Liliputins - 106
The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams is another powerful reminder how fragile and vulnerable we and our world are ... "
Anton Chekhov
Liliputins. What the hell is this ?
http://www.stihi.ru/2012/08/18/5368
***
The Glass Menagerie
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Glass Menagerie[1] is a four-character memory play by Tennessee Williams which premiered in 1944 and catapulted Williams from obscurity to fame. The play has strong autobiographical elements, featuring characters based on Williams himself, his histrionic mother, and his mentally fragile sister Rose. In writing the play, Williams drew on an earlier short story, as well as a screenplay he had written under the title of The Gentleman Caller.
The play premiered in Chicago in 1944. After a shaky start it was championed by Chicago critics Ashton Stevens and Claudia Cassidy, whose enthusiasm helped build audiences so the producers could move the play to Broadway where it won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award in 1945. The Glass Menagerie was Williams's first successful play; he went on to become one of America's most highly regarded playwrights.
The characters and story mimic Williams's own life more closely than any of his other works. Williams (whose real name was Thomas) would be Tom, his mother, Amanda. His sickly and mentally unstable older sister Rose provides the basis for the fragile Laura (whose nickname in the play is "Blue Roses", a result of a bout of pleurosis as a high school student), though it has also been suggested that Laura may incorporate aspects of Williams himself, referencing his introverted nature and obsessive focus on a part of life (writing for Williams and glass animals in Laura's case).[2] Williams, who was close to Rose growing up, learnt to his horror that in 1943 in his absence his sister had been subjected to a botched lobotomy. Rose was left incapacitated (and institutionalized) for the rest of her life. With the success of The Glass Menagerie, Williams was to give half of the royalties from the play to his mother. He later designated half of the royalties from his play Summer and Smoke to provide for Rose's care, arranging for her move from the state hospital to a private sanitarium. Eventually he was to leave the bulk of his estate to ensure Rose's continuing care.[3] Rose died in 1996.
Characters
Amanda Wingfield
A faded Southern belle abandoned by her husband who is trying to raise her two children under harsh financial conditions. Amanda yearns for the comforts from her youth and also longs for her children to have the same comforts, but her devotion to them has made her ЁCas she admits at one point ЁC almost "hateful" towards them.
Tom Wingfield
Amanda's son and Laura's younger brother. Tom works at a shoe warehouse to support his family but is frustrated by his job and aspires to be a poet. He struggles to write and he escapes from reality through nightly excursions, apparently to the movies but also to local bars. Tom feels both obligated toward yet burdened by his family and longs to escape.
Laura Wingfield
Amanda's daughter and Tom's older sister. A childhood illness has left her with a limp, and she has a mental fragility and an inferiority complex that have isolated her from the outside world. She has created a world of her own symbolized by her collection of glass figurines.
Jim O??Connor
An old high school acquaintance of Tom and Laura. Jim was a popular athlete and actor during his days at Soldan High School. Subsequent years have been less kind to Jim, however, and by the time of the play's action he is working as a shipping clerk at the same shoe warehouse as Tom. His hope to shine again is conveyed by his study of public speaking and ideas of self-improvement that appear related to those of Dale Carnegie.
Mr. Wingfield
Amanda's absentee husband and Laura and Tom??s father. Mr. Wingfield was a handsome man, full of charm, who worked for a telephone company and eventually "fell in love with long distance", abandoning his family 16 years before the play's action. Although he doesn't appear onstage, Mr. Wingfield is frequently referred to by Amanda and his picture is prominently displayed in the Wingfields' living room. The unseen character appears to incorporate elements of Williams's own father.
Plot summary[edit]"Yes, I have tricks in my pocket, I have things up my sleeve. But I am the opposite of a stage magician. He gives you illusion that has the appearance of truth. I give you truth in the pleasant disguise of illusion."
The beginning of Tom's opening soliloquy.The play is introduced to the audience by Tom, the narrator and protagonist, as a memory play based on his recollection of his mother Amanda and his sister Laura.
