts, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, City of London Festival and the Barbican
International Theatre Event (BITE).
Director's Notes
In 1944, Tennessee Williams completed a play entitled The Gentleman Caller, which he dismissed as, "a
nauseous thing, an act of compulsion, not love. Just some weird necessity to get my sister on paper. Thank
God it is done, however inauspiciously.”
The play, retitled The Glass Menagerie, was the black sheep that became a cash cow. “I want money, yes;”
he wrote in 1942, “– but mostly I want an audience. If I get that, I am satisfied, for then I can throw in their
faces the things they won’t take till they know me, all the little, helpless, unspoken-for crowd of sheep-like
creatures I seem to find in the world and wish Quixotically to be the equally little and helpless voice of.” A
year later, he wrote “This is the twilight of an era in the theatre. God knows what is coming next. All these
people are going, going – GONE!”
The Glass Menagerie is a play steeped in the guilt a man feels at leaving the women of his life behind so
that he can become the man he needs to be and claim his artistic destiny. It’s a ghost story which uses light,
sound, and symbols to give shape to the ghostly quality of the playwright’s own inner world. For Williams,
writing it was an experience born of grief, “the saddest play I have ever written. It is full of pain. It’s
painful for me to see it.” He once described it as "my first quiet play, and perhaps my last."
Williams called his mother as “a little Prussian officer in drag”, but she also bought him his first
typewriter when he was 12, referring proudly to her clinging, anxious boy as “mah writin’ son”, who went
on to plant what Arthur Miller called “the flag of beauty on the shores of commercial theatre”.
A self-styled 'veteran of discouragement', Williams lived by the gospel of endurance, which he preached
and practiced until the end of his days. “This is a one-way street that I have chosen,” he
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wrote. “I have to follow it through with all the confidence or courage that necessity gives you… The fear of
the world, the fight to face it and not run away, is the realest thing in all experience to me…The most
magnificent thing in all human nature is valour – and endurance.”
Questions for the Director
1. The Glass Menagerie is a classic American play. What made you choose this for the 2012 season?
I was looking for just that, a classic American play that I could direct in the first half of the year,
which would appeal to adult audiences and also to secondary school students. The Glass Menagerie is
always on my repertoire short list, as I have long adored it, and 2012 happens to be the year it finds its
place in our season. It is also the last play I will direct for State Theatre Company as its Artistic
Director, and its combination of lyric poetry and heartrending drama make it a beautiful one to go out
on.
2. The story is set in the 1930s do you believe the story is relevant today? How?
The social background of the play certainly has an impact on the characters – there’s no money, there
are few jobs, poverty is scratching at the door, but the play’s relevance to today’s audience is not so
much to do with its period, but rather with its themes. For generations of readers and audiences,
especially those who discovered Tennessee Williams when they were teenagers, he was the first to
decode the dynamics of the family and most importantly the relationship that defines all boys – the
connection between a mother and her son.
He was a product of the Deep South, where many families, like his “haunted household”, struggled to
balance memories of a romanticized past with the realities of a less-than-exalted present. He wrote of
the kind of music he imagined for the play, a melody which would “express the surface vivacity of life
with the underlying strain of immutable and inexpressible sorrow”. The question is not whether, but
rather how long, the vivacity, the beauty, can hold out against the sorrow.
Nearly everything Tennessee Williams ever wrote is about beauty and brokenness. His sister Rose,
pathologically shy, withdrawn, and eventually lobotomized, became the emblem of the brave,
shadowy souls too delicate and fearful to survive in “the beanstalk country” of daily tribulation.
“Irreconcilables fought for supremacy in us; peace could never be made: at best a smouldering sort of
armistice might be reached after many battles.”
The play is steeped in the guilt a man feels at leaving the women of his life behind so that he can
become the man he needs to be. Tom is forever locked between two roles – that of the good son who
stays and the bad son who flees. The play ends not with ‘good night’ but with ‘goodbye.’
3. Williams has written very specific production notes. How much of these do you refer to when
working with the Designer, Victoria Lamb?
We read them all thoroughly, but embraced one above all others – “it is not realistic”. It’s a ghost
story in which Tennessee Williams uses light, sound, and symbols to give shape to the ghostly quality
of his own internal world. It’s important that we create an environment that reflects the period and the
emotional world of the characters, but Tennessee Williams gives you great license in Tom’s opening
monologue – it’s a memory play, “everything seems to happen to music”. He also writes in his notes
about the “unusual freedom from convention” with which it can be presented. However
impressionistic Williams might encourage us to be, it’s also crucial to convey the Wingfields’
precarious and soul-destroying economic circumstances in the visual design of the production. There
is a thin line between genteel lower-middle-class hardship and true, dire poverty.
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4. Williams also wrote specific notes on slides with images and titles and certain music that should
be used. How important are these notes for you? Will slides be used at all?
We won’t be using the slides. Williams himself became disenchanted with this aesthetic device in later
years. They are very specific in what they depict, but they don’t add anything to what you are seeing
on stage. It just goes to show though that there was already an interest in what we now call
‘multimedia’ back in the early decades of the 20th century. Victoria and I both felt the slides would
just be distracting, so we decided not to do them. Most productions cut them too.
5. Being an American classic some people have an expectation about the way it should be staged
and presented. How do you forget that so that you can focus on your vision?
I think it’s perfectly fine to have those expectations about this play, and indeed to have them met. If
you took a radical approach to The Glass Menagerie in the way you stage it or act it, I think you’d
crush it. It’s usually ‘realism’ that directors shy away from when they interpret a classic, but this play
already encourages us to use “expressionism and all other unconventional techniques in drama” in
order to get closer to the truth. Tennessee Williams encourages us to replace “the exhausted theatre of
realistic conventions” with a more imaginative stage language, steering us away from the pursuit of
the “photographic in art”.
I always direct a play from the point of view of the audience – how will they understand this moment,
will it be clear, will they be confused? So, it’s a balancing act, you work as a divided self in the
rehearsal room - you always have the audience uppermost in your mind, at every moment, because you
want to create a theatrical vision that excites and enthrals them, that illuminates the play, and doesn’t
upstage it with gratuitous, attention-seeking innovation.
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ACTOR PROFILES
Nic English
Jim O’Connor (Gentleman Caller)
Nic graduated from AC Arts in 2008. Since graduating his theatre
credits include Books and Bites (Come Out), The Embryos (The
Duende Collective), Different Fields (SINGular Productions/State
Opera of South Australia), A State of Affairs (Accidental
Productions), Autobahn, Boxing Day Test (Junglebean) and Holding
the Man and The Misanthrope (State Theatre Company). Screen
credits include the short film Being Nowhere and travel show, The
Vibe. Nic has also developed new works with Sydney based
companies Cry Havoc and The Earthcrosser Company, as well as
Adelaide based ensemble, Chopt Logic. Nic is a founding member of
Adelaide based theatre company Junglebean.
1. You play Jim O'Connor, the gentleman caller who is in the play for one scene. How difficult does
this make it to develop your character?
Jim is actually in the play for two scenes, his entrance with Tom when they arrive for dinner and meet
the family and secondly after dinner when he and Laura get reacquainted. Prior to his arrival though,
Tom talks about what Jim was like in high school, what he's been doing since leaving and a little bit
about his personality. This makes developing Jim a lot easier. The play is so well written all I really
have to do is follow the text!
