Considered one of Tennessee Williams’ finest plays, The Glass Menagerie will be presented at Belvoir Street Theatre until 2 November.
Amanda Wingfield is a single mother. Her husband abandoned the family years before. She is no longer living the life she dreamed of as a young Southern belle. Her son Tom works in a warehouse, setting aside his own ambitions to support his family. Her daughter Laura is achingly shy. Her health is not good and she has secretly withdrawn from secretarial college.
The three of them live in a small apartment that is hunted by the absence of Amanda’s husband and pent up with fantasies and rage. Amanda’s only hope is for a suitor for Laura to bring some romance to their lives.
Pamela Rabe makes her long anticipated return to the Belvoir stage as Amanda, a woman of deep sadness and startling ferocity. Rabe’s last performance on the Belvoir stage was in Little Cherry Orchard fifteen years ago.
This production reunites Luke Mullins with his Angels in America director Eamon Flack in the role Williams based on himself. Tom is a scathing self-portrait of a closeted poet working as a labourer who will be brought to life with Mullins’ gentle and searing performance.
Rose Reilly will make her Belvoir debut as Laura. A 2013 WAAPA graduate, she made her professional debut in Black Swan Theatre Company’s Flood earlier this year. Harry Greenwood (Once in Royal David’s City) returns to Belvoir as the Gentleman Caller.
Director Eamon Flack will bring his customary light touch and huge breadth of vision to this expansive and intimate play about loss and regret and the possibility of hope.
Tennessee Williams is considered to be the leading playwright of his age, post-World War II America. Writing plays in the 1930s, his first play to receive a major production was Battle of Angels (1940). The Glass Menagerie (1944), his next play was a major success, winning The New York Drama Critics Circle Award, and catapulting him from obscurity to fame, signaling his great future as a significant playwright.
Later plays include: A Streetcar Named Desire (1947), Summer and Smoke (1948), and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955). Both A Streetcar Named Desire and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof won the Pulitzer Prize and the New York Drama Critics’ Award, the two most prestigious awards given to any American play.
Director: Eamon Flack Featuring: Harry Greenwood, Luke Mullins, Pamela Rabe, Rose Riley Set Designer: Michael Hankin Costume Designer: Mel Page Lighting Designer: Damien Cooper Composer & Sound Designer: Stefan Gregory Video Design Consultant: Sean Bacon Assistant Director: Jada Alberts Dialect Coach: Paige Walker-Carlton
The Glass Menagerie
Upstairs Theatre – Belvoir St Theatre, 25 Belvoir Street, Surry Hills
Season continues to 2 November 2014
Bookings: (02) 9699 3444 or online at: www.belvoir.com.au
For more information, visit: www.belvoir.com.au for details.
Image: Rose Riley and Harry Greenwood in The Glass Menagerie – photo by Brett Boardman