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Glass Menagerie, The

Amanda Wingfield is a faded, tragic remnant of Southern gentility who lives in poverty in a dingy St. Louis apartment with her son, Tom, and her daughter, Laura.

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Description

  • Full Length Play
  • Drama

  • Target Audience: Adult
  • Set Requirements: Interior Set

  • Performance Group:
  • Blackbox / Second Stage /Fringe Groups, Professional Theatre, Elementary School / Primary

  • Accolades:
  • Winner! 2014 Drama League Award - Outstanding Revival of a Play
    Winner! 2014 Drama Desk Award - Outstanding Supporting Actress (Celia Keenan-Bolger)
    Winner! 2014 Outer Critics Circle Award - Outstanding Leading Actress in a Play (Cherry Jones)
    Winner! 2014 Outer Critics Circle Award - Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play (Brian J. Smith)
    Nominee! 5 2014 Tony Awards including Best revival of a Play
Amanda Wingfield is a faded, tragic remnant of Southern gentility who lives in poverty in a dingy St. Louis apartment with her son, Tom, and her daughter, Laura. Amanda strives to give meaning and direction to her life and the lives of her children, though her methods are ineffective and irritating. Tom is driven nearly to distraction by his mother's nagging and seeks escape in alcohol and the world of the movies. Laura also lives in her illusions. She is crippled, and this defect, intensified by her mother's anxiety to see her married, has driven her more and more into herself. 

The crux of the action comes when Tom invites a young man of his acquaintance to take dinner with the family. Jim, the caller, is a nice ordinary fellow who is at once pounced upon by Amanda as a possible husband for Laura. In spite of her crude and obvious efforts to entrap the young man, he and Laura manage to get along very nicely, and momentarily Laura is lifted out of herself into a new world. But this crashes when, toward the end, Jim explains that he is already engaged. 

The world of illusion that Amanda and Laura have striven to create in order to make life bearable collapses about them. Tom, too, at the end of his tether, at last leaves home.

Premiere Production: The Glass Menagerie premiered on Broadway at the Playhouse Theatre in March 1945 under the direction of Eddie Dowling.

Characters

  • Casting: 2M, 2F
  • Casting Attributes: Strong Role for Leading Woman (Star Vehicle)

  • AMANDA WINGFIELD
    LAURA WINGFIELD
    TOM WINGFIELD
    JIM O'CONNOR

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    Amanda Wingfield is a faded, tragic remnant of Southern gentility who lives in poverty in a dingy St. Louis apartment with her son, Tom, and her daughter, Laura. Amanda strives to give meaning and direction to her life and the lives of her children, though her methods are ineffective and irritating. Tom is driven nearly to distraction by his mother's nagging and seeks escape in alcohol and the world of the movies. Laura also lives in her illusions. She is crippled, and this defect, intensified by her mother's anxiety to see her married, has driven her more and more into herself. The crux of the action comes when Tom invites a young man of his acquaintance to take dinner with the family. Jim, the caller, is a nice ordinary fellow who is at once pounced upon by Amanda as a possible husband for Laura. In spite of her crude and obvious efforts to entrap the young man, he and Laura manage to get along very nicely, and momentarily Laura is lifted out of herself into a new world. But this crashes when, toward the end, Jim explains that he is already engaged. The world of illusion that Amanda and Laura have striven to create in order to make life bearable collapses about them. Tom, too, at the end of his tether, at last leaves home.

    		$29.95

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