2. Do you think Jim has any idea as to why he's been invited to dinner?
Initially, probably not, but I think he picks it up pretty quickly. One of the first things Jim says to Tom
after he's met the Wingfields and they're alone is "You never told me you had a sister" and I think that
could be indicative of his awareness of the situation early on. Certainly by the end he has a strong idea
why he's there.
3. You studied at AC Arts, what do you think is the importance of studying acting at a tertiary
level?
I think the decision to study acting at AC Arts was one of the best choices I've ever made. It absolutely
changed my life. And I certainly wouldn't be doing the kind of work I am at the moment if I hadn't had
some kind of formal training. I think training sets you up with a realistic expectation of it's like to be an
actor. It's hard work but it's very rewarding work.
4. This story is set in the 1930s and gentlemen callers are a thing of the past. Why do you think
audiences will be engaged with this story?
What I love about the play and what I hope the audience will connect with is that it's a play about a
family who love each other immensely but can't communicate. Also I think everyone can connect with
being infatuated with someone and that's the affect Jim has on Laura. It's something that is kind of
timeless and while dating has changed, how people meet each other has changed, those feelings remain
the same.
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Anthony Gooley
Tom Wingfield
Anthony graduated from NIDA in 2007 and performed with the
Australian Theatre For Young People from 2003 – 04. His theatre
credits include Death of a Salesman (Ensemble Thaetre), The
Libertine, Three Sisters and Julius Caesar (Cry Havoc), Angels in
America (Riverside Theatre) and Rope (Tamarama Rock Surfers).
His film and television credits include Tough Nuts, Underbelly,
Packed to the Rafters, Home and Away, Satisfaction and the music
film clip of Chase That Feeling (Hilltop Hoods)
1. You studied at NIDA, what do you think is the importance of studying acting at a tertiary level?
Certainly for me it was the work ethic it instilled. With all the resources and opportunities available to
you at a drama institution, the thought and preparation which goes into my work nowadays far
surpasses the work I did prior to NIDA, which predominantly involved putting on a stupid hat and
trying to emulate Ace Ventura. I think it's also important in identifying what your habits are - not to
eliminate them, but just to control them.
2. Tennessee Williams is a classic American playwright. Have you worked on any of his plays
before?
I have actually. I played a dying transvestite in an obscure little Tennessee Williams short play entitled,
And Tell Sad Stories of the Deaths of Queen. Had to wax all over, and I'm hairy. It was brutal.
3. What draws you to the character of Tom?
I think what ultimately draws everyone to Tom is the beautiful poetry that comes from him. They're
just nice words to say. And tortured souls are always good fun. There's something very sad but
beautiful about a man who spends his days handling loafers in a blue-collar warehouse; while all the
while he has these magnificent images and ideas circulating in his head.
4. You have worked in film, television and theatre. How is live theatre different from the digital
medium and what attracts you to it?
Theatre has always been my main love. As much as I enjoyed delving into the psychology of the 'Car
Salesman' in the Volkswagen commercial I did a few years back, there's nothing that beats the live
exchange with an audience. There's often a lot more preparation and rehearsal involved in theatre
which is a nice luxury. And it's where you get to tackle the truly big roles.
5. This story is set in the 1930s. Why do you think current audiences will be engaged with this
story?
This play will always be relevant and engaging as long as people are interested in stories about
people (I stole that line. Sorry Damien). The idea of the role that memory plays in shaping our
perception of events is one that will make everyone reflect. And I believe that Tom's
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yearning for passion, adventure and revolution while being trapped in a comparatively apathetic and
uninspired society is something that contemporary Australians would feel quite strongly.
6. For this role you have come from interstate, working with a Director and actors you haven't
worked with before. What are the positives and negatives to this scenario?
There's nothing negative about this scenario. The best thing we can do is to continually get out of our
comfort zone and expose ourselves to new people, new artists and new ways of working. It will only
enrich you further. Plus my apartment is nice. If I'd been put in a granny flat in Hackney, I would've
been cheering. So anything on top of that is a bonus. I'm very glad to be here.
To see more of Anthony see our You Tube clip;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8jzPGy9vso&feature=g-upl&context=G23e7a40AUAAAAAAAAAA
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SYNOPSIS
Set in St. Louis in the 1930s, The Glass Menagerie is a 'memory play' about the Wingfield family: Tom,
who is torn between his obligation to his family and his desire to break away from the suffocating embrace
of his mother, Amanda and his shy and crippled sister Laura, whose memory he will never escape.
Abandoned by her husband, Amanda comforts herself with recollections of her earlier, more gracious life
in the American Deep South, when she was pursued by 'gentlemen callers'.
Now she fights to provide a better life for her grown children, while they struggle for a future that seems
unlikely ever to fulfil their mother's hopes and dreams. But a change in fortune suddenly seems possible
with the arrival of a handsome and mysterious young visitor who arrives without warning. The Glass
Menagerie, Williams' evocation of loneliness and lost love, is one of his most powerful and moving plays;
an unforgettable American classic.
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PLOT
In an apartment in St Louis lives Amanda, the mother, her crippled daughter, Laura and her working son,
Tom. Amanda loves to relive the 'old' days and tells Laura to stay pretty for her gentleman callers even
though Laura hasn't had any callers and expects none. She tells Laura to practice her shorthand and typing.
A few days later Amanda comes home after finding out that Laura has dropped out of business school
several months earlier. She is shocked and worried about what Laura will do with her time and how she'll
live her life with no job or marriage prospects. She tells Laura that there must be a gentleman caller. Laura
reveals that she has only liked one boy in high school, Jim.
Tom goes to the movies almost every night and returns home late. Amanda confronts him and accuses him
of wrongdoing. They have an argument and Amanda refuses to talk to him. Laura persuades Tom to
apologise and Amanda asks him to find a nice gentleman caller for Laura. A few days later he tells his
mother that he has invited a young man named Jim O'Connor home for dinner and Amanda rushes to make
plans.
When Laura hears the name of the gentleman caller she realises that it is the same man she had a crush on
in high school. As a result she tells her mother that she will not come for dinner, but Amanda will have
none of it forcing Laura to open the door. Feeling sick with nervousness Laura becomes physically sick and
has to be excused.
Later in the living room Amanda sends Jim into the living room to keep Laura company while she and Tom
clean up. As Jim and Laura talk she loses some of her shyness and Jim is attracted by her quiet charms. Jim
kisses her, then quickly explains that he is already engaged. When Amanda finds out she accuses Tom of
playing a trick on them.
The play ends with Tom some years in the future thinking back on his sister Laura whom he can never
forget.
Break-down
SCENE 1
Tom Wingfield opens the play as narrator and addresses the audience. He explains that the play is a
memory play and that he is a character in the play, along with his mother, Amanda, sister Laura, and a
gentleman caller. He also talks about his father who deserted the family years ago, who never appears.
As the action beings, Amanda is instructing Tom about how to eat every bite of his food until Tom yells at
her for her constant nagging. "I haven't enjoyed one bite of this dinner because of your constant directions
on how to eat it."
Amanda then turns her attentions to Laura telling her to stay fresh and pretty for the gentlemen callers
before sending her off to work on her shorthand and typing.
