The glass menagerie play script7/2/2023 ![]() By imposing a dark, highly expressionist vision through the design elements, staging, and characterization of Tom, he smothered the play’s humor and humanity to create a nightmare rather than a memory. Tom, the central character/narrator, says as much at the outset when he describes the play as “sentimental.” Unfortunately, John Tiffany, best known for the superb Black Watch and the Tony Award–winning musical Once, seemed to have embraced Williams’s stage directions at the expense of the script in his bold, if misguided production at the American Repertory Theater. The plot, characters, and dialogue of The Glass Menagerie are firmly rooted in realism, and its tone is highly romantic. ![]() In the published production notes for The Glass Menagerie, Tennessee Williams asserted that his play could be staged with unusual freedom because it is a “memory play,” and he reiterates this point in the opening stage directions where he declares it to be “nonrealistic.” As noted by numerous scholars (and directors), Williams’s expressed desire is at odds with the play he wrote. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |