A family scarred by life, chasing a dream of happiness as fragile as crystal. A liberating work that defies gravity.
A family trio wounded by life, pursuing a dream of happiness as fragile as crystal figurines… A liberating work that defies gravity.
For his final production as director of the Théâtre de Carouge, Jean Liermier has chosen a play of memory, remembrance and family.
First published in 1944 and largely autobiographical, The Glass Menagerie brought Tennessee Williams immediate acclaim, placing him among the great playwrights of the twentieth century. Set in the American South during the 1930s, the play centres on Amanda, a mother abandoned by her husband; her son Tom, a poet who works in a shoe factory; and her daughter Laura, fragile, solitary and devoted to collecting tiny glass animals. A fourth character, Jim, invited for an evening visit, disrupts the family’s routine.
Summoned onto the stage by Tom—who serves simultaneously as narrator and character—the protagonists express, awkwardly and sometimes violently, the love they bear one another. Moving as though within a dream, they relive their final moments together before ultimately breaking bonds that have become too constricting.
Jean Liermier builds the production around the young Laura, delicate and fragile as one of her glass figurines, portrayed by Aurélia Thierrée, a familiar presence on the stage of the Théâtre de Carouge, where she has appeared on several occasions.