Analysis
Amanda can't see that her constant nagging of Tom is beginning to drive him away. After her rave about
her youth, the question seems to be whether Amanda wants the callers for Laura, or to relive her own
youth?
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SCENE 2
Laura is sitting alone playing with her glass collection when Amanda comes in and theatrically drops her
gloves on the floor. Amanda tells Laura that she went by the business school in order to enquire of Laura's
progress and found out that Laura has not been attending. Laura explains how she became nervous and
threw up on the floor and couldn't return out of embarrassment. Since then she has been pretending to go to
school, but instead going to museums and bird houses.
Amanda wonders what will happen to a girl who can't work and has no gentlemen callers. Wondering if
Laura ever liked a boy, Laura tells her about a boy at high school with whom she was infatuated. He used
to call her 'blue roses' because she had pluerosis.
Analysis
Amanda plays this scene for theatrical effect – partly because this is her nature and because it allows her to
go back in time when she was giddy with the prospect of gentleman callers. There is an insight into
Amanda's worry about what to do with Laura.
SCENE 3
Tom and his mother are arguing about a book by D.H. Lawrence that she took back to the library because
she refuses to have such hideous books in her house. Tom reminds her that he pays the rent on the house
and then he prepares to leave to go to the movies. An argument ensues as Amanda accuses him of lying
about where he goes at night. Tom becomes infuriated and calls her an "ugly – babbling witch." As he
struggles to leave he throws his coat against the wall and shatters some of Laura's glass menagerie.
Analysis
This scene really shows Amanda's determination and Tom's resentment. Amanda intrudes on Tom's
privacy, represented by taking back the D.H. Lawrence book and Tom realises that his mother has little
understanding or sympathy for his own creative efforts. He also reminds her that he is an adult and looks
after her and Laura. Laura standing there listening to this argument feels the burden that she is on Tom. The
shattered glass represents Laura's inner feelings.
SCENE 4
Laura asks Tom to apologise to their mother. Amanda asks why he goes to the movies so often and he
explains that he likes adventure and that he doesn't enjoy his work. Amanda has seen the letter from the
Merchant Marine and knows that Tom is planning to leave them. She tells him that he must see to it that
Laura is provided for and asks if he can find a nice young man for her.
Analysis
Tom emphasises his desire for escape in this scene and although he apologises to his mother she quickly
returns to her nagging self. Tom reveals more of his creative side, as he seeks adventure and romance.
Amanda's husband possessed a similar sense of romance and left home, leaving Amanda bitter. But she
does realise that Tom could leave and she wants to make sure that Laura is cared for.
Also in this scene Laura trips on the fire escape – a device used to suggest her fear of the outside world.
SCENE 5
Tom tells Amanda that he has a gentleman caller for Laura who is coming tomorrow. Amanda protests that
she doesn't have enough time to get ready, but busies herself with the arrangements. Tom insists that she
shouldn't make a fuss, but Amanda is excited by the prospect. Tom warns that Jim doesn't know about
Laura and reminds his mother that Laura is crippled and "lives in a world of her own."
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Analysis
Amanda seizes on the idea of a gentleman caller with abandon. Tom reminds her that he doesn't know of
Mr O'Connor's private life, something that Amanda forgets later.
Tom tries to make Amanda see Laura realistically, but Amanda refuses to see Laura as crippled, or the fact
that she lives in her own world. Amanda is set on the idea that this gentleman caller will marry Laura.
SCENE 6
Tom talks about Jim who he knew in high school. How Jim was good at sports and debating and that he is
his only friend at the warehouse.
The scene then turns to Amanda and Laura as they are preparing for the arrival of Jim. Laura is nervous,
but Amanda fusses over Laura's appearance. Amanda goes away herself to dress, reappearing in a very
girlish frock held over from her youth and carrying a bunch of jonquils. Laura learns of the name of their
guest and is immediately unwell as this is the boy she had a crush on at school. Amanda forces Laura to
open the door to Jim, but she quickly retreats into the other room.
Tom and Jim talk about the warehouse and Jim warns that Tom is on the verge of losing his job. He has
used the money for the light bill to pay his dues at the Merchant Seaman's union, but says not to mention it
to his family.
Amanda comes into meet Jim and bombards him with questions, and her past life. Amanda doesn't want to
join them for a meal and becomes sick and moves to the living room while the others eat the meal.
Analysis
Tom sets up Jim O'Connor as a quiet and ordinary individual. Laura's nervousness is brought about by
Amanda's fretting and worrying, but Amanda tries to make her conform to her idea of behaviour instead of
understanding their own personalities. Again it seems that Amanda is reliving her glory days when she
changes into an outfit, and behaviour, from her girlish days.
After Laura is forced to open the door for Jim, she rushes across the room emphasising her limp and
retreats to the phonograph, the symbol of her own world. Amanda forces Laura to come to the table, only
realising that she is really sick when she almost faints.
SCENE 7
The lights come up on Laura lying on the couch. Just as the meal is finishing the lights go out, but Amanda
calmly lights the candles. She and Tom disappear to do the dishes while Jim keeps Laura company. Laura
reminds Jim of their high school days when they used to sing together. She mentions how she was always
late because she was crippled and he replies that he never noticed.
When Laura enquiries about his high school girlfriend he tells her that is was just a rumour. She tells him
about business college and about her glass collection, showing him her prized piece, a glass unicorn. Jim
tells Laura that she has an inferiority complex and that being different is what makes her special. Hearing
music from the dance hall he asks her to dance. During the dance they stumble against a table and they
break the horn off the unicorn. He then leans over and kisses her. Almost immediately he knows he has
done the wrong thing and says that he shouldn't have kissed her because he is engaged to be married in the
next month. Laura gives him the broken unicorn.
Amanda enters flitting about and chattering away as Jim explains that he must go because he is engaged.
Amanda is surprised and accuses Tom of playing a joke on them by bringing home an engaged man. She
says that he is a selfish dreamer who never thinks about "his mother deserted and an unmarried sister
who's crippled and has no job." So Tom leaves.
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At the end Tom says that even though he's left he could never forget his sister.
Analysis
Amanda uses the excuse of the lights going out to leave Jim with Laura. In Jim's presence, Laura suddenly
becomes alive, unique and different. She rapidly gains confidence and loses some of her shyness. The
unicorn represents Laura – that she is different, but her uniqueness is what makes her. Jim builds up Laura's
ego throughout this scene and they dance, and when the unicorn is broken Laura feels normal.
When Jim reveals that he is engaged Laura gives him the broken unicorn. It's for the audience to decide
whether Laura's hopes are broken, or that she is no longer unique, but ordinary and will be ok.
Amanda's attack on Tom for allowing them to make 'fools of ourselves' strips her of her charm and we see
her as a nagging woman who can't face reality. She even refers to Laura for the first time as 'crippled'. This
is just the catalyst that pushes Tom to leave.
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CHARACTER PROFILES
Amanda Wingfield
"A little woman of great but confused vitality."
"There is much to admire in Amanda, and as much to love and pity as to laugh at."
Tennessee Williams
Amanda is the mother of Tom and Laura. Abandoned by her husband she has tried to raise her two children
under harsh financial conditions. Amanda lives in a world that fluctuates between illusion and reality in
order to endure her present position in life. She escapes by reliving the comforts from her youth, like the
story of the seventeen gentlemen callers in one afternoon. This story has been told so often it is no longer
an illusion, but has become reality for her.
