'Glass Menagerie' visits Virginia

To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of the greatest American playwright, Tennessee Williams, the Town Hall Theatre Galway and TheatreCorp are presenting a new production of one of his finest plays and probably one of the greatest ever written in the English language, 'The Glass Menagerie'. It stages at The Ramor Theatre, Virginia, on 11th and 12th March as part of a six venue national tour. A son longs to escape from his stifling home, where his genteel mother worries about the future prospects of his lame, shy sister. As the family works hard to survive, the mother struggles to free herself of a dependent daughter, whilst she uses her own fantasies of a glamorous past in the Deep South to keep her own reality bearable. Her son meanwhile tries desperately to keep his own dreams alive. 'The Glass Menagerie' is based on Tennessee Williams's own guilt-ridden attempt to flee his mother in order to claim his artistic destiny. The enduring figure of Williams' mother dominates the play: elusive yet seductive, nostalgic for patrician Southern life, fascinating yet repelling. Directed by Max Hafler, with design Mary Doyle, the cast features Maria McDermottroe in the central role of the mother. Maria is a veteran of many plays at the Abbey Theatre including 'Dancing at Lughnasa', 'Philadelphia Here I Come' and 'Portia Coughlin'. She recently appeared in 'Boss Grady's Boys' at the Gaiety and in a one woman show, 'Bag Lady', at the Focus. The cast also includes Marcus Lamb who performed in several plays with Druid as part of the DruidSynge project, Sean O Meallaigh, a regular on TG4 series such as 'Ros na Rún', 'Seachtar na Casca' and 'Rasaí na Gaillimhe', and Ionia Ní Chroinín, best known for her work with Moonfish Theatre Company. Max Hafler has previously directed a series of classic plays with the Town Hall Theatre Galway including 'The Maids' by Genet, 'Blood Wedding' by Garcia Lorca, 'Waiting For Godot' by Samuel Beckett and 'Doctor Faustus' by Marlowe. Booking is on (049) 854 7074.