Amanda's husband abandoned the family long ago. Although a survivor and a pragmatist, the sometimes voluble Amanda yearns for the comforts and admiration she remembers from her days as a f§Ьted Southern belle. She worries especially about the future of her daughter Laura, a young woman with a limp and tremulous insecurity about the outside world. Tom works in a shoe warehouse doing his best to support them. He chafes under the banality and boredom of everyday life and struggles to write, while spending much of his spare time going to the movies ?? or so he says ?? at all hours of the night.
Amanda is obsessed with finding a suitor (or, as she puts it, a "gentleman caller") for Laura, whose shyness helped lead her to drop out of high school and a subsequent secretarial course, and who spends most of her time with her collection of little glass animals. Pressed by his mother to help find someone, Tom eventually invites an acquaintance from work named Jim home for dinner. Laura realizes that Jim is the boy she was attracted to in high school and has thought of since ?? though the relationship between the shy Laura and the "most likely to succeed" Jim was never more than a fairly distant teasing acquaintanceship. Initially, Laura is so overcome by shyness that she is unable to join the others at dinner. After dinner, though, Jim and Laura are left alone by candlelight in the living room, waiting for the electricity to be restored (Tom, planning to escape his family, has failed to pay the power bill). During their long scene together, Jim diagnoses Laura's inferiority complex, urges her to think better of herself, and kisses her. Jim and Laura then share a quiet dance, and he accidentally brushes against the glass menagerie, knocking the glass unicorn to the floor and breaking off its horn. After Jim reveals that he is already engaged to be married, Laura asks him to take the broken unicorn as a gift and he then leaves. When Amanda learns that Jim is engaged she assumes Tom knew and lashes out at him.
As Tom speaks at the end of the play, it becomes clear that he left home soon afterward and did not return. In Tom's final speech, he bids farewell to his mother and sister, telling Laura to blow out the candles, which she does as the play ends.
Original Broadway Cast
The Glass Menagerie opened on Broadway in the Playhouse Theatre on March 31, 1945 and played there until June 29, 1946. It then moved to the Royale Theatre from July 1, 1946 until its closing on August 3, 1946. The show was directed by Eddie Dowling and Margo Jones. The cast for opening night was as follows:
Eddie Dowling as Tom Wingfield
Laurette Taylor as Amanda Wingfield
Julie Haydon as Laura Wingfield
Anthony Ross as Jim O'Connor
Laurette Taylor's performance as Amanda set a standard against which subsequent actresses taking the role were to be judged, typically to their disadvantage. In the 2004 documentary Broadway: The Golden Age, by the Legends Who Were There, Broadway veterans rank Taylor's performance as the most memorable of their lives.
Development
The play was reworked from one of Williams's short stories "Portrait of a Girl in Glass" (1943; published 1948).[4] The story is also written from the point of view of narrator Tom Wingfield, and many of his soliloquies from The Glass Menagerie seem lifted straight from this original. Certain elements have clearly been omitted from the play, including the reasoning for Laura's fascination with Jim's freckles (linked to a book that she loved and often reread, Freckles by Gene Stratton-Porter). Generally the story contains the same plot as the play, with certain sections given more emphasis, and character details edited (for example, in the story, Jim nicknames Tom "Slim", instead of "Shakespeare"[4]). Another basis for the play is a screenplay Williams wrote under the title of The Gentleman Caller. Williams had been briefly contracted as a writer to MGM, and he apparently envisioned Ethel Barrymore and Judy Garland for the roles that eventually became Amanda and Laura, although when the play was eventually filmed in 1950, Gertrude Lawrence was cast as Amanda and Jane Wyman as Laura.
Film adaptations
Two Hollywood movie versions of The Glass Menagerie have been produced. The first, directed by Irving Rapper in 1950, starring Gertrude Lawrence (Amanda), Jane Wyman (Laura), Arthur Kennedy (Tom) and Kirk Douglas (Jim). Williams characterized this version, which had an implied happy ending grafted onto it in the style of American films from that era, as the worst adaptation of his work. Bosley Crowther of the New York Times wrote, "As much as we hate to say so, Miss Lawrence's performance does not compare with the tender and radiant creation of the late Laurette Taylor on the stage." The film has never been released on either VHS or DVD.
