II THE PLAY PRODUCED

THE GLASS MENAGERIE by Tennessee Williams

Darian Nelson, l<i7tie Fen to 11 and Paul Dyson discuss their production for Next Stage Theatre Company, Bath,

Next Stage was formed five years ago with the principal aim of performing works by twentieth century playwrights and bringing contemporary and chall enging theatre to new audiences.

Tht' Glass Menagerie was our twenty-third production 'lnd followed such shows as Our CO lllllry 's Good, EIJUIIS, Olcrlnl1 l1, The Crucible and RosClIcralll z I1 lld Gu ildell~terll are Dead. The last was Next Stage's most recent show, presented in November 1998. Since it primarily contained two strong male roles, we selected The Glass MCllngerit' as a balance, offering as it does two powerful femal e roles. Added to this, Tennessee VViliiams W,lS a plclywright whose work we had long planned to add to our repertoire. His thought-provoking, ciaustrophobic study of a

vs functional familv also contr<l5 ted well with ' " t Stage's forthcoming June production of

lichael Fravn's classic farce withill c farce, No' 'p< orr Finallv Director Da rian elson" wal> particularly keen to put back into the play the text s lides and photographic images which are projected onto i1

wall of the set, interspersing and underlining the action on stage. These were deviseci by Williams in his original script but werE' never includ ed in the first Broadwell' prod uction and he1"e rarely, if ever, 'een seen since.

PLOT AND CH'A".aCTERs The story takes place in a tenement apartment in St Louis and centres on the crippled da ughter, Laura Wingfield , played by Claire Rumbal!. Her mother Amanda, played by Marion Wood, is a faded Southern Belle who has been abandoned by her husband, "a telephone man who fell in love with long distances" and who worries that her daughter is going to be left on the shelf. Laura is shy and intrQverted and spends her time collecting small glass animals (the menagerie of the title) and playing old phonograph records. She rarely leaves the apartment and has never received a single "gentleman caller", Amanda persuades Laura's brother Tom, played by Ben Norman, to bring home a "nice young man" from the shoe warehouse to meet Laura. Unknown to either mother or son, however, Laura already knows the gentleman caller from high school and has secretly held a candle for

him many years,

It was obviollS when researching the play that Tom Wingfield shares more than just the same initials with TefU1essee Williams himself. There is a great deal of the playwright's own sense of creative frustration in this poetic dreamer who writes poems on the Lids of shoe boxes and fantasises about escaping to a life of adventure. Tom's role is both as narrator of the action and -a protagonist in it. Williams actually worked in a shoe company in St Louis and has included in the playa great many

incidents and character traits from his own life and family. His father did work for a telephone company while his real life sister, Rose, collected glass objects. Even the mention in the play of the incident when Tom's mother forces him to return a copy of "Lady Chatterley's Lover" to the library is founded on truth.

As Assistant Director Katie Fenton brought a wealth of knowledge and understanding about Williams and his work to Next Stage . Being American herself, she not only coached the actors on their

Southern accents, but was abl infuse the production " knowledge of the culture and goer behaviour of the period. Obsc . references in the script to thir . like the D.A.R. were ea.:i explained (Daughters of American Revolution) and added deeper level of understanding the play.

Williams describes the apartm building as a "hive- Ii conglomeration of cellular li\·i" . units." There is a downstage li\'il' _ room area, an lIpstage dining roo. reached by a single step from ~ living room, and an upstage dO( off to a kitchen. The front d opens from the iiving room on

te t

fire escape landing and the descending from it lead to an all The alley was designed to b­murky and narrow with ga rbag... cans, washing lines and th "s inister lattice wo rk neighbouring fire escapes". Thu: the cludience needed to have th suggestion of walls but still retain ' clear view of both interior ro( Jl1:

and the external fire escape an dlley. To achieve this the upsta l!'e dining room was on a raised lev of rostra and a framed photograph of the absent father was suspende by invisible wires to one side of th" central step and facing t h~ audience. This immediatel \ created the suggestion of a solid wall yet the audience could still s past the photograph into the dining area. Placing furniture at the edg of the stage facing inwards als(1 helped create the impression 0 1

walls while a free standing fro nt door downstage left completed th illusion.

The fire escape landing and step were made from genuine ste I sheeting painted silver and welded to an angle iron frame. This ga ve the right clanging sound whenever a character set foot on it. A metal handrail facing the audience provided a natural dais from which Tom could deliver some of his speeches as narrator directly to the audience whilst r.emaining outside of the central acting area. To give the impression of a tenement block of flats with dwellings above the Wingfield's apartment, an unnaturally steep set of wooden steps was positioned running up the side of the exterior wall from the metal landing. These were painted black with an intricate grid

,UN JULY16

of

as

criss-crossing metallic silver lines to suggest a continuation of the metal fire escape steps.

