Glass Menagerie, The

Amanda Wingfield, a faded Southern belle, holds on tight to her two children; Tom, an aspiring poet, and Laura, his painfully shy sister. She is desperate for her wayward son Tom to have a stable career and wants a suitor for her fragile disabled daughter Laura. Abandoned by her husband, Amanda clings to memories of her idyllic youth in the South, where she was wooed by scores of rich and handsome suitors. Read more …

Tom has the soul of a poet but a job in a warehouse leaves him longing for adventure and an escape from his mothers suffocating embrace, while Laura finds solace from the angry frustrations of her mother and brother in her collection of glass animals and romantic thoughts.

Tom finds himself under increasing pressure from his mother to find someone for Laura, and eventually arranges to bring home a man to meet his sister. When the gentleman caller finally arrives, Laura and Amanda become more hopeful than they have ever been - but will it end in Laura’s romantic illusions being shattered? What follows is one of the most compelling and heartbreaking stories ever told.

Widely regarded as one of Tennessee Williams most powerful and haunting memory plays, The Glass Menagerie is a deeply personal, touching and profound tale of love and loss, illusion and escape, fragility and innocent hope.

More information on this production is available at www.dundeerep.co.uk.

The critical consensus

At the heart of this production, though, there are three performances worth travelling miles to see.

(*) Joyce McMillan, The Scotsman, 08/09/2014

Director Jemima Levick has strived to put a fresh gloss on a decades-old drama, but there’s really no need. The addition of occasional dance-like movement might add to the suggestion that this is indeed a ‘memory play’ (and memories often come hazily and without words) but Williams’ text is rich in symbolism enough without added extras.

(*) Kelly Apter, The List, 09/09/2014

For all the self-consciousness of the staging, it remains a touching and tender tale.

(*) Mark Fisher, The Guardian, 09/09/2014

Levick's impressionistic and mould-breaking reimagining of Willliams' poetic intentions is an exquisitely poignant construction that breathes fresh heartbreak into one of the saddest plays ever written.

(*) Neil Cooper, Coffee-Table Notes, 12/09/2014