Luke Mullins leads a strong cast in Tennessee Williams’ 1944 classic.

Curtains billow gently about the house. From beyond the pale spectral images, a mother sets food upon a table, regaling her two children with the tales of her youth. But in 1930s America hopes are high and reality is callous. Instead of fulfilling their mother’s idyllic expectations, the two siblings flounder amidst the quagmire of her misspent ambition.

Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie is a partial reflection upon the playwright’s own family and youth. Just like Williams and his real-life sister, the character Tom is an aspiring poet who passes the day doing a mundane factory job, while Laura, who is withdrawn and eccentric, chooses to spend hours with a collection of glass figurines. Their mother, Amanda, is domineering and eternally disappointed.

In writing the highly successful work, Williams coined the term ‘memory play’. “Being a memory play, it is dimly lighted, it is sentimental, it is not realistic”. These elements, as described by Tom in the opening scene, create something akin to a dream. The narrative stems directly from Tom’s own mind, and as such, becomes a rush of autobiographical vignettes that are precise in detail but with...