LIGHTING

Williams (in Tom's opening speech narrator) describes The Cla ss

Menagerie as a memory play which is "dimly lighted ... it is sentimental, it is not rea listic." There are some detailed lighting cues such as when the father's framed photograph lights up briefly at moments or when a tight pool of light is caUed for to illuminate a specified cha racter. One or two of the ins tructions were, however, too obscure. For example a light on Laura is described as "...having a peculiar pristine clarity such as the light used in early religious portraits of Female Saints ... " Above ,11l we 1I I'd lighting as il mood t' nhilncer, such as the mom en t when the main spot of light was used to illuminate Laura's si lent turmoil while her mother ilnd brother can be hea rd nrguing furiously in a dimly-lit dining room behind her. TIle hardest scene to light was the final one when the elec tricit ), is cut uff to the dpartment .ind the final action is p layed out in cilndlelight. This meant that timin r was of par,l mount importance since as a c;har,lC ter 111 00'ed around the room w ith a candle, so too the lig ht needed to be seen to move with then1. Other interes ting eHecL~ were th, shaft of moonlight that lights up tbe alley and Steve "litchel! , the lighting designer, lltilised both lamps and gels with "tunning nnd atmospheric results.

Without doubt the most technically challenging element of Tile Gh15S !vlclla,{erie is Tennessee Williams' inclusion of a screen onto which magic lantern slides are projected du ring the play. These slides consist of lines of tex t to accentuate themes or moods as well as images and photographs. Imagine a film With a fla shback sequence or a silent movie with occasional lines of dialogue interspersed among the action and you will unders tand his intention. In his production notes \villiams acknowledges that this device was omitted from the origin<ll Broadway production but he left the idea in his script as an interesting dimension for a director to explore. Our research failed to 3 iscover any production of this r lay which has attempted to use 'his device and that in itself "1spired director Darian Nelson to nclude it in Next Stage's

duction.

~ me of the graphics (like the =age of blue rcses) would have

sed enormous difficulties to a _ rector in the 19405 but with

y

today's computer graphic technology it was a lot easier. David Henson had a series of 19405 American photographs and also produced an image of it window frame, through which could be seen the red brick wall of the opposite tenement block with another apartment window just visible. A 400 watt projector was suspended from the lighting rig to project onto the flat rear wall of the set. TIlt' window image was visible from the moment the auditorium was opened so that the audience initially accepted it as part of the set. Whenever a photograph or line of text was projected the window would disappea r, only to return once the image was removed .

Finally to stage a version of The Class Mellagerie that included these slid ~'s ilS Williams . originally wanted was a hugely satisfying achievement. It added a whole new meanmg to the concept of multi-media, mixing live action, music, photographs, spoken and written words and graphics.

The use of music is very significa nt. bearing in mind the film scrip t origins of this play. OccaSionally Williams spe ified a piece like Ave Marin while other directions left the intE' rpretation to us to find: " rango in an ominolls tone." The hardest piece to find was the Glass Menagerie mu ic or Laura 's theme wh.ich weaves in dnd out of the p lay, topping and tailing scenes ,md underscoring certain moments. Williams described this as, ".. . the lightes t, most delicate music in the world and perhaps the saddest." After hours of listening we eventually settled on Lullnul/ from Cnynnfh 'by Aram Khach~turian wh.ich we fe lt encapsulated all these e.lements.

COSTUME

The costume choices were very important in terms of creating the right period feel and atmosphere, particularly in the firs t act. It W,lS

essential thM we capture the drab, fad ed and run down look of Ame.rica in the depression of the 19305 while still reflec ting the characters themselves. Definitely a case of the functional over the fashionable.

Fortunately we were able to source ideas for costume design through a local costume museum as well as several antique dealers specialising in collectable period clothing. We were then able to create period looks thanks to the kind loan of some authentic clothing, altered and accessorised to fit the era. We a.Iso fOWld "retro" bits and pieces in chari ty shops and flea markets. Although the men remain in the same costume throughout the play,

,'i.

THE PLAY PRODUCED

there are distinct and important changes for Amanda <end Laura, especially at the opening of the second act. We attempted to create a sense of homespun, pristine prettiness in Laura 's new dress while trying to avoid the impression that it was fashionable or expensive. Amanda 's old "jonquil" dress was realistically creased to suggest it really had just been "ressurected from an old trunk " and slightl y ill-fitting to show the p,1ssage of time. Throughout the play Tennessee Williams is very specific about how much of the costume and the look he wanted to achieve. We attempted to adhere as faithfully as possible to his original vision.

PROPERTIES

For a period play set firmly in the late 19305, the props posed something of a problem. Research among photo libraries and the American Museum in Bath provided a wealth of information. While finding a wind-up gramophone that could be played was difficult, equal attention was paid to the smallest items such as the cigarettes, sweets and chewing gum used by actors. Finding

authenti c Life Savers was nearlV impossible but luckily a number ci'f brands have remained vir tually W1changed over the last fifty year's such as Wrigley's chewing gum. The glass animals in the menagerie. were sourced from a glass blower and charity shops proved a valuable source of Llseful set dressing objects.

CONCL~

Our intention was always to create a visually powerful play that moved from moments of pathos, anger and occasional comedy to infinite sadness. Research was invaluable in recreating the right period in every element, from music to costume to props. Above all was the director's intention to present this, Williams' first play, in a way that he would have recognised as being perhaps closer to his original vision than many other productions have achieved. The trag ic reality of Tennessee Williams' upbringing and the events that befell his sister Rose are evident throughout his work but perhaps nowhere are we so close to the truth about the life they led in St Louis than in The Glass Menagerie.

17