She refuses to acknowledge that her daughter is crippled and refers to it as a 'slight defect.' She also refuses
to accept that Tom is ready for adventure and wants to leave. When she is confronted with the reality that
Laura has had no gentlemen callers or is unlikely to she says, "I know so well what becomes of unmarried
women who aren't prepared to occupy a position." Trying to save her daughter she asks Tom to arrange a
gentleman caller.
Amanda only wants the best for her children, but she fails to understand that they want different things to
her. By devoting herself to them she has become overbearing and nagging. She is a strong woman whose
determination to escape the disappointment in her life has made her fabricate stories about the past.
Amanda dominates the stage for large sections of the play with her chattering monologues and her forceful
arguments with her children. Of all the characters in the play she changes the least. Her screaming rage at
Tom in the final scene reiterates all the flaws of her character as well as her selfishness and unthinking
cruelty.
Laura Wingfield
"The light upon Laura should be distinct from the others, having a peculiar pristine clarity such as light
used in early religious portraits of female saints or madonnas." - Tennessee Williams
Laura is Amanda's daughter. She has a slight physical defect – a limp – but she has magnified this limp
becoming oversensitive about it and in turn created it as a barrier to normal living. As Tom says, it's not
just being crippled that makes her different, but she is different. Isolating herself from the outside world she
has created a world of her own that is symbolised by her collection of glass figurines and the old
phonograph records.
She is extremely shy and sensitive, which is emphasised by the contrast of Amanda, who is forceful and
almost brutal. She is so nervous that she became violently sick at business school and becomes frightened
and nervous when Tom and Amanda fight.
Then the gentleman caller arrives. At first she is overwhelmed with shyness and becomes sick as a result.
But left with Jim she begins to show her inner charm. She even forgets her physical handicap and responds
to Jim as he shows her that her difference is an asset not a handicap. At the end of the evening when the
unicorn is broken and her hopes have been shattered it is up to the audience to decide if she remains in her
unique world or has been set free.
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When Amanda asks whether or not she wishes the best for Jim in the future, Laura's final line in the play is
"Yes!" If it is delivered in a teary and downbeat way then Laura is left appearing broken and empty. Yet, as
Laura looks up with a smile, fighting back her own sadness, then a different possibility is registered.
Perhaps she can 'get over' Jim and move on.
Tom Wingfield
Tom is Amanda's son and the narrator of the play. He is an aspiring poet who works in a shoe warehouse to
support his family, but he is desperate to escape this life and seeks solace in nightly trips to the movies and
local bars. Tom is both obliged yet burdened by his family. He realises his sister's plight and knows that his
mother's dreams of gentlemen callers are false. He recognises that he has no future in the warehouse and in
the end is forced to leave his mother and sister or be consumed by their worlds of illusion, deception and
withdrawal.
He seeks escape from his mother's nagging inquisitions and commands by attending movies nightly. But
Tom soon realises that he is watching adventure rather than living it and movies are momentary escapes.
When Amanda begins confiscating books that he brought home, his life became almost unbearable.
Tom leaves his home knowing that if he stays he would suffer regret, unhappiness, and a complete
deterioration of his creative abilities. At the end of the play he expresses that he has never been able to
forget his life or the delicate charm and loveliness of his sister.
Tom's escape is not selfish, instead he realises that he needs to leave to save himself. It he stayed he would
have been destroyed as a man and an artist.
Jim O'Connor
Jim is an old high school acquaintance of both Tom and Laura. He is an ordinary young man who brings a
touch of the common world into the Wingfield world of dreams. He was an athlete at school, but is now a
shipping clerk at the shoe warehouse where Tom works. Unlike the Wingfields, Jim is in touch with the
outside world and is happy to function according to social conventions, such as climbing the career ladder
and marrying a nice girl.
He has dreams and ambitions like Tom does, but these do not haunt him. You get the sense that he will
marry Betty, settle down and lead a happy, ordinary life.
The audience is forewarned of Jim's character before he makes an appearance. Tom tells Amanda that he is
a plain person, someone over whom there is no need to make a fuss. He earns slightly more than Tom, but
can't be compared to the callers that Amanda used to have.
In his conversation with Laura he becomes wrapped up in reliving his past, when he was the school hero
and swept girls off their feet, he breaks Laura's favourite piece of glass, along with her dreams and hopes.
He fails to see the emotions that he stirs up in Laura and only after kissing her tells her that he is engaged.
Mr Wingfield
Although this character is never seen he is ever present during the play as his picture is prominently
displayed in the Wingfield's living room. He is the absentee husband of Amanda and father of Laura and
Tom. He worked for a telephone company and "fell in love with long distance", abandoning his family
sixteen years before the play's action.
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THEMES
Imprisonment & Escape
Amanda, Laura and Tom portray a normal family, while trying to conceal or repress their respective
demons from each other. As a result their lives form a triangle of desperation, each struggling to escape,
either literally or through imagination.
The only character who has been able to escape is Mr Wingfield, but his smiling, looming photograph
hangs over them reminding them that he had no regrets.
Tom's choice between sacrifice for his family and personal freedom becomes more and more difficult so he
begins to escape through his love of movies. He sees the movies as a type of adventure that help him to
compensate for his dull life. Tom eventually realises that his creative abilities and his sensitivity are being
destroyed by his surroundings, so he follows in his father's footsteps and leaves.
Amanda's grasp of reality is the most tenuous of all. She fabricates memories of gentlemen callers and the
faded promise of what could have been. These ramblings means she can escape back in time, and use these
dreams as her hope for Laura's happiness. Eventually she is forced to face the truth of Laura's prospects of
finding a mate after Tom confronts the issue. This fluctuation between illusion and reality is her only
defence against the boredom and emptiness of her life.
Laura retreats into the world of the glass menagerie, which provides her escape. Unable to hold a job or
complete a course she withdraws from the outside world, until the promise of a relationship emerges. Jim's
arrival threatens her insulation from the outside world and her first reaction is to run. Jim manages to bring
her out of her shell and we begin to feel hope for her, even with the breaking of the unicorn's horn and kiss,
until he mentions Betty, to whom he is engaged. It is left for the audience to decide whether Laura takes
Jim's advice and re-joins the world, or whether she retreats further back into her own world.
Tom's Escape – Merchant Marines
Tom's pre-emptive strike of joining the merchant navy could be seen as a form of cowardly escape. Tom
makes several references to the war already beginning in Europe and he may be savvy enough to know that
America may join. Instead of being conscripted or enlisted in the 'fighting' army, where he could be
killed he could choose the easier option of a Merchant Marine.
It may also be that choosing this life he can still support his family with an income he can send home, but
that also helps his dreams of adventure.
Family
The play ultimately is about four people who are seeking, in different ways, to 'do the right thing.' The
desperate irony of the situation is that what they are seeking is at cross-purposes and leads them to create
their own small tragedy.
Even thought Amanda can seem oppressive, selfish and a monster of a mother, at the heart she is deeply
caring and wants the best for her children. Tom although desperate to leave this life, is concerned for his
sister and his mother to some extent and how they will cope without him. Amanda wants to please her
mother, but finds that she becomes increasingly oppressed by her.