The second film directed by Paul Newman in 1987, starring Joanne Woodward (Amanda), Karen Allen (Laura), John Malkovich (Tom), and James Naughton (Jim) and, if anything, was even less well-received than the earlier film and sank without much attention. It is also not available on DVD.
There is a critically acclaimed Indian adaptation of the play, filmed in the Malayalam language. The movie titled Akale (meaning At a Distance), released in 2004, is directed by Shyamaprasad. The story is set in the southern Indian state of Kerala in the 1970s, in an Anglo-Indian/Latin Catholic household. The characters were renamed to fit the context better (the surname Wingfield was changed to D'Costa, reflecting the part-Portuguese heritage of the family ?? probably on the absent father's side, since the mother is Anglo-Indian), but the story remains essentially the same. Prithviraj Sukumaran plays Neil D'Costa (Tom Wingfield in the play), Geethu Mohandas plays Rosemary D'Costa (Laura Wingfield), Sheela plays Margaret D'Costa (Amanda Wingfield), and Tom George plays Freddy Evans (Jim O'Connor). Sheela won the National Film Award for Best Supporting Actress, and Geethu Mohandas won the Kerala State Film Award for the best actress.
The Iranian film Here Without Me (2011) is also an adaptation of the play, in a contemporary Iranian setting.[5]
Radio productions
The first radio adaptation of the play was performed on Theatre Guild on the Air in 1951 starring Helen Hayes as Amanda with Montgomery Clift as Tom, Kathryn Baird as Laura, and Karl Malden as Jim. A 1953 adaptation appeared on the radio series Best Plays starring Evelyn Varden as Amanda and Geraldine Page as Laura. Jane Wyman recreated her film role of Laura for a 1954 adaptation on Lux Radio Theatre with Fay Bainter as Amanda and Frank Lovejoy as Tom and Tom Brown as Jim. The 1953 version is not known to survive but recordings of the other two are in circulation.
Television productions
The first television version, recorded on videotape and starring Shirley Booth, was broadcast on December 8, 1966 as part of CBS Playhouse. Hal Holbrook played Tom and Pat Hingle played the Gentleman Caller. Booth was nominated for an Emmy for her performance as Amanda.
There was also a second television adaptation which was broadcast on ABC on December 16, 1973, starring Katharine Hepburn as Amanda, Sam Waterston as Tom, Michael Moriarty as Jim, and Joanna Miles as Laura. It was directed by Anthony Harvey. (Tom's initial soliloquy, so striking onstage, is cut from this version; it opens with him walking alone in an alley, sitting on a rampart to read the newspaper and having his sister's and mother's voices conjure up the first domestic scene.) All four actors were nominated for Emmys, with Moriarty and Miles winning.
Later Stage Performances
In 1997, Kiefer Sutherland returned to his theatrical roots, starring with his mother, Canadian actress Shirley Douglas, in a Canadian production of The Glass Menagerie at the Royal Alexandra Theatre in Toronto.
Maureen Stapleton, Anne Pitoniak, Jessica Tandy, Julie Harris, Jessica Lange, Judith Ivey, Harriet Harris, and Cherry Jones have all portrayed Amanda Wingfield.
Calista Flockhart played Laura in 1994 in her Broadway debut. For her performance as Laura, Flockhart received a 1995 Clarence Derwent Award for Most Promising Actress.
The 2013 Broadway revival will begin previews on September 5 with an official opening on September 26, 2013 at the Booth Theatre. The cast will consist of Cherry Jones as Amanda Wingfield, Zachary Quinto as Tom, Celia Keenan-Bolger as Laura and Brian J. Smith as Jim.[6]
Parodies
The Glass Menagerie was parodied by Christopher Durang in a short one-act titled For Whom the Southern Belle Tolls, in which Laura is replaced by a wimpy hypochondriac son named Lawrence, and the "gentleman caller" becomes Ginny, a butch female factory worker with a hearing problem. Lawrence, instead of prizing a collection of glass figurines, here is obsessed with his collection of glass cocktail stirrers.
