The Glass Menagerie - Richmond Theatre
Preview by Lizzie Guilfoyle
A CO-PRODUCTION between Headlong, Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse and West Yorkshire, Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie will visit Richmond Theatre from November 3 to November 7, 2015.
A frustrated mother, a daughter lost in her imagination, and a son intent on rebellion.
By night, Tom lives the life of an assassin, an outlaw, a czar of the underworld, via his trips to the movies. By day, he works in a factory. The air in the apartment he shares with his mother Amanda and his sister Laura is thick with the scent of sickly sweet flowers and Amanda’s nostalgia. Laura barely survives it, a shadow of herself. She clings desperately to her only solace, her beloved glass menagerie.
When Amanda insists Tom bring home a gentleman caller for Laura, the fragile dreams of all three are shattered with consequences they may never escape.
Ellen McDougall directs a cast that includes Greta Scacchi (as Amanda), Tom Mothersdale (Tom), Erin Doherty (Laura) and Eric Kofi Abrafa (Jim).
Greta Scacchi’s theatre credits include The Seagull (Black Swan, Perth, Australia), Bette and Joan (West End/Tour), Nothing Personal (Ensemble Theatre, Sydney), A Little Night Music (Chatelet Theatre, Paris) and Private Lives (Theatre Royal Bath). Her many film roles include The Falling, Long Time Coming, Brideshead Revisited, Sotto Falso Nome, Presumed Innocent, White Mischief and Defence of the Realm.
Scacchi has won an Emmy and AFI Award and is a Golden Globe and BAFTA Award nominated actress.
Tom Mothersdale’s previous Headlong credits include Boys (Soho Theatre) and Romeo and Juliet (Nuffield/Tour). His other stage credits include Crave and 4.48 Psychosis (Sheffield), The Cherry Orchard (Young Vic), King Lear (Chichester/ BAM), An Ideal Husband (West End) and A Thousand Stars Explode in the Sky (Lyric Hammersmith). On television, he has appeared in Peaky Blinders and The Missing.
Erin Doherty has recently finished drama school and will be making her professional debut in Pink Mist at the Bristol Old Vic this July.
Eric Kofi Abrefa’s stage credits include Wildfire (Hampstead Theatre), A Taste of Honey and The Amen Corner (National Theatre), Bobby (Royal Court Theatre) and The Sluts of Sutton Drive (Finborough Theatre). His television work includes Law and Order UK, Stella and Samson the Great.
The Glass Menagerie is designed by Fly Davis, with lighting by Richard Howell, sound by Gareth Fry and video design by Ian William Galloway.
The Glass Menagerie will play at West Yorkshire Playhouse (September 12 to October 3) and Liverpool Playhouse (October 7 to October 31) before travelling to Richmond and Warwick (November 10 to November 14).