The Glass Menagerie
| File:GlassMenagerie.JPG 1st edition cover | |
| Author | Tennessee Williams |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Random House |
The Glass Menagerie is a play by Tennessee Williams that was originally written as a screenplay for MGM, to whom Williams was contracted. Initial ideas stemmed from one of his short stories, and the screenplay originally went under the name of 'The Gentleman Caller'. The play premiered in Chicago in 1944, and in 1945 won the prestigious New York Drama Critics Circle Award. The Glass Menagerie was Williams's first successful play; he went on to become one of America's most highly regarded playwrights.
The play was reworked from one of Williams's short stories "Portrait of a Girl in Glass" (written June 1943, published 1948)[1]. The story is also written from the point of view of narrator Tom Wingfield, and many of his monologues from Glass Menagerie seem lifted straight from this original. Certain elements have clearly been omitted from the play, including the reasoning for Laura's fascination with Jim's freckles (linked to a book she owned about a one-armed orphan) and an area by the house known as "Death Valley" that Laura's room looks out on. Generally the story contains the same plot as the play, with certain sections given more emphasis, and character details edited (Jim originally calls Tom "Slim", not "Shakespeare"[2]).
The Glass Menagerie is accounted by many to be an autobiographical play about Williams's life, the characters and story mimicking his own more closely than any of his other works. Williams (whose real name is Thomas) would be Tom, his Mother, Amanda, and his sickly and (supposedly) mentally ill sister Rose would be Laura (whose nickname in the play is "Blue Roses", a result of an unfortunate bout of Pleurosis as a high school student). It has been suggested as well that the character of Laura is based upon Williams himself, referencing his introvert nature and obsessive focus on one part of life (writing for Williams and glass animals in Laura's case.[3]).
Characters
Persons Represented:
- Amanda Wingfield, the old overbearing single mother who tries to live vicariously through her children. Her devotion to her children has made her ignorant of their wants and needs.
- Laura Wingfield, Amanda's daughter. She is slightly crippled and has an extra-sensitive mental condition.
- Tom Wingfield, Amanda's son. He works in a warehouse but aspires to be a writer. He feels both obligated toward and burdened by his family.
- Jim O'Connor, a workmate of Tom's and acquaintance of Laura in high school, he is also the physical representation of all Laura's desires. He is invited over to the Wingfield's house for dinner with the intent of being Laura's first gentleman caller. He seems like a dream come true for the Wingfields.
Persons Not Represented:
- Mr. Wingfield, Amanda's absentee husband, he is represented by a large portrait on the set and is referred to frequently by Amanda.
Plot summary
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. Amanda's husband left the family long ago, and she remains stuck in the past. Tom works in a warehouse, doing his best to support them. He chafes under the banality and boredom of everyday life and spends much of his spare time watching movies in cheap cinemas. Amanda is obsessed with finding a suitor for Laura, who spends most of her time with her glass collection. Tom eventually brings Jim home for dinner at the insistence of his mother, who hopes Jim will be the long-awaited suitor for Laura. Laura realizes that Jim is the man she loved in high school and has thought of ever since. He dashes her hopes, telling her that he is already engaged, and then leaves. Tom leaves too, and never returns to see his family again. However, Tom still remembers his sister, Laura.
Film and television adaptations
At least two movie versions of The Glass Menagerie have been produced, the first directed by Irving Rapper in 1950, starring Gertrude Lawrence, Jane Wyman, Kirk Douglas, Ann Tyrrell and Arthur Kennedy, and the second by Paul Newman in 1987, starring Joanne Woodward, John Malkovich, Karen Allen, and James Naughton. Williams characterized the former, which had an implied happy ending grafted onto it, as the worst adaptation of his work. [citation needed] It is not currently available on VHS or DVD. There is also a TV adaptation by Anthony Harvey, broadcast on ABC on December 16, 1973, starring Katharine Hepburn, Sam Waterston, Michael Moriarty, and Joanna Miles. All four actors were nominated for Emmys, with Moriarty and Miles winning. An earlier television version, recorded on videotape, and starring Shirley Booth, was broadcast on December 8, 1966 as part of CBS Playhouse. Hal Holbrook played Tom and Pat Hingle played the Gentleman Caller. Booth was nominated for an Emmy for her performance as Amanda.
There is a critically acclaimed Indian adaptation of the play, filmed in the Malayalam language. The movie titled Akale (meaning At a Distance), released in 2004, is directed by Shyamaprasad. The story is set in the southern Indian state of Kerala in the 1970s, in an Anglo-Indian/Latin Catholic household. The characters were renamed to fit the context better (the surname Wingfield was changed to D'Costa, reflecting the part-Portuguese heritage of the family - probably on the absent father's side, since the mother is Anglo-Indian), but the story remains essentially the same. Prithviraj Sukumaran plays Neil D'Costa (Tom Wingfield in the play), Geethu Mohandas plays Rosemary D'Costa (Laura Wingfield), Sheela plays Margaret D'Costa (Amanda Wingfield), and Tom George plays Freddy Evans (Jim O'Connor). Sheela won the National Film Award for Best Supporting Actress, and Geethu Mohandas won the Kerala State Film Award for the best actress. Music was scored by M Jayachandran.
In 1997, Kiefer Sutherland returned to his theatrical roots, starring with his mother (Canadian actress Shirley Douglas) in a Canadian production of The Glass Menagerie at the Royal Alexandra Theatre in Toronto.
Parodies
The Glass Menagerie was parodied by Christopher Durang in a short one-act entitled For Whom the Southern Belle Tolls, in which Laura is replaced by a wimpy hypochondriac son named Lawrence, and the "gentleman caller" becomes Ginny, a butch female factory worker with a hearing problem.
Ryan Landry and The Gold Dust Orphans did a parody called The Pickaw Menagerie, set in a FEMA trailer in post-Katrina New Orleans, with Landry playing Amanda in an all-male cast.
References
- ^ "The Collected Stories of Tennessee Williams", Picador Classics, 1988, page 119, ISBN 0 330 30141 1
- ^ "The Collected Stories of Tennessee Williams", Picador Classics, 1988, page 116, ISBN 0 330 30141 1
- ^ "Tom: The Unknown Tennesse Williams", W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. (April 1, 1997) ISBN 0393316637
External links
- Internet Broadway Database listing for all stage productions
- The Glass Menagerie at IMDb (1950 film)
- The Glass Menagerie at IMDb (1966 TV production)
- The Glass Menagerie at IMDb (1973 TV film)
- The Glass Menagerie at IMDb (1987 film)
- Study resource for writing about The Glass Menagerie
- Akale at IMDb