This is a play by Tennessee Williams that finally changed his life from a struggling writer to a world renowned success. It is such a classic, so Max and I were trying to remember the plot and if we saw a movie version of it played by Marlon Brando or Paul Newman years ago.
The play has four characters and a haunting fifth. Amanda is the mother who lives with her son Tom and her daughter Laura in a simple, dark apartment in New Jersey. Amanda is a fading beauty who constantly lives in her past glory as a southern belle who was so sought after, she had “…entertained 17 beaus at one time”. She loves her children dearly, but she is also very disappointed in them.
Tom, a warehouse worker also writes in the evening. Her disappointment in him is that he shows signs of taking after his father who had drank a lot and finally left them 15 years before. “He worked as a telephone man who fell in love with long distance”. The father’s picture hangs on the wall bringing them pain and arguments every time they refer to him.
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| Amanda, Tom, Laura |
Her disappointment in her daughter Laura is that she is painfully shy, the antithesis of Amanda when she was a young girl. Laura was enrolled in business school, but during a typing test she was so agitated, she threw up and would never go back again. She has a slight limp that contributed to her shyness and low self-esteem. Her only joy is her love for her brother and her collection of glass creatures that Amanda called the Glass Menagerie.
After Amanda’s constant harping, Tom invites a fellow warehouse worker Jim O’Connor, to dinner in the hopes that they would find a suitable husband for Laura. Jim turns out to be the boy that Laura had a crush on in high school. Laura was absent for a while from school and when Jim asked where she had been, Laura replied that she had pleurisies. He thought she said Blue Roses and gave her the nickname since then. Tom is a nice person who charms Amanda and encourages Laura to be more confident. We thought great…this guy is going to save them from a hopeless existence, but sadly he already had a girlfriend.
Tom, who was terribly unhappy with his life, flees to travel the world to seek the adventure he was craving. Unfortunately, he doesn’t find happiness as he is haunted by his mother and mostly his sister who have to fend for themselves.
The play is dreary, sad, haunting yet funny at times. Judith Ivey who played the role of Amanda was excellent, excellent, excellent. We understand why this is such a classic that has continued to entertain audiences many years later. It deserved our standing ovation and it passed the test of whether we would see it again. Yes, we would!
