To properly appreciate the history of American theatre, you have to study one of its titans. Playwright Tennessee Williams is perhaps best known for his searing drama A Streetcar Named Desire. But it was his play The Glass Menageriethat brought him fame.
From the time it premiered in New York in 1944, it has probably never been out of production.
The play tells the story of Tom, a thinly veiled Tennessee, looking back at life with his mother, Amanda, and disabled sister, Laura, in St. Louis in the middle of the Great Depression, as they struggled to escape their circumstances. Many critics see it as one of the quintessentially American dramas of the 20th Century.
The Glass Menagerie returns to the stage in Milwaukee tonight for a run at In Tandem Theatre. Veteran Milwaukee actress Angela Ionnone will play Amanda, Mary MacDonald Kerr directs, and Chris Flieller is In Tandem’s artistic director.
