Hamlet has been nominated for Best Shakespearean Production for the 2012 What’s On Stage awards! Plus Kyle Soller, seen in our productions of Government Inspector and The Glass Menagerie, has been nominated for London Newcomer of the Year.
Separately, Michael Sheen and Bill Mitchell’s The Passion for the National Theatre of Wales has been nominated for Theatre Event of the Year.
Congratulations to all the nominees. We have our fingers crossed for you.
Posted in Government Inspector, Hamlet, Others, The Glass Menagerie
Tagged award, Government Inspector, Hamlet, The Glass Menagerie
Last week, we invited the great Tennessee Williams scholar (and editor of the Tennessee Williams Annual Review) Dr Robert Bray in to answer questions we had collected over Twitter, Facebook, as well as from the cast and creative team.
We wanted to know whether it got awkward for his family that The Glass Menagerie got so big but that it was so clearly an autobiographical play, why Tennessee Williams leaves home and what his relationship with his family was like afterwards, which was his favourite play and character, whether he ever found love and happiness and much more…
A great big thank you goes out to Dr Robert Bray who took the time to come in all the way from the US to answer our questions! You can read more about his thoughts on Tennessee Williams and The Glass Menagerie by reading his intro in Penguins Books and New Directions’ version of The Glass Menagerie.
P.S. Subscribe to our new YouTube channel! Sadly, we’ve lost our old one.
Posted in The Glass Menagerie
Tagged Facebook, interview, questions, The Glass Menagerie, Twitter
We’re happy to announce that the winner of the Penguin’s Spinebreakers + Young Vic The Glass Menagerie Script-Writing Competition (13 – 18 year olds) is Amber Thomas!
Congratulations Amber, see you at the Press Night of The Glass Menagerie and hope you enjoy the complimentary production programme and playtext by Tennessee Williams!
Winning Entry:
***
This play is set in 1960’s Liverpool. It is set in a little cottage in the middle of town.
Props:
Teddy: Belongs to Lilly and is a special toy, she is unable to sleep without it.
Banana: Toby eats which infuriates Jane.
Pram: Where Lilly sleeps for some of the time.
The Characters:
Jane: Mother to Lilly and wife to Toby. A worrier, but headstrong and firm, she knows what she wants and how to get it.
Toby: Father to Lilly and husband to Jane. Is unable to find a job and support his family. Desperatly wants to impress his father.
Lilly: Child of Toby and Jane.
Scene One
(Lights up on a kitchen where Jane stands juggling a baby on her hips looking at the clock. When she speaks it is with a Liverpudlian accent.)
Jane: Hush now darling, Daddy will be home in a minute. A minute isn’t long to wait, (Looks at child) no it’s not is it, not when poor Mummy has been good to you all day.
(Picks up a Teddy from kitchen table.)
Jane: Look sweetie, who is it? It’s… Teddy!
(Door flings open, and in strolls a flustered Toby. Shrugs off his coat and throws it on the floor. There is a pause as he looks at Jane, but then flops down in a chair.)
Jane: Well?
Toby: There is nothing going, I have tried everywhere, the docks, the factory down the road. No where is offering.
Jane: We can’t live like this Toby. I can’t live like this. I agreed to move out of me parents house when Lilly was born, but we can’t carry on like this. Do you know Toby we’ve had five more bills today, not to mention the rent, Lilly has hardly any clothes and she sleeps in her pram…
(Toby interrupts angerily.)
Toby: What is it you want from me Jane. Yes I haven’t got a job, yes we are in debt, yes Lilly hasn’t got much- but there isn’t much else I can do but try.
Jane: There is Toby. When we found out about Lilly you said you would support us. YOU said you would put a roof over me head, and it all sounded so romantic so I believed yer, and now look where we are. Lilly deserves better, Toby, I deserve better.
(Jane turns around towards a pram in the corner and gently lies Lilly down. She then turns towards Toby.)
Jane: Toby, look. The fact is this. There is a financial crisis in this country, and everyone needs jobs, including you. We can’t carry on like this. I should still be at school, learning about Shakeswear and Jane Adams and Emma Bronter… or whatever they’re called. But no, instead I am stuck with a man who can’t put two and two together and go and ask for a job from his father. No, you have to prove a point and go and beg. Toby, you are not the person you were five years ago, you have responsibilities as a father and husband, so face up to them.
Toby: Jane you know that when me parents found out about you and Lilly they cut me off. You know I told them that I would stand by you, and you know that they said they would cut me off. I chose you, Lilly and a life that I know would not be easy- so give me a break here. I will have a job soon.
(Jane stands up and puts on coat.)
Toby: Where you off to then?
Jane: If you will not ask your parents then I will. We are 16 and 17 Toby, we can hardly look after ourselves let alone Lilly, I feel embarrassed to take her into town with her clothes and her pram. If your parents say no then… well… we will have to cross that bridge when it comes to it.
(Toby grabs Jane’s hand.)
Toby: You can’t go there Jane. Please. Please.
Jane: Why?
Toby: Because… because… because Jane ever since I was little I have wanted to impress me father. He was never interested. All he liked was the booze and the girls, I came last. (Voice Trembles.) I suppose with Lilly I wanted to prove him wrong, make him proud. I know it is stupid, and it is, but I just want him to think “Me boy has done good.”
Jane (scathing): Ahhhh, touching, really. But that does not solve the problem here Toby. (Picks up a banana) The point is we are barely surviving. And I am not going to bring up Lilly like this, not knowing whether she is coming on going. She could surprise us all, and bring us into a lap of luxury, but unless you get a job. It. Will. Not. Happen. (Brandishes banana at him. Toby snatches away, peels and eats hungrily).
Jane (angry): Do yer not get it Toby? Do you not know how much a banana costs? A pound for four it does. We won’t have bananas or any type of food in this house if this carries on and then it comes down to me to scavenge for food, don’t it. Don’t you know me life is full of worries- about you, Lilly and now your job…
Toby (interrupts): I promise yer, I will nave a job by next Wednesday, cross me heart hope to die.
Jane: You better, otherwise I am taking Lilly and meself back to me mams and dads and yer won’t see her again.
(Pause)
Oh, and didn’t I tell yer, I am pregnant again, so yer have a lot more to lose than banana. (Walks out of the room.)
Posted in The Glass Menagerie
Tagged Competition, script competition, The Glass Menagerie, winner
The Glass Menagerie is the Young Vic’s 2010 Christmas show for its 40th Anniversary Season. I was teamed up with Adam Penford who compiles education packs for the Young Vic and accompanied him in filming interviews with Joe Hill-Gibbins (Director), Abigail Graham (Assistant Director), Kyle Soller (the actor playing ‘Jim’), and Jeremy Herbert (Set Designer). The finished product will go to local schools as an educational DVD about the show.
“I feel very lucky on this production that we’ve such good people [involved]” said Joe ahead of the first week of rehearsals, “It was actually David’s [Lan] idea [to put the play on] but I knew the play very well and have loved it for a long time”. Abigail echoed his enthusiasm: “it’s Tennessee Williams, the man is a bit clever”.
One of the topics that were discussed, was whether the Slides and Captions that appear in Tennessee Williams detailed stage directions would be kept in. Joe’s response? “I don’t know yet, we haven’t decided.” As it was so early in the rehearsal process this freshness was a common recurrence within their chats with Adam P and myself. Kyle, however, had the slight advantage as he had played his character “Jim” only a few months previously in a different production, “what I found with Jim is he’s a lot more than what appears on the surface, he’s a tip of the iceberg kinda guy.”
One thing that was confirmed was the music which is being composed by Dario Marianelli who won an Oscar for his score in Atonement, “music is a huge part of the play… as soon as you put music under a speech it goes somewhere” said Jeremy.
So it looks like The Glass Menagerie is all set to be a hit this Christmas. When asked if modern audiences would be able to relate to the period piece Abigail pointed out that “the play is relevant to contemporary audiences… everyone has a family and family dynamics are difficult.”
Adam Hipkin for The Young Vic’s Young Council
The Glass Menagerie opens at the Young Vic on the 11th of November and runs until the 1st of January 2011.
I distinctly recall studying The Glass Menagerie as a “memory play” for my GCSE English Literature course ten years ago. My main concern back then as a 16 year-old school student was memorising key quotes like “You live in a dream: you manufacture illusions” and of course, making sure that there were always 2 N’s, 2 S’s and 4 E’s in Tennessee.
It was the first time I’d questioned why anyone would want to collect glass animals. I was never obsessed with things like that as a child, I was not even close to having an imaginary world like Laura Wingfield does, but I did recognise that there was a certain magic in the way that light could dance through cut glass.
Another fond memory was my English teacher trying her hardest to read the play out loud in her attempt at a southern drawl – you know, to help us really imagine the setting of the play in America’s Deep South. She had an air of being a fading Southern belle herself, but the South of England was hardly the same, and whilst we appreciated her efforts, her attempt at the accent didn’t help us much.
If I had been given the chance to see The Glass Menagerie performed on stage when I was studying it, there’s no doubt that it would have enhanced my understanding of the play and let’s face it, it would have been more fun! The Young Vic’s stage production of Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie will hopefully save thousands of English teachers the embarrassment of attempting a Southern drawl and The Glass Menagerie Script-writing Competition we have set up on Spinebreakers.co.uk will hopefully encourage teenagers across the UK to write their own plays inspired by family and in doing so, better understand what it was like for Tennessee Williams to write this play back in the 1940s about his own real life.
Danielle Innes, (competition judge and editor of Spinebreakers.co.uk)
The Glass Menagerie Script-Writing Competition runs until 31 Oct 2010 and is open to UK residents aged 13-18. Entry is on Spinebreakers.co.uk.
Only 3 more performances of The Beauty Queen of Leenane left. It’s been a brilliant five weeks – all shows have sold out and we’re running low on playtexts! We’ve been collecting loads of great audience reviews that are all uploaded onto a new page of our website. We’re going to keep doing this for all our shows, so don’t forget to send us your thoughts whenever you come see something here. reviews@youngvic.org
On another note, we’re excited that Beauty Queen’s director (also our Associate Director) Joe Hill-Gibbins will be directing our Christmas production – The Glass Menagerie. Who’s in it, you ask? Watch this space!
Happy Friday!
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