The audience needs to be convinced that Jim is a good person and to want, for Laura's sake, a relationship
between them to grow. The tragic irony is that by trying to do 'the right thing' in
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encouraging Laura to come out of her shell he leads her into a romantic entanglement. He seems to imply
that there is something more radiant in the cripple Laura than his 'steady girl'; perhaps both of them suffer
because of his basic decency.
Guilt
Tom needs urgently to leave his family and St Louis, but he also needs to stay for Laura's sake. The older
Tom (the narrator) looks back with fond nostalgia on the past events, but also with a haunted guilt. This
guilt keeps Tom with his family longer than he wants, working at a place he despises and stifling his
creativity. If it wasn't for his over-bearing mother he might never have been tipped over the edge to actually
leave.
The guilt about leaving Laura is something that Williams felt after his sister's operation. If he had been
around at the time, he might have been able to prevent the operation, or at least help his sister more at the
time.
An interesting moment is when Jim breaks the unicorn. Laura strives to alleviate Jim's guilt as she forces
back her disappointment and assures him that, "It doesn't matter. Maybe it's a blessing in disguise."
Symbolism
Fire escape
Is a physical symbol of escape and is used to represent the idea that the family is trapped, but there is an
escape. For Tom the fire escape represents the escape to the outer world, for Laura it is an escape from the
outer world, which she dreads.
When Amanda forces Laura to go to the store Laura trips on the fire escape, emphasising her dread of the
hostile outside world.
Glass
The fragile nature of glass is a symbol of the fragility of Laura. With the glass pieces Laura can remove
herself from the normal world and almost cocoon herself from real life. When Jim O'Connor comes to visit
he remarks how her favourite piece, the unicorn, "must feel sort of lonesome" because he is different. She
says, "Well if he does, he doesn't complain about it. He stays on the shelf with some horses that don't have
horns and all of them seem to get along nicely together."
When they dance and Jim bumps the table the horn from the unicorn breaks off. Laura says, "Maybe it's a
blessing in disguise…It's no tragedy. Glass breaks so easily. No matter how careful you are……. The horn
was removed to make him feel less – freakish! Now he will feel more at home with the other horses, the
ones that don't have horns."
This scene brings about a change in Laura and the unicorn's loneliness and breaking of the horn normalises
her in a sense, brings her out of her shell.
Reality
Amanda first faces reality when she discovers that Laura hasn't been attending business school. Firstly it
represents a loss of the tuition money, which is hard to come by. But it forces her to consider the future and
that fact that her daughter is cripple and too sensitive to work. She turns her thoughts to the need for a
gentleman caller for Laura. "I know so well what becomes of unmarried women who aren't prepared to
occupy a position. I've seen such pitiful cases in the South – barely tolerated spinsters living upon the
grudging patronage of sister's husband or brother's wife."
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She once again faces reality after Jim leaves. She accuses Tom of playing a joke on them and for the first
time acknowledges Laura's disability. "Don't think about us, a mother deserted, an unmarried sister who's
crippled and has no job!"
Narrator
Using a narrator is considered a way for the writer to help conceive the background information of the play.
In this case, Tom is integrated into the play. He presents the play as a memory and then steps back in time
to become a participant.
Tom says that the stage magician "gives you illusion that has the appearance of truth. I give you truth in
the pleasant disguise of illusion." By this he means that plays are often a dramatic illusion which the
audience takes for the truth. But this play offers itself as an illusion, thus the play is not realistic, but is
being presented through the memory of Tom.
Homosexuality
Movie houses in American cities were where 'men of homosexual leanings' would 'meet' as they were open
long hours into the night. Amanda's questioning and commentary of his exploits could be alluding to this,
particularly as there is no mention of him bringing a girl home and settling down. The new 'wife' could
perhaps look after his sister. Williams struggled with this in a time that was unfriendly to homosexuality,
causing him severe depression.
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SET & COSTUME DESIGN
Original Stage Directions
The Wingfield apartment is in the rear of the building, on of those vast, hive-like conglomerations of
cellular living-units that flower as warty growths in over-crowded urban centers of lower middle-class
population and are symptomatic of the impulse of this largest and fundamentally enslaved section of
American society to avoid fluidity and differentiation and to exist and function as one inter-fused mass of
automatism.
The apartment faces an alley and is entered by a fire-escape, a structure whose name is a touch of
accidental poetic truth, for all these huge buildings are always burning with the slow and implacable fires
of human desperation.
The scene is memory and is therefore non-realistic. Memory takes a lot of poetic license. It omits some
details; others are exaggerated, according to the emotional value of the articles it touches, for memory is
seated predominantly in the heart. The interior is therefore rather dim and poetic.
At the rise of the curtain, the audience is faced with the dark, grim rear wall of the Wingfield tenement.
This building is flanked on both sides by dark, narrow alleys which run into murky canyons of tangled
clotheslines, garbage cans, and the sinister latticework of neighbouring fire escapes. It is up and down
these side alleys that exterior entrances and exits are made during the play. At the end of Tom's opening
commentary, the dark tenement wall slowly becomes transparent and reveals the interior of the groundfloor Wingfield apartment.
Nearest the audience is the living room, which also serves as a sleeping room for Laura, the sofa unfolding
to make her bed. Just beyond, separated from the living room by a wide arch or second proscenium with
transparent faded portieres (or second curtain), is the dining room. In an old-fashioned whatnot in the
living room are seen scores of transparent glass animals. A blown-up photograph of the father hangs on
the wall of the living room, to the left of the archway. It is the face of a very handsome young man in a
doughboy's First World War cap. He is gallantly smiling, ineluctably smiling, as if to say 'I will be smiling
forever.'
Also hanging on the wall, near the photograph, are a typewriter keyboard chart and a Gregg shorthand
diagram. An upright typewriter on a small table stands beneath the charts.
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DESIGNER PROFILE
Victoria Lamb
For State Theatre Company Victoria has designed Speaking in
Tongues, November, Entertaining Mr Sloane, King Lear, Ghosts,
Blue/Orange, Lion Pig Lion, Waiting for Godot, Who’s Afraid of
Virginia Woolf? and Metro Street for its Adelaide and Korean
seasons. Other designs include the opera Undertow for the 2004
Adelaide Festival (which toured to Budapest and Helsinki) and the
concept design and art direction of the Boho Bar on Unley Road.
She was also production designer for the 2007 short film Alma
Mater High. In 2009 she designed One Long Night in the Land of
Nod for Floogle at the Old Fitzroy Theatre. In 2010 she was
awarded the national inaugural Kristian Fredrikson Scholarship for
Design in the Performing Arts.
Other recent designs include The Business (Belvoir Street Theatre),
And No More Shall We Part (Griffin Theatre Company), Loot
(Sydney Theatre Company) and The City (nowyesnow).
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Set Design
The play is set during the depression in St Louis, Missouri and the family are finding it difficult to live
from hand-to-mouth. The characters include; the narrator/Tom who is a frustrated poet, Amanda who
struggles to keep the family together and Laura who is pathologically shy and inhabits the glass menagerie
world where she feels safe. All of them are trying to liberate themselves from this life and feeling guilty
about it.
In Tom's first speech he says, "It is not realistic," and that it is a "memory play" where he has come back to
re-examine that world and represent it as he remembers, not necessarily how it was.