Ryan Landry and The Gold Dust Orphans did a parody called The Plexiglass Menagerie, set in a FEMA trailer in post-Katrina New Orleans, with Landry playing Amanda in an all-male cast.
***
fragile
_________
frag?¤ile adjective : easily broken or damaged : very delicate : not strong
Full Definition of FRAGILE
1a : easily broken or destroyed <a fragile vase>
b : constitutionally delicate : lacking in vigor <a fragile child>
2: tenuous, slight <fragile hope>
?? fra?¤gil?¤i?¤ty noun
Examples of FRAGILE
Her health has always been very fragile.
an artist with a fragile ego
He is in an emotionally fragile state.
The two countries have formed a fragile coalition.
Origin of FRAGILE
Middle French, from Latin fragilis ?? more at frail
First Known Use: 1521
Related to FRAGILE
Synonyms
breakable, delicate, frail, frangible
Antonyms
infrangible, nonbreakable, strong, sturdy, tough, unbreakable
Related Words
dainty, fine, gossamer; eggshell, flimsy, slight, tenuous; brittle, crisp, crispy, crumbly, crushable, embrittled, flaky (also flakey), friable, shaky, shivery, short; feeble, infirm, soft, spindly, tender, weak; inelastic, inflexible, stiff
Near Antonyms
compact, firm, hard, rigid, solid, substantial, unyielding; elastic, flexible, resilient, rubberlike, rubbery, springy, stretch, stretchable, supple
more
Synonym Discussion of FRAGILE
fragile, frangible, brittle, crisp, friable mean breaking easily. fragile implies extreme delicacy of material or construction and need for careful handling <a fragile antique chair>. frangible implies susceptibility to being broken without implying weakness or delicacy <frangible stone used for paving>. brittle implies hardness together with lack of elasticity or flexibility or toughness <brittle bones>. crisp implies a firmness and brittleness desirable especially in some foods <crisp lettuce>. friable applies to substances that are easily crumbled or pulverized <friable soil>.
***
vulnerable
___________
vul?¤ner?¤a?¤ble adjective : easily hurt or harmed physically, mentally, or emotionally
: open to attack, harm, or damage
Full Definition of VULNERABLE
1: capable of being physically or emotionally wounded
2: open to attack or damage : assailable <vulnerable to criticism>
3: liable to increased penalties but entitled to increased bonuses after winning a game in contract bridge
?? vul?¤ner?¤a?¤bil?¤i?¤ty \;v;l-n(;-)r;-;bi-l;-tЁ?\ noun
?? vul?¤ner?¤a?¤ble?¤ness \;v;l-n(;-)r;-b;l-n;s, ;v;l-n;r-b;l-\ noun
?? vul?¤ner?¤a?¤bly \-blЁ?\ adverb
Examples of VULNERABLE
He was very vulnerable after his divorce.
The troops were in a vulnerable position.
The fort was undefended and vulnerable.
Origin of VULNERABLE
Late Latin vulnerabilis, from Latin vulnerare to wound, from vulner-, vulnus wound; probably akin to Latin vellere to pluck, Greek oulЁ? wound
First Known Use: 1605
Related to VULNERABLE
Synonyms
endangered, exposed, open, sensitive, subject (to), susceptible, liable
Antonyms
insusceptible, invulnerable, unexposed, unsusceptible
Related Words
likely, prone; uncovered, undefended, unguarded, unprotected, unscreened, unsecured
Near Antonyms
covered, guarded, protected, safeguarded, screened, secured, sheltered, shielded, warded
more
vul?¤ner?¤a?¤ble adjective \;v;ln-(;-)r;-b;l, ;v;l-n;r-b;l\ (Medical Dictionary)
Medical Definition of VULNERABLE
: capable of being hurt : susceptible to injury or disease <the liver is itself vulnerable to nutritional impairment??Journal of the American Medical Association>
??vul?¤ner?¤a?¤bil?¤i?¤ty \;v;ln-(;-)r;-;bil-;t-Ё?\ noun, plural vul?¤ner?¤a?¤bil?¤i?¤ties
Anton Chekhov
Liliputins. What the hell is this ?
http://www.stihi.ru/2012/08/18/5368
***
The Glass Menagerie
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Glass Menagerie[1] is a four-character memory play by Tennessee Williams which premiered in 1944 and catapulted Williams from obscurity to fame. The play has strong autobiographical elements, featuring characters based on Williams himself, his histrionic mother, and his mentally fragile sister Rose. In writing the play, Williams drew on an earlier short story, as well as a screenplay he had written under the title of The Gentleman Caller.
