The Glass Menagerie was Tennessee Williams’ first success (1944). It is an investigation into a family’s denial of reality, which relinquishes into the subterfuge of private illusion. Dealing with the sense of abandonment and its affect on the what is ‘broken’ in life, Menagerie plots memory as escape against what is true in experience. A deeply moving inquiry into the inflexible grip of loss, Williams’ play charges audiences to face their own reality through powerful imagery and metaphor. Happiness is not created out of imaginative construction, rather an entrance into the human condition.
Theatre Encounter’s production will use Expressionism to discover the extreme dichotomy between reality and illusion. Character movement and vocal play is based on the personal backgrounds and works of art created by Expressionist Austrian artists Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele, Koloman Moser and Oscar Kokoschka.
Presented March 10th – 14th, 2009, at Dancers’ Studio West (Calgary AB)
Based on the play by Tennessee Williams
Directed by Michael Fenton
Starring Val Duncan, Pat Quinn, Elan Pratt and Elaine Weryshko.
Designed by John Hale (Set & Costume); Brian MacNeil (Lights); Dan Guiry (Sound); Ana Lopez (Make-Up and Hair); Vince Brophy (Videography); and Poster & Illustration (Aimee Qiu).
Stage Management by Gregg Kocourek; Script Rendering by Michael Fenton and Mike Unrau.