The apartment starts as a fairly empty stage where background pieces are flown in or revealed as Tom takes
us back into his life. The fire escape, which is the important entry and exit point and the access to the
apartment, goes down into the orchestra pit. There is also an exit at the back which leads to the kitchen and
the rest of the house. Much of the intention behind the scenery is the impermanence of this world and the
delicacy of the characters, like the glass, being transparent. The lighting plays an important part in making
this happen.
The interior reflects a woman's touch as Amanda would have done the decorating, whereas the exterior is
harsh, representing the outside world. The 'Paradise' dance hall is across the way with its sign shown
through gauze at the back of the stage.
Costumes
Are all period pieces from the 1930s. Laura and Amanda's day clothes feel old and used, seen through a
sepia tone. Amanda appears in her best winter dress, with her coat and hat quite worn. When the
Gentleman caller comes she wears an old party frock from around 20 years ago, out of style and out of
place on an older woman. Laura has a fairly new dress for the occasion, which was found on EBay! Tom is
in a basic suit, as is the Gentleman caller.
Questions for the Designer
1. There are a lot of stage directions at the beginning of the play. How important are these when it
comes to designing?
You have to be aware of them and know why the author has put them there, but I will always interpret
a space for myself and in accord to the style suitable to that particular director and production.
2. What makes a play appealing to you in terms of design?
All plays have their own elements that can be an enjoyable challenge, designing any play is a process
of discovery. One thing I have particularly enjoyed about The Glass Menagerie is the ‘memory’
format. This frees me to be able to work outside the constraints of realism and lets me interpret the
space as it lives in Toms mind.
3. Since The Glass Menagerie is a classic American play do you research other productions to see
their designs? Or is it best not to be influenced by these?
The Glass Menagerie is a very popular play which has had many, many productions. Usually I will
read a play and create my own first impressions before looking at other versions. I find looking at
other productions quite interesting, usually as a way to inform me of what ‘not’ to do.
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4. As part of your research did you watch any of the movies?
Yes, the Director and I watched the Katherine Hepburn film version. It is useful to see a full movie
interpretation just to put it in context of the period. I also find audio recording very helpful as I can
listen to them and sketch at the same time.
5. The play is set in the 1930s – what sort of research did you do to be true to this era?
I looked at a lot of the American architecture from the time. Most of the period research for The Glass
Menagerie was on the costumes, this comes mostly from books, and clothing catalogues from the time
and of course Google.
6. What other influences have helped you in the design process?
I also like to look at what was happening in the art movement of a time and place that a play is set, as
well as any popular media of the time such as advertising and movies.
7. You have worked with the Director, Adam Cook several times now. What is the process that the
two of you use when starting a design?
Having worked with Adam so much makes the process easier. We generally start by just having a chat
about our initial impressions of a play. Sometimes Adam will bring some images to this first meeting
that are relevant to his interpretation. After this initial discussion, I will usually go away with these first
ideas and incorporate them into a rough model or drawing. This will be refined or changed in
subsequent discussions depending on how we both feel about where it's going.
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INTERESTING READING
Memory Play
The play is introduced to the audience by Tom as a memory play, based on his recollection of his mother
Amanda and his sister Laura.
"The play is memory. Being a memory play, it is dimly lighted, it is sentimental, it is not realistic. In
memory everything seems to happen to music. That explains the fiddle in the wings."
The scenes give us a slice of life that the narrator, Tom, once lived through. In his own world he wants to
present the truth through illusion, recalling certain scenes of his past life. The play is structured presenting
a series of episodes which make a comment on his life.
As a memory play Tom could not possibly know what happened in the scene between Jim and Laura.
However, he takes the license of a poet and projects himself into scenes in order to present poetic truths.
The stage directions call for the use of several devices in order to convey the idea of a memory play. Some
of the scenes are meant to be presented with some type of net between the audience and the actors.
Williams also suggests the use of titles and images to be projected on a screen in order to reinforce the idea
of memory. However most directors feel that the play is sufficient without these images.
Style
Williams says,
"I visualise it as a reduced mobility on the stage, the forming of statuesque attitudes or tableaux, something
resembling a restrained type of dance, with motions honed down to only the essential or significant."
Williams grew up watching movies during his childhood and this play in some way emulated the cinematic
technique of mise-en-scene*, which is a technique used by film directors to stage an event for the camera.
*Mise-en-scène describes the design aspects of a theatre or film production, which essentially means
"visual theme" or "telling a story."
In the mid 40s these staging ideas were unusual, but their successful use in The Glass Menagerie made
them popular and influential. The use of music, atmospheric lighting and semi-transparent sets to create a
heightened, dream-like form or stage realism – became known as 'the American Style'. Williams used this
same technique in A Streetcar Named Desire. Arthur Miller also acknowledges this influence on his own
ideas for Death of A Salesman.
The main technique Williams developed was using gauze in his scenery. When lit from the front it creates
the illusion of a solid wall, but when lit from behind this wall vanishes. In The Glass Menagerie Williams
used this in his stage directions with the intent that scenes could appear or dissolve magically using the
gauze.
These techniques include;
SLIDES
In Williams' version there was a screen onto which images or titles were projected. The purpose of
this was to give certain values or a particular point to a scene. He thought that meaning was to be
found in other areas, not just the spoken word.
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The idea of projected images was before his time – perhaps one of the first ways of introducing
technology into the theatre. Williams later decided that theatre goers didn't need these types of
references to know the sub-text of his plays, so most Directors do not use this device.
Below is a list of some of the images Williams wanted portrayed on screen.
Legend on screen: 'Ou sont les neiges'
Amanda as a girl on a porch, greeting callers
Legend on screen: 'Ou sont les neiges d'antan?'
Blue roses
Legend on screen: 'The Crust of Humility'
Jim as the high school hero bearing a silver cup
Blue roses
Legend on screen: 'After the fiasco'
A young man at the door of a house with flowers
The cover of a glamor magazine
Legend on screen: 'You think I'm in love with Continental Shoe-makers?'
Legend on screen: 'The Glass Menagerie'
MUSIC
Mentioning different music is another way of helping to portray the right atmosphere. Williams has
included many musical references, as a single tune can underline and create certain emotions.
Music can show the vitality of life and the sorrow, and is the link between the narrator and the
subject of the story. The music is a reference to the nostalgia of the play. It belongs mainly to
Laura and is heard mostly when the play focuses on her and the fragility of glass.
1930s Depression
The Great Depression (1929 - Late 1930’s) began on "Black Tuesday" with the Wall Street Crash of
October, 1929 and rapidly spread worldwide. The market crash marked the beginning of a decade of high
unemployment, poverty, low profits, deflation, plunging farm incomes, and lost opportunities for economic
growth and personal advancement.
Recovery started to happen by the mid-1930s, but in many countries the negative effects of the Great
Depression lasted until the start of World War II.
Australia
Australia's dependence on agricultural and industrial exports meant it was one of the hardest-hit countries
in the Western world. Unemployment reached a record high of 29% in 1932, and civil
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unrest become common. After 1932, an increase in wool and meat prices led to a gradual recovery.
United States
The initial government response to the crisis exacerbated the situation; policies like the 1930 SmootHawley Tariff Act in the U.S. strangled global trade as other nations retaliated. The industries that suffered
the most included agriculture, mining, and logging as well as durable goods like construction and
automobiles that people postponed buying.
Effects of depression in the United States;
 13 million people became unemployed.
