The Glass Menagerie

"The Glass Menagerie" by Tennessee Williams

In his breakthrough debut play, which premiered on 26 December 1944 at the Civic Theater in Chicago, the then 34-year-old Williams portrays the Wingfield family during the Great Depression in St. Louis. Mother Amanda and her children Laura and Tom lead a bleak, joyless existence - and each of them escapes reality in their own way.

Amanda longs for her youth as a sought-after Southern belle who followed the wrong suitor and fell into poverty as a result. Tom, the play's narrator, dreams of an adventurous life overseas and a career as a poet; he escapes his reality as a warehouse worker through trips to the cinema and alcohol. Laura, physically impaired by a childhood illness and emotionally fragile, finds comfort in her collection of small glass animals.

When Tom, at his mother's urging, invites his workmate Jim to dinner, the friendly young man initially manages to draw the family out of their dream worlds - until reality finally and irrevocably takes hold.