The play premiered in Chicago in 1944. After a shaky start it was championed by Chicago critics Ashton Stevens and Claudia Cassidy, whose enthusiasm helped build audiences so the producers could move the play to Broadway where it won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award in 1945. The Glass Menagerie was Williams's first successful play; he went on to become one of America's most highly regarded playwrights.
The characters and story mimic Williams's own life more closely than any of his other works. Williams (whose real name was Thomas) would be Tom, his mother, Amanda. His sickly and mentally unstable older sister Rose provides the basis for the fragile Laura (whose nickname in the play is "Blue Roses", a result of a bout of pleurosis as a high school student), though it has also been suggested that Laura may incorporate aspects of Williams himself, referencing his introverted nature and obsessive focus on a part of life (writing for Williams and glass animals in Laura's case).[2] Williams, who was close to Rose growing up, learnt to his horror that in 1943 in his absence his sister had been subjected to a botched lobotomy. Rose was left incapacitated (and institutionalized) for the rest of her life. With the success of The Glass Menagerie, Williams was to give half of the royalties from the play to his mother. He later designated half of the royalties from his play Summer and Smoke to provide for Rose's care, arranging for her move from the state hospital to a private sanitarium. Eventually he was to leave the bulk of his estate to ensure Rose's continuing care.[3] Rose died in 1996.
Characters
Amanda Wingfield
A faded Southern belle abandoned by her husband who is trying to raise her two children under harsh financial conditions. Amanda yearns for the comforts from her youth and also longs for her children to have the same comforts, but her devotion to them has made her ЁCas she admits at one point ЁC almost "hateful" towards them.
Tom Wingfield
Amanda's son and Laura's younger brother. Tom works at a shoe warehouse to support his family but is frustrated by his job and aspires to be a poet. He struggles to write and he escapes from reality through nightly excursions, apparently to the movies but also to local bars. Tom feels both obligated toward yet burdened by his family and longs to escape.
Laura Wingfield
Amanda's daughter and Tom's older sister. A childhood illness has left her with a limp, and she has a mental fragility and an inferiority complex that have isolated her from the outside world. She has created a world of her own symbolized by her collection of glass figurines.
Jim O??Connor
An old high school acquaintance of Tom and Laura. Jim was a popular athlete and actor during his days at Soldan High School. Subsequent years have been less kind to Jim, however, and by the time of the play's action he is working as a shipping clerk at the same shoe warehouse as Tom. His hope to shine again is conveyed by his study of public speaking and ideas of self-improvement that appear related to those of Dale Carnegie.
Mr. Wingfield
Amanda's absentee husband and Laura and Tom??s father. Mr. Wingfield was a handsome man, full of charm, who worked for a telephone company and eventually "fell in love with long distance", abandoning his family 16 years before the play's action. Although he doesn't appear onstage, Mr. Wingfield is frequently referred to by Amanda and his picture is prominently displayed in the Wingfields' living room. The unseen character appears to incorporate elements of Williams's own father.
Plot summary[edit]"Yes, I have tricks in my pocket, I have things up my sleeve. But I am the opposite of a stage magician. He gives you illusion that has the appearance of truth. I give you truth in the pleasant disguise of illusion."
The beginning of Tom's opening soliloquy.The play is introduced to the audience by Tom, the narrator and protagonist, as a memory play based on his recollection of his mother Amanda and his sister Laura.