 Industrial production fell by nearly 45%.
 Homebuilding dropped by 80%.
 From the years 1929 to 1932, about 5,000 banks went out of business.
 Over one million families lost their farms.
 There were two million homeless people migrating around the country.
 In the early 1930s, more people emigrated from the United States than immigrated to it.
 New York social workers reported that 25% of all schoolchildren were malnourished.
 Many people became ill with diseases such as tuberculosis.
1930s St Louis
Life in Missouri during the 1930s and 1940s was much like life all over the Midwest during the Great
Depression. Most of the state was rural and farmers suffered greatly. Families had little money to spare and
had to live off of what they could grow on their land.
Unemployment in St. Louis was over thirty percent in 1933. Once people lost their jobs, they soon lost
their homes. Americans were angry that the president’s attempts to fight the depression were failing.
FILM & TV VERSIONS
The Glass Menagerie (1950 film)
Directed by Irving Rapper
Cast
Jane Wyman
Kirk Douglas
Gertrude Lawrence
Arthur Kennedy
Laura Wingfield
Jim O'Connor
Amanda Wingfield
Tom Wingfield
TV Guide rated the film three out of four stars and commented, "This bittersweet, delicate story is handled
with care by director Rapper, but the accent is placed more on laughs than on pensive study, which
somewhat weakens the play's original intent."
Cast
Shirley Booth
Amanda Wingfield
Pat Hingle
Jim O'Connor
Hal Holbrook
Tom Wingfield
Barbara Loden
Laura Wingfield
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Directed by Anthony Harvey
Cast
Katharine Hepburn
Sam Waterston
Joanna Miles
Michael Moriarty
Amanda Wingfield
Tom Wingfield
Laura Wingfield
Jim O'Connor
Wins and nominations
Win for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama - Michael Moriarty
Win for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama - Joanna Miles
Win for Supporting Actor of the Year - Michael Moriarty
Win for Supporting Actress of the Year - Joanna Miles
Nomination for Best Actress in a Drama - Katharine Hepburn
Nomination for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama - Sam Waterston
Nomination for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Movies for
Television - Anthony Harvey
Directed by Paul Newman
Joanne Woodward
John Malkovich
Karen Allen
James Naughton
Amanda Wingfield
Tom Wingfield
Laura Wingfield
Jim O'Connor
Variety called it "a reverent record" of the Williams play "one watches
with a kind of distant dreaminess rather than an intense emotional
involvement" and cited the "brilliant performances . . . well defined by
Newman's direction."
Guernica – Spanish Civil War
The bombing of Guernica (1937) was an aerial attack on the town of Guernica, Spain causing widespread
destruction and civilian deaths, during the Spanish Civil War. The raid by planes of the German Luftwaffe
and the Italian Fascist Aviazione Legionaria was called Operation Rügen.
The Spanish government reported 1,654 people killed. The bombing has often been considered one of the
first raids in the history of modern military aviation on a defenseless civilian population, and denounced as
a terrorist act. The bombing was the subject of a famous anti-war painting by Pablo Picasso.
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Mythology of Unicorns
The unicorn is a legendary animal from European folklore that resembles a white horse with a large,
pointed, spiralling horn projecting from its forehead. First mentioned by the ancient Greeks, it became the
most important imaginary animal of the Middle Ages and Renaissance when it was commonly described as
an extremely wild woodland creature, a symbol of purity and grace, which could only be captured by a
virgin. The unicorn symbolises: Spring, Purity, Honesty, Religion, The Virgin Mary, Christ, Healing,
Medication, King of Animals, The Moon.
In popular mythology, unicorns were hunted for their horns, which were said to protect one against
diseases, or would protect one from any poison that might have been added to one's drink. The horn is
supposed to be able to cure any illness if taken into the body, but once the horn is taken, the beast will die.
However, if a Unicorn judges a person in need to be worthy of its remarkable healing power, it will offer
the tip of its horn to the sufferer. To have this happen is indeed a great honour. In this case, the beast will
not die. Unicorn tears have also been said to heal physical wounds and sorrows of the heart.
In the recent Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling, powerful wands are made with unicorn hair.
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Merchant Marine
The United States Merchant Marine is a fleet of ships which transports imports and exports during
peacetime and becomes a naval auxiliary during wartime, delivering troops and war materials.
Merchant mariners move cargo and passengers between nations and within the United States, they operate
and maintain deep-sea merchant ships, tugboats, towboats, ferries, dredges, excursion vessels, and other
waterborne craft on the oceans, the Great Lakes, rivers, canals, harbors, and other waterways.
As of 2006, the United States merchant fleet numbered 465 ships and approximately 100,000 members.
The merchant marine is a civilian auxiliary of the U.S. Navy, but not a uniformed service, except in times
of war when they are considered military personnel. During World War II the fleet was in effect
natinoalised so that the Government controlled its cargo and destinations and put guns and Navy personnell
on board.
The US Maritime Service was the training organisation for the Merchant Marine. It trained men for the
Marine and the Army Transport service.
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GLOSSARY
Berchtesgaden – is a municipality in the German Bavarian Alps that was used by the Nazis for their
officers' pleasure.
Blancmange - is a sweet dessert commonly made with milk or cream and sugar
Cake-walk – a light-hearted dance competition at get-togethers on plantations in the Southern United
Sates. Small cakes were offered as prizes to the winners.
Cat-House a house of ill-repute
Century of Progress – was the name of a World's Fair held in Chicago from 1933 to 1934 to celebrate the
city's centennial. The theme of the fair was technological innovation.
Chamberlain - Neville Chamberlain was British Primer Minister from 1937-1940. He is remembered for
signing the Munich Agreement in 1938 giving part of Czechoslovakia to the Nazis.
Cotillion - is a formal ball where young women are presented to society.
Cretonne – a colourfully printed cotton, linen or rayon fabric used for draperies and slipcovers.
Dance Program – or dance 'card'. Gentlemen would ask to be included on a young ladies program so that
they could dance with her during the night. A young lady wanted as many names as possible on her
program so they would appear popular and meet eligible young men.
Dandelion Wine - wine made from the common dandelion flower.
Darky - used as a term for a black person. When the play was first written, this would have been standard
vocabulary. Today this word is inflammatory and controversial and would be considered racist.
D.A.R. – Daughters of the American Revolution, founded in 1890. It is a non-profit, non-political
volunteer women's service organization dedicated to promoting patriotism, preserving American history,
and securing America's future through better education for children.
Dizzy Dean – Jay Hanna 'Dizzy' Dean (1910-1974) was a popular American professional baseball player of
the 1930s.He played in Major League Baseball as a pitcher for the St Louis Cardinals, Chicago Cubs and
the St Louis Browns. Dean had a brash and colourful personality, and was the last National League pitcher
to win 30 games in one season.
Domestic – having cooking, cleaning, sewing skills that make a good homemaker.
Etruscan art - was the form of figurative art produced by the Etruscan civilization in central Italy between
the 9th and 2nd centuries BC.
Garbo picture - a film starring, Greta Garbo, a famous actress whose movies were adored by the public.
Gay – cheerful or happy.
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Gentleman Caller - an expression for when a young man would call (visit) on a young woman for the
purpose to court her.
