The Deutsches Theater Berlin is staging the great classic about human longing: a magnificent psychological chamber play.

Despite setbacks, disappointments and family quarrels, the Wingfield family never gives up their hopes and desires. Although, or perhaps precisely because, Tom and Laura live in modest circumstances with their mother Amanda, they dream. They dream of a different life, of a better life, of a life without work in the factory, of time for art, of a world outside the gray reality. Their father left the family years ago. Tom supports her by working in a warehouse, but would rather work as a writer.
While Amanda rhapsodizes about her youth and torments the rest of the family with exaggerated motherly love, shy Laura concentrates entirely on her collection of fragile glass animals. In this menagerie of strange figures, she finds support and can forget reality. When Tom brings his work colleague Jim to dinner one day at his mother's request, her plan to set Laura up with him implodes in an absurd way.
Tennessee Williams' play, first performed in 1944, tells of the bondage to dreams that rob everyday life of its fear without being able