Amanda's husband abandoned the family long ago. Although a survivor and a pragmatist, the sometimes voluble Amanda yearns for the comforts and admiration she remembers from her days as a f§Ьted Southern belle. She worries especially about the future of her daughter Laura, a young woman with a limp and tremulous insecurity about the outside world. Tom works in a shoe warehouse doing his best to support them. He chafes under the banality and boredom of everyday life and struggles to write, while spending much of his spare time going to the movies ?? or so he says ?? at all hours of the night.
Amanda is obsessed with finding a suitor (or, as she puts it, a "gentleman caller") for Laura, whose shyness helped lead her to drop out of high school and a subsequent secretarial course, and who spends most of her time with her collection of little glass animals. Pressed by his mother to help find someone, Tom eventually invites an acquaintance from work named Jim home for dinner. Laura realizes that Jim is the boy she was attracted to in high school and has thought of since ?? though the relationship between the shy Laura and the "most likely to succeed" Jim was never more than a fairly distant teasing acquaintanceship. Initially, Laura is so overcome by shyness that she is unable to join the others at dinner. After dinner, though, Jim and Laura are left alone by candlelight in the living room, waiting for the electricity to be restored (Tom, planning to escape his family, has failed to pay the power bill). During their long scene together, Jim diagnoses Laura's inferiority complex, urges her to think better of herself, and kisses her. Jim and Laura then share a quiet dance, and he accidentally brushes against the glass menagerie, knocking the glass unicorn to the floor and breaking off its horn. After Jim reveals that he is already engaged to be married, Laura asks him to take the broken unicorn as a gift and he then leaves. When Amanda learns that Jim is engaged she assumes Tom knew and lashes out at him.
As Tom speaks at the end of the play, it becomes clear that he left home soon afterward and did not return. In Tom's final speech, he bids farewell to his mother and sister, telling Laura to blow out the candles, which she does as the play ends.
Original Broadway Cast
The Glass Menagerie opened on Broadway in the Playhouse Theatre on March 31, 1945 and played there until June 29, 1946. It then moved to the Royale Theatre from July 1, 1946 until its closing on August 3, 1946. The show was directed by Eddie Dowling and Margo Jones. The cast for opening night was as follows:
Eddie Dowling as Tom Wingfield
Laurette Taylor as Amanda Wingfield
Julie Haydon as Laura Wingfield
Anthony Ross as Jim O'Connor
Laurette Taylor's performance as Amanda set a standard against which subsequent actresses taking the role were to be judged, typically to their disadvantage. In the 2004 documentary Broadway: The Golden Age, by the Legends Who Were There, Broadway veterans rank Taylor's performance as the most memorable of their lives.
Development
The play was reworked from one of Williams's short stories "Portrait of a Girl in Glass" (1943; published 1948).[4] The story is also written from the point of view of narrator Tom Wingfield, and many of his soliloquies from The Glass Menagerie seem lifted straight from this original. Certain elements have clearly been omitted from the play, including the reasoning for Laura's fascination with Jim's freckles (linked to a book that she loved and often reread, Freckles by Gene Stratton-Porter). Generally the story contains the same plot as the play, with certain sections given more emphasis, and character details edited (for example, in the story, Jim nicknames Tom "Slim", instead of "Shakespeare"[4]). Another basis for the play is a screenplay Williams wrote under the title of The Gentleman Caller. Williams had been briefly contracted as a writer to MGM, and he apparently envisioned Ethel Barrymore and Judy Garland for the roles that eventually became Amanda and Laura, although when the play was eventually filmed in 1950, Gertrude Lawrence was cast as Amanda and Jane Wyman as Laura.
Film adaptations
Two Hollywood movie versions of The Glass Menagerie have been produced. The first, directed by Irving Rapper in 1950, starring Gertrude Lawrence (Amanda), Jane Wyman (Laura), Arthur Kennedy (Tom) and Kirk Douglas (Jim). Williams characterized this version, which had an implied happy ending grafted onto it in the style of American films from that era, as the worst adaptation of his work. Bosley Crowther of the New York Times wrote, "As much as we hate to say so, Miss Lawrence's performance does not compare with the tender and radiant creation of the late Laurette Taylor on the stage." The film has never been released on either VHS or DVD.