Guernica by Pablo Picasso
Guernica - a painting by Pablo Picasso created in response to the bombing of Guernica in 1937 during the
Spanish Civil War.
Hogan Gang – An infamous Irish crime gang in St Louis, led by 'Jelly Roll' Hogan. They were known for
multiple shootouts with rival gangs. Hogan was a state representative and later became a state senator.
Jalopy - Car
Malaria – a mosquito borne disease that causes a fever, weakness and sometimes death.
Mazda Lamp - a trademarked name registered by General Electric in 1909 for incandescent light bulbs.
Menagerie - a collection of wild or unusual animals, especially for exhibition or a place where they are
kept or exhibited.
Merchant Marine - the fleet of U.S. civilian-owned merchant vessels, operated by either the government
or the private sector, that engage in commerce or transportation of goods and services in and out of the
navigable waters of the United States. The Merchant Marine is responsible for transporting cargo and
passengers during peace time. In time of war, the Merchant Marine is an auxiliary to the Navy, and can be
called upon to deliver troops and supplies for the military.
Mr Lawrence "That hideous book"
D.H. Lawrence was a famous writer whose books were known for their overt
depictions of sexuality. One of his most famous books was Lady Chatterley's
Lover, published in 1928.
Newsreels - films that updated current events, human interest stories, new
inventions etc. (In the days before television)
Organ Solos - in the era of silent movies theatres had an organist who provided
the soundtrack for the films. Sometimes the organs played before and/or after
the film. Eg. The Capri, Goodwood Rd, Adelaide.
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Phonograph or Victrola - first introduced in 1877 is also called a
record player, or gramophone. It is an early type of record player that
was wound up to operate the turntable.
Pleurosis (Pleurisy) - is an inflammation of the membrane that
surrounds and protects the lungs (the pleura) usually caused by an
infection or damaging agent.
Shank of the evening - the main part of the evening
Sons of planters – a planter owned a significant amount of property and
wealth. Sons of planters inherited that wealth.
Stumblejohn – a clumsy or foolish person
Travelogues - short documentaries of fascinating places around the world
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ESSAY QUESTIONS
English Questions
1. Why is The Glass Menagerie called a 'memory' play? Why do you think Williams would choose to
make the play a memory rather than setting it in the 'present time'?
2. What do we learn about Tom and Laura from the first scene?
3. Whom do you regard as the central character in the play, and why?
4. Why does Amanda get so upset by Laura's failure at school?
5. What is so significant about the fire escape?
6. Why might Tennessee Williams have chosen glass animals as the object of Laura's interest? Why
are they made of glass and how does this symbolise Laura?
7. What is the symbolism behind the breaking of the unicorn's horn? Why is this important in the
play?
8. Describe how you think the Wingfield family deal with their problems. What are the strengths and
weaknesses of each character?
9. What do you think The Glass Menagerie is really about?
10. Read another play by Tennessee Williams and compare the two plays, including characters, plot
and themes.
11. Why is Laura worried about the 'gentleman caller'?
12. What are the similarities between Tom and his father?
13. How do you feel about Tom's rebellion at the end of the play? Is he justified in what he does?
Explain.
14. Amanda believes that the only options for Laura are secretarial work or a husband. How have
things changed for women in the time since this play was set? If it were set today, what do you
think Laura's options would be?
15. Williams set this play's action in 1938, during the Spanish Civil War and on the verge of World
War II. How significant is this historical locations to an understanding of the play's action?
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Drama Questions
1. Williams includes several references to music throughout the play. Why do you think he does this?
How does music affect the audience's response to the story?
2. How does the lighting design affect the overall look and feel of the set? How does this change
throughout the various scenes of the play?
3. They say the clothing makes the person. Why does Amanda dress the way she does when the
gentleman caller comes for dinner?
4. What do you think about the ending of the play? Write a different ending.
5. The play is from Tom's memory. Write one or two scenes as if Amanda or Laura were telling it.
6. Tom mentions the fifth character in the play – the portrait of his father that hangs in the room. How
do you think this is true?
7. Imagine the characters ten years in the future. Write a letter describing your life now, how life has
changed and how you feel about the events from the past.
8. In his opening monologue to the audience, Tom says that the stage magician "gives you illusion
that has the appearance of truth, I give you truth in the pleasant disguise of illusion." What does he
mean?
9. Tom's role is that of narrator and a character in the play. Do you like this playwriting technique?
Why do you think Williams uses this technique in the play?
10. There are various symbols throughout the play eg. Glass unicorn, fire escape. How do these
symbols reveal aspects of the various characters' personality?
11. What does the playwright mean when Laura says, "Now the unicorn will be like the other
animals?"
12. At the end of the play, Tom asks Laura to blow out her candles. What do you think that action
symbolises?
Design
Research dress from the 1930s. Draw a day dress and the dress for the Gentleman caller for both Amanda
and Laura. Explain the reasons for your choices and how they reflect the characters.
OR
Analyse Williams' decision to set the whole play in a single, cramped apartment. What 'role' does this
setting play in the action of the play? What are the most important considerations for a set designer
working on the play?
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Performance
Choose one of the characters in the play and make up a story of your life before the play begins. Write a
monologue that you can present to the audience the way Tom talks to the audience.
OR
Work on a pantomime where you are 'trapped.' This could be either a physical entrapment (eg a cage) or
emotions that trap you. How did you feel being trapped, and what could you do about it?
Music
Select or compose music that gives an impression of one of the characters in the play. Title it for the
character you have chosen. Share your selection with the class, and explain why that particular music and
title were chosen.
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Immediate Reactions
After viewing the play set aside time for class discussion. Consider the following aspects of the play, and
record them into your journal.
Production Elements
Performance Elements
Strengths
Impact on Audience
Weaknesses
Impact on Audience
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Design Roles
For each of the following design roles, explain using three specific examples, how each role added meaning
to the action or your understanding of context, theme or other aesthetic understandings of the drama event.
Design Role
Technique
What did this contribute to the performance?
One
Two
Lighting
Three
One
Two
Music
Three
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FURTHER RESOURCES
References
www.gradesaver.com/the-glass-menagerie
wikipedia.org/wiki/Mise_en_scene
wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass_Menagerie
www.cliffnotes.com/study_guide/The -Glass-Menagerie
wikipedia.org/wiki/Tennessee_Williams
www.sjrep.com
latw.org - LA Theatre Works
INTERESTING READING
wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Merchant_Marine
wikipedia.org/wiki/Tennessee_Williams
wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Guernica
wikipedia.org/wiki/Unicorn
www.santharia.com/bestiary/unicorn.htm
MOVIES
wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Glass_Menagerie_(1950_film)
www.imdb.com/title/tt0059989/
GREAT DEPRESSION
www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Depression
www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Depression_in_the_United_States
www.cultureandrecreation.gov.au/articles/greatdepression
www.history1900s.about.com/od/1930s/p/greatdepression.htm
www.umsl.edu/mercantile/mexhibevents/Missouri%20Splendor/Missouri_Life.pdf
BOOKS
Bottoms, Stephen (Edited by) "The Glass Menagerie – student edition" (2009) Methuen Drama, London
Williams, Tennessee, "Portrait of a Girl in Glass" (1943)
Williams, Tennessee, "Memoirs" (1977) W.H Allen & Co Ltd, London
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the glass menagerie - State Theatre Company of South Australia

Transcription

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