The PwC Season of The Glass Menagerie

The PwC Season of The Glass Menagerie

Antonia Prebble joins Elizabeth Hawthorne for the PwC Season of Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie Selwyn Theatre in Kohimarama from May 16.

Due to the recent fire at Maidment Theatre, Auckland Theatre Company has moved the production to Selwyn theatre and postponed its opening by a week.

Prebble has returned home to New Zealand especially for the PwC Season of The Glass Menagerie from the US where she has been based recently and will depart again when the final curtain comes down on the show.

Disruptions during a Tennessee Williams show are nothing new to Auckland Theatre doyen Elizabeth Hawthorne. In 1992 she was performing in The Rose Tattoo alongside Kevin Smith and Sarah Pierse when the Mercury Theatre collapsed. Her other performances in Tennessee Williams, A Street Car Names Desire and Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, have both gone on without a hitch, however.

"Intense, engrossing and riveting."- San Francisco Chronicle

Awarded Best Play in 1945 by the New York Drama Critics' Circle and acclaimed as Williams's first great Broadway success, this emotionally devastating portrait of hope, glitters and reflects with a delicacy and beauty that will fix your gaze and move you to tears.

1930's St Louis. Aspiring poet Tom Wingfield reluctantly works in a shoe warehouse to support his overbearing, faded-Southern-belle mother and desperately shy sister, Laura. Pushed by his mother, he finds Laura a gentleman caller to try to coax her from her fragile private world. This re-imagined modern classic directed by American guest director, Jef Hall-Flavin, Executive Director of the Tennessee Williams Theater Festival, is not to be missed.

"The Glass Menagerie is Tennessee Williams' first great masterpiece and perhaps most autobiographical play. I'm thrilled that this production combines the talents of the fabulous Elizabeth Hawthorne and American guest director, Jef Hall-Flavin to bring to life this hauntingly beautiful work." - Colin

"Fiercely moving and seriously funny... The bite of the humor disarms and delights." - New York Times

Finding a new venue for the PwC Season of The Glass Menagerie proved to be a very difficult and frustrating process. Auckland Theatre Company viewed over thirty possible spaces across the city from theatres to warehouse spaces. All of which presented their own unique charms and challenges - not least of which was a period of 5 weeks of uninterrupted availability with comfortable seats and great sight lines.

A decision about the venue for the last two productions that were to have staged at Maidment Theatre, The Heretic and The Lion Foundation Season of Lord of the Flies will be made shortly. The Company is endeavouring to locate a central city space which can be used for both productions with the same season dates.

Tickets for all three shows can be booked from www.atc.co.nz or 09 309 2383

ENDS

© Scoop Media