4/19/2023 0 Comments Glass menagerie monologue![]() The way that Doll's House saw Gold give himself permission to ignore the often striking inconsistency between words on the page and what's seen on stage, is also the case for this The Glass Menagerie. Worse yet, he allowed the upstaged a golf club (yes, a golf club!). He turned Nora into a born-to-shop, glamorous Norwegian housefrau even as husband Torvald still referred to her in decidedly old-fashioned bird-related endearments. But unlike that re-thought Shakespeare play, his The Glass Menagerie brought back my less happy memories of Gold's directorial vision of Ibsen's Doll's House during the Williamstown Theatre Festival's 2011 season in which he tried make a case for bringing the Helmers' story into a more contemporary era. Last year he successfully ventured into a new look at Shakespeare with his production of Othello. Gold has built his reputation as one of our best young directors, especially of new works (notably, Annie Baker's plays and the musical Fun Home ). That said, however, Sam Gold's The Glass Menagerie may be more than they bargained for. Most theater goers have by now probably seen at least some version of all these productions, they'll be open to a fresh, as yet untried interpretation. Naturally, as the play has been a magnet for actors, it has also inspired directors to look for new approaches to staging it - a fine idea given that Tom's introductory monologue ( "I give you truth in the pleasant disguise of illusion") is like an invitation to do so. The authentic characters and the lyricism of their dialogue have made some of the gold dust invariably rub off on even second- rate productions like a 60s community theater production that I went to see because one of my neighbors who had been bitten by the acting bug. It adds up enough productions to rival some Shakespeare plays. ![]() That includes frequent Broadway revivals (The seventh now playing at the Belasco comes just three years after its last one). Since The Glass Menagerie established Tennessee Williams as our great poet of the contemporary American theater it has brought stellar Amandas, Lauras, Toms and Gentleman Callers to many stages. Joe Mantello, Sally Field, and Finn Wittrock (photo:Julieta Cervantes)
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