The Glass Menagerie
Ballet by John Neumeier based on Tennessee Williams
"The Glass Menagerie" was the foundation of Tennessee Williams's fame as one of the most important writers in the US of the 20th century. Although the success of this production on Broadway was entirely unexpected for the 33-year-old author, he had been working towards the premiere with great determination. With his drama, Williams aspired to show a new form of theater. He intended to project the essence of human nature by telling the story from the perspective of individual memories – as a "memory play".
Music: Charles Ives, Philip Glass, Ned Rorem and fragments of the music mentioned in Tennessee Williams's plays
Choreography, Set, Lighting Concept and Costumes: John Neumeier
Films: Kiran West
2 hours 30 minutes | 1 intermission
Part 1: 80 minutes, Part 2: 45 minutes
PREMIERE:
Hamburg Ballet, Hamburg, December 1, 2019
ORIGINAL CAST:
Laura Rose Wingfield: Alina Cojocaru
Amanda Wingfield: Patricia Friza
Tom Wingfield: Félix Paquet
Jim O'Connor: Christopher Evans
Tennessee: Edvin Revazov
The Unicorn: David Rodriguez
Malvolio: Marc Jubete
A MEMORY PLAY
by John Neumeier
Tennessee Williams calls his autobiographical drama a "memory play": All action and emotion are remembered from Tom/Tennessee's past. In my "memory ballet", drama and biography, past and present exist simultaneously and interact.
On a ship, the successful painter known as Tennessee, is haunted by memories of the family that he, like his father before him, abandoned.
In memory, he reconstructs the St. Louis apartment and feels the presence of his dominating mother Amanda, his fragile, physically impaired sister Laura Rose and remembers himself as "Tom", a dreaming child and insecure young man.
He thinks of Ozzie, their adored nurse who thrilled and enchanted the children with ghost stories and also inspired his sister's "glass menagerie" with the gift of a chrystal star. Tennessee recalls the family table – centre for affection and contact but also for conflicts, desires and dreams.
Amanda who sells women's magazines to support her family, lives in illusionary memories of the past, of lawns covered over with her favourite jonquils and her many "Gentleman Callers".
Tom hates his job at the Continental Shoe Factory, loves to draw and is desperate for escape and the freedom of an artist's life.
Laura Rose is forced to attend Rubican's Business College, but often takes refuge at a movie and finds comfort in her collection of tiny glass animals – especially with her favourite – the unicorn.
Amanda is determined that Laura Rose must marry. Finding Tom's sketch of his colleague, Jim O'Connor, she visualizes him as the ideal "Gentleman Caller" for Laura Rose.
Laura Rose remembers Jim as the basketball hero she secretly loved in high school.
The Gentleman Caller arrives. But, the evening ends badly, sadly. Jim has a fiancée, Betty. Witnessing his past again does not exorcise Tennessee's guilt connected to the sister he abandoned. In a world blinded by the flaming chaos of World War II, he wishes Laura Rose might blow out her candles – the candles of her memory ...
Photo © Kiran West