Glass Menagerie - Tennessee Williams

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Glass Menagerie - Tennessee Williams

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This famous Williams play provokes insight and sympathy while revealing a genteel southern lady's remembered world.

From AudioFile
In this semi-autobiographical play the domineering matriarch of the Wingfield family tries to find a "gentleman caller" for her fragile daughter. This is a "memory play"; the narrator/character, Tom, continually shifts from narration to his "in scene" character. This technique makes the drama a most effective selection for audio. The cast is extraordinary throughout, with each performer deftly handling the most subtle nuances of Williams's poetic realism. Jessica Tandy's portrayal of Amanda deserves special kudos. The production and direction of the performance are equally engaging. Through the use of sound effects and evocative music, the listener is swept into the troubled, poignant world of these haunting characters.

About the Author
Tennessee Williams was born in 1911 in Columbus, Mississippi, where his grandfather was the episcopal clergyman. When his father, a travelling salesman, moved with his family to St Louis some years later, both he and his sister found it impossible to settle down to city life. He entered college during the Depression and left after a couple of years to take a clerical job in a shoe company. He stayed there for two years, spending the evenings writing. He entered the University of Iowa in 1938 and completed his course, at the same time holding a large number of part-time jobs of great diversity. He received a Rockefeller Fellowship in 1940 for his play Battle of Angels, and he won the Pulitzer Prize in 1948 and 1955. Among his many other plays Penguin have published The Glass Menagerie (1944), A Streetcar Named Desire (1947), Summer and Smoke (1948), The Rose Tattoo (1951), Camino Real(1953), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955), Orpheus Descending (1957), Sweet Bird of Youth (1959), Period of Adjustment (1960), The Night of the Iguana (1961), The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore (1963; revised 1964) and Small Craft Warnings (1972). He died in 1983.