The second film directed by Paul Newman in 1987, starring Joanne Woodward (Amanda), Karen Allen (Laura), John Malkovich (Tom), and James Naughton (Jim) and, if anything, was even less well-received than the earlier film and sank without much attention. It is also not available on DVD.
There is a critically acclaimed Indian adaptation of the play, filmed in the Malayalam language. The movie titled Akale (meaning At a Distance), released in 2004, is directed by Shyamaprasad. The story is set in the southern Indian state of Kerala in the 1970s, in an Anglo-Indian/Latin Catholic household. The characters were renamed to fit the context better (the surname Wingfield was changed to D'Costa, reflecting the part-Portuguese heritage of the family ?? probably on the absent father's side, since the mother is Anglo-Indian), but the story remains essentially the same. Prithviraj Sukumaran plays Neil D'Costa (Tom Wingfield in the play), Geethu Mohandas plays Rosemary D'Costa (Laura Wingfield), Sheela plays Margaret D'Costa (Amanda Wingfield), and Tom George plays Freddy Evans (Jim O'Connor). Sheela won the National Film Award for Best Supporting Actress, and Geethu Mohandas won the Kerala State Film Award for the best actress.
The Iranian film Here Without Me (2011) is also an adaptation of the play, in a contemporary Iranian setting.[5]
Radio productions
The first radio adaptation of the play was performed on Theatre Guild on the Air in 1951 starring Helen Hayes as Amanda with Montgomery Clift as Tom, Kathryn Baird as Laura, and Karl Malden as Jim. A 1953 adaptation appeared on the radio series Best Plays starring Evelyn Varden as Amanda and Geraldine Page as Laura. Jane Wyman recreated her film role of Laura for a 1954 adaptation on Lux Radio Theatre with Fay Bainter as Amanda and Frank Lovejoy as Tom and Tom Brown as Jim. The 1953 version is not known to survive but recordings of the other two are in circulation.
Television productions
The first television version, recorded on videotape and starring Shirley Booth, was broadcast on December 8, 1966 as part of CBS Playhouse. Hal Holbrook played Tom and Pat Hingle played the Gentleman Caller. Booth was nominated for an Emmy for her performance as Amanda.
There was also a second television adaptation which was broadcast on ABC on December 16, 1973, starring Katharine Hepburn as Amanda, Sam Waterston as Tom, Michael Moriarty as Jim, and Joanna Miles as Laura. It was directed by Anthony Harvey. (Tom's initial soliloquy, so striking onstage, is cut from this version; it opens with him walking alone in an alley, sitting on a rampart to read the newspaper and having his sister's and mother's voices conjure up the first domestic scene.) All four actors were nominated for Emmys, with Moriarty and Miles winning.
Later Stage Performances
In 1997, Kiefer Sutherland returned to his theatrical roots, starring with his mother, Canadian actress Shirley Douglas, in a Canadian production of The Glass Menagerie at the Royal Alexandra Theatre in Toronto.
Maureen Stapleton, Anne Pitoniak, Jessica Tandy, Julie Harris, Jessica Lange, Judith Ivey, Harriet Harris, and Cherry Jones have all portrayed Amanda Wingfield.
Calista Flockhart played Laura in 1994 in her Broadway debut. For her performance as Laura, Flockhart received a 1995 Clarence Derwent Award for Most Promising Actress.
The 2013 Broadway revival will begin previews on September 5 with an official opening on September 26, 2013 at the Booth Theatre. The cast will consist of Cherry Jones as Amanda Wingfield, Zachary Quinto as Tom, Celia Keenan-Bolger as Laura and Brian J. Smith as Jim.[6]
Parodies
The Glass Menagerie was parodied by Christopher Durang in a short one-act titled For Whom the Southern Belle Tolls, in which Laura is replaced by a wimpy hypochondriac son named Lawrence, and the "gentleman caller" becomes Ginny, a butch female factory worker with a hearing problem. Lawrence, instead of prizing a collection of glass figurines, here is obsessed with his collection of glass cocktail stirrers.
