ELIZABETH SOMERVILLE as Laura and Jonathan P. Guimont as Tom act in Freeport Factory Stage’s production of Tennessee Williams’ “The Glass Menagerie,” which opens Thursday.
A release from the theater company describes the production as follows:
Set in pre-World War II, when Americans were just beginning to get back to work after a long depression, this is a memory play that is as relevant today as it was when first produced in New York in 1945.
“The Glass Menagerie” is a play about family bonds — what ties us to the past, what haunts us and what happens to dreamers when they finally awaken.
Tom Wingfield works for a shoe manufacturing company, but he dreams of a future that provides him with adventure, travel and freedom.
Hoping to free himself from being trapped within the four walls of a cold water tenement in St. Louis, at the continual nagging of his mother, Amanda, Tom agrees to invite a gentleman caller to meet his sister, Laura.
Laura’s prospects for a future with a secure marriage and family are not bright. Amanda will not release Tom from the bonds of family until he finds someone suitable for Laura.
If this is a play about family, it is also a play about work, and being trapped in a job that has no future. Tom says, “I get up, I go, for $65 a month.”
The economy in the mid-1930s was still shaky. But the world was on the brink of a second war, and in Spain and other places there was revolution.
Director Jeri Pitcher sums up the story this way: “Rereading this play again many years later, I’m struck with how the play mirrors the economics of our own time. This time around, I find myself relating to Tom and his unwillingness to allow his dreams and talents to dissolve on the assembly line of the Continental Shoe Factory. I’m also in awe of Amanda’s ‘ get up and go’ spirit. ‘ The Glass Menagerie’ is a timeless play. I find it gets under the skin with its vivid poetic memory of the American character, representing all our dreams, hard work, creative imagination and fragile beauty.”
“The Glass Menagerie” cast includes J.P. Guimont as Tom Wingfield. Elizabeth Somerville plays Laura, Tom’s sister, whose slight physical defect has left her emotionally crippled and detached from the realities of the world.
The cast is rounded out by Freeport Factory Stage artistic director Julie George-Carlson, who plays Amanda, the driving force behind the action of the play; and David Currier, as the Gentleman Caller, the most realistic character in the play.
The production team and cast for “The Glass Menagerie” come from a wide background of affiliations with other local professional theater companies. Director Pitcher was the associate artistic director for the Theater at Monmouth until retiring from that position last fall.
Stage manager Aspen Jones regularly works in the Mid-coast region with Everyman Rep in Rockport, Camden Civic and Waldo Theater companies.
Guimont has performed with Portland Stage Company. Currier is an established company member for Mad Horse Theater Company, and Carlson is also the artistic director and actor for the Freeport Shakespeare Festival.
“ The Glass Menagerie” opens Thursday at 7: 30 p. m. and runs through Feb. 15. Performances are Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m.. and Sundays at 2 p.m.
All Thursday performances are “pay what you want.” Tickets for all other performances are $19 general admission and $15 for students and seniors 65 and older.
Tickets are available online at www.freeportfactory.com or by calling the box office at 865-5505.
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