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Overview
Synopsis
A theatrical piece of distinct power, with some of Tennessee Williams’ most potent lyricism, The Glass Menagerie is a memory play as told to us by Tom Wingfield, a merchant marine looking back on the Depression years he spent with his overbearing Southern genteel mother, Amanda, and his physically disabled, cripplingly shy sister, Laura. While Amanda strives to give her children a life beyond the decrepit St. Louis tenement they inhabit, she is herself trapped by the memory of her life past-- a life of cotillions and suitors and wealth, now long gone. Tom, working at a shoe factory and paying the family’s rent, finds his own escape in drinking and going to the movies, while Laura pours her energy into caring for her delicate glass figurines. Tom, pressured by his mother to help find Laura a suitable husband, invites an acquaintance from the factory to the apartment, a powerful possibility that pushes Amanda deeper into her obsessions and makes Laura even more vulnerable to shattering, exposed like the glass menagerie she treasures. Williams’ intensely personal and brilliantly tender masterpiece exposes the complexity of our memories, and the ways in which we can never truly escape them.
Show Information
- Book
- Tennessee Williams
- Category
- Play
- Age Guidance
- Youth (Y)/General Audiences (G)
- Number of Acts
- 1
- First Produced
- 1944
- Genres
- Drama
- Settings
- Unit/Single Set
- Time & Place
- st. louis, missouri, 1930s
- Cast Size
- small
- Licensor
- Concord Theatricals
- Ideal For
- Community Theatre, College/University, Regional Theatre, Includes Young Adult, Adult, Mature Adult Characters, Small Cast
Context
Tennessee Williams, born Thomas Lanier Williams III, was born in Mississippi in 1911. Like Tom Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie, Williams moved with his family to St. Louis, where their family became bankrupt due to his father’s drinking and the Great Depression. Bullied in school, Williams became very close with his sister, Rose, who (arguably like the character Laura) struggled with mental illness. As a young adult, Williams, like Tom, began working at a shoe factory. Eventually, he was
to read the context for The Glass Menagerie and to unlock other amazing theatre resources!Plot
SCENE 1 The play opens on the fire escape of the Wingfield’s modest apartment in St. Louis, which faces an alley. Tom Wingfield, dressed as merchant sailor, step onto the fire escape and speaks directly to the audience, laying out both the historical and social context of his world, as well as the family unit itself. This is Tom in the future, introducing the audience to his memory play. Tom, entering the memory, steps into the Wingfield apartment, where he joins his mother, Amanda, and his
to read the plot for The Glass Menagerie and to unlock other amazing theatre resources!Characters
| Name | Part Size | Gender | Vocal Part |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Lead |
Male |
Spoken |
|
|
Lead |
Female |
Spoken |
|
|
Supporting |
Female |
Spoken |
|
|
Featured |
Male |
Spoken |
Songs
A song with an asterisk (*) before the title indicates a dance number; a character listed in a song with an asterisk (*) by the character's name indicates that the character exclusively serves as a dancer in this song, which is sung by other characters.
Monologues
Scenes
Key Terms
A piece of writing based on the writer’s own life.
A play in which a lead character narrates the events of the play, which are drawn from the character's memory.
Videos
Quizzes
Themes, Symbols & Motifs
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Quote Analysis
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