Ryan Landry and The Gold Dust Orphans did a parody called The Plexiglass Menagerie, set in a FEMA trailer in post-Katrina New Orleans, with Landry playing Amanda in an all-male cast.
***
fragile
_________
frag?¤ile adjective : easily broken or damaged : very delicate : not strong
Full Definition of FRAGILE
1a : easily broken or destroyed <a fragile vase>
b : constitutionally delicate : lacking in vigor <a fragile child>
2: tenuous, slight <fragile hope>
?? fra?¤gil?¤i?¤ty noun
Examples of FRAGILE
Her health has always been very fragile.
an artist with a fragile ego
He is in an emotionally fragile state.
The two countries have formed a fragile coalition.
Origin of FRAGILE
Middle French, from Latin fragilis ?? more at frail
First Known Use: 1521
Related to FRAGILE
Synonyms
breakable, delicate, frail, frangible
Antonyms
infrangible, nonbreakable, strong, sturdy, tough, unbreakable
Related Words
dainty, fine, gossamer; eggshell, flimsy, slight, tenuous; brittle, crisp, crispy, crumbly, crushable, embrittled, flaky (also flakey), friable, shaky, shivery, short; feeble, infirm, soft, spindly, tender, weak; inelastic, inflexible, stiff
Near Antonyms
compact, firm, hard, rigid, solid, substantial, unyielding; elastic, flexible, resilient, rubberlike, rubbery, springy, stretch, stretchable, supple
more
Synonym Discussion of FRAGILE
fragile, frangible, brittle, crisp, friable mean breaking easily. fragile implies extreme delicacy of material or construction and need for careful handling <a fragile antique chair>. frangible implies susceptibility to being broken without implying weakness or delicacy <frangible stone used for paving>. brittle implies hardness together with lack of elasticity or flexibility or toughness <brittle bones>. crisp implies a firmness and brittleness desirable especially in some foods <crisp lettuce>. friable applies to substances that are easily crumbled or pulverized <friable soil>.
***
vulnerable
___________
vul?¤ner?¤a?¤ble adjective : easily hurt or harmed physically, mentally, or emotionally
: open to attack, harm, or damage
Full Definition of VULNERABLE
1: capable of being physically or emotionally wounded
2: open to attack or damage : assailable <vulnerable to criticism>
3: liable to increased penalties but entitled to increased bonuses after winning a game in contract bridge
?? vul?¤ner?¤a?¤bil?¤i?¤ty \;v;l-n(;-)r;-;bi-l;-tЁ?\ noun
?? vul?¤ner?¤a?¤ble?¤ness \;v;l-n(;-)r;-b;l-n;s, ;v;l-n;r-b;l-\ noun
?? vul?¤ner?¤a?¤bly \-blЁ?\ adverb
Examples of VULNERABLE
He was very vulnerable after his divorce.
The troops were in a vulnerable position.
The fort was undefended and vulnerable.
Origin of VULNERABLE
Late Latin vulnerabilis, from Latin vulnerare to wound, from vulner-, vulnus wound; probably akin to Latin vellere to pluck, Greek oulЁ? wound
First Known Use: 1605
Related to VULNERABLE
Synonyms
endangered, exposed, open, sensitive, subject (to), susceptible, liable
Antonyms
insusceptible, invulnerable, unexposed, unsusceptible
Related Words
likely, prone; uncovered, undefended, unguarded, unprotected, unscreened, unsecured
Near Antonyms
covered, guarded, protected, safeguarded, screened, secured, sheltered, shielded, warded
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vul?¤ner?¤a?¤ble adjective \;v;ln-(;-)r;-b;l, ;v;l-n;r-b;l\ (Medical Dictionary)
Medical Definition of VULNERABLE
: capable of being hurt : susceptible to injury or disease <the liver is itself vulnerable to nutritional impairment??Journal of the American Medical Association>
??vul?¤ner?¤a?¤bil?¤i?¤ty \;v;ln-(;-)r;-;bil-;t-Ё?\ noun, plural vul?¤ner?¤a?¤bil?¤i?¤ties
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