The Glass Menagerie -- moving masterpiece or sentimental sludge?

Your professor sounds like an asshole.

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I still don't understand what you're talking about.

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Yeah, she edits drama journals and criticizes masterworks, while Tennessee Williams writes The Glass Menagerie at the age of 34. F*CK her and the horse she rode in on.

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I still don't understand what you're talking about.

The play, as published, features stage directions that describe captions and images projected onto a screen; the captions are usually lines spoken by a character, or images relevant to the scene (eg. when Laura talks about being called "Blue Roses," a picture of blue roses gets projected).

In the production notes, Williams states that the purpose of the projected captions is to illuminate certain themes that may not be immediately clear and to invoke a particular emotional response from the audience. However, the original production eliminated these projects, with Williams' approval. However, Williams published the play with the captions included. There are thus two scripts of THE GLASS MENAGERIE: the "reading" script, and the "acting" script.

All major productions have likewise omitted the captions. Personally, I find the captions silly, to the point of mockery (when Laura finds out that her high school crush is coming to dinner, the caption "Not Jim!" appears), but my professor holds them to high regard, saying they offset the sentimentality of the play.

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The teacher criticized SOMETHING - That there are some productions that aren't loyal to Tennessee's original intent. If anything, the teacher is honoring the masterworks, and wishing they stayed true to the author's original work.

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So, back on topic: most critics have found Williams' justifications for the captions inadequate (his production notes regarding the device are pretty vague), but are still convinced of their importance. What is your opinion of them? Also, I love THE GLASS MENAGERIE -- it's my favourite Williams play -- but I can see my professor's point: what is in the play that makes it rise above a simple, sentimental drama? Is it the metatheatrical conceit?

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Updated On: 2/25/05 at 05:34 PM

Does the current Lange production use captions?

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It's okay for a prof to express his or her opinion as long as they make it clear it's an opinion, and hopefully let the students discuss things and form their own impressions first. My musical theater professor had some definite ideas about Andrew Lloyd Webber, but he made us listen to Evita first. :)

Cheap, manipulative sentiment is bad, but honest, heartfelt sentimentality, as you find in The Glass Menagerie, is commendable, IMO.

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Miriam - that's something I had never heard.

So tell us, was Ms. Taylor's performance everything that it's been made out to be?

Miriam, thank you for your post. It certainly helped me better understand the use of captions. Does this mean Williams' original intent was to not have the audience emotionally engaged in THE GLASS MENAGERIE?

And it's thrilling to hear you saw the original production. Wow, that must have been a wonder!

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Blue Wizard:

It's really hard to say what Williams 'intent was in using the captions. Since he had studied with Piscator, perhaps her thought that the captions could either illuminate the play ort help distance people from the action. Who knows? All I can tell you is that the original production did not use them. And it was perfect just the way it was!

Take care

Miriam

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Updated On: 2/27/05 at 09:57 AM