Learning Dispatch - August 31st, 2018 - Watching The Glass Menagerie at Prithvi Theatre

To write is to share an intimate slide/slice/moment with the world around you. I feel it is a way to capture a life experience and to hold the nuances of it in time. Memory is not a worthy companion in the long run. It become weaker as time passes. To write for me is to present this moment, this experience, this person and this day in the way you perceive it now. I also write because I feel this burning desire to learn about the world around me and then to share what I've learned with a few people that really matter. As a reader, subscribing to these posts, you are really important to me and matter a lot to me.

Last evening, I went for a play at the Prithvi Theatre in Juhu, Mumbai. It was called 'The Glass Menagerie' and it was written by the American playwright Tennessee Williams. The play has three principal characters Tom (the son), Amanda (the mother), and Laura (the daughter). The setting is America in the south in the early 1950's. Tom works at a shoe company but harbours secret ambitions to become a writer. His sister Laura is crippled and spends her time alone with her collection of glass showpieces she calls 'Menagerie'. Their father left them for a job in the Transportation Industry. Their mother Amanda is always concerned about the well being of her two children and she is worried about their future and her ability to support them. She is concerned that Tom is not serious about his job and that her daughter is still unmarried. She eagerly awaits the call of a possible suitor (gentleman caller). Unfortunately no one calls. One day Tom brings home a colleague from his workplace on the insistence of his mother as a possible suitor for Laura. Laura is shocked to see this man, as she soon realizes that he is the same person she had a liking/fondness for in high school. As a matter of fact, he is the only person she has really liked genuinely in her life. But things take a turn for the worse when they find out more about this caller. The brilliant team of actors at Rage (Jim Sarbh, Shernaz Patel and Ira Dubey) do a really good job to bring the playwright's characters to life. A special mention should go to the music producer and lighting team for creating the setting for this period play.

Picture Credit - www.ragetheatre.co.in

Read the text of the play online or watch a video of the play online at these links. You can find more information about Rage Productions and their plays at this link.

Abhishek

August 31st, 2018