American playwright Tennessee Williams (1911 - 1983) brings his own life experiences to the stage in the 1944 memory play The Glass Menagerie - depicting the dynamics of an internal struggle of a fragile family. As a well-known and recognised play with many productions, adaptations and revivals, there was a challenge in coming up with a new way of representing it. To begin with, the play explores numerous themes such as;
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What initially drew me to this production was the aspect of fragmentation; both in the memory of the narrator - Tom, and in the sense of the family itself falling apart. Through discussions with the director we came to realise that both our interests lie within the memory part of the play, in particular the idea of it falling apart - focusing on portraying the unreliability of memory and the colour of it. We also noted the importance of keeping to the period in which the play was originally written - 1940s America; due to the nature of the Gentleman Caller being an integral part of the narrative's development.
Having established the themes to focus on - fragmentation and memory - our initial ideas included a common factor of movement; to design a stage in which it could perhaps revolve, break apart, or rise and fall. We explored the idea of creating a stage that would disintegrate itself, reflecting in a physical sense the demise of the Wingfield family's relationship. |
The original script included detailed instructions for the portrayal of the Wingfield apartment - from individual furniture pieces to the interior location of the separate rooms. This was helpful in drawing out the important features of the set to keep and the parts to exclude, such as the projection screen - which was considered a bit obvious and on-the-nose in its purpose. The Dorfman Theatre at the National is known for its diverse layout and potential to accommodate a wide range of audience placements. Hence, we had to decide whether to design in the round, thrust, promenade, or end-on. This was narrowed down to in the round or thrust, however the movement feature of our design meant that in the round was no longer an option as we wanted the space to expand and the director didn't want the actors to enter through the audience. With the decision of the thrust-stage, came the deliberation of the audience placement. We wanted the audience quite close to the performance and viewing it from all three sides. |
The initial idea for the moments in which the stage would break apart was to help emphasis the three points in the play where glass breaks. However, after consideration of the timeline of the play, this proved ineffective as there would be a long pause between the first and second moments. It was later decided that the stage would subtly shift apart between each scene; causing, at first, doubt in the audience as to whether it really moved or not, then as the play progresses to witness the three spaces pulling apart - similar to that of the character's relationships.
The colour of the set was chosen to be monochromatic - another reflection of the memory - playing on the idea of the unrealistic and unreliable nature of the play. With the dim lighting and focused spotlights on the actors, it would give the set a chiaroscuro effect. Dashes of colour would then be introduced in Act II – the dinner party - bringing emphasis to the dramatic changes in the set (scene six), where the character of Amanda has worked day and night to transform the apartment in hopes of impressing the gentlemen caller. |
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In terms of costumes, we came to the conclusion that they would very much resemble the ones described in the script - realistic, true to the time period, and quite shabby and unfashionable. However with the colour, we introduced specific tones to each character, with variations of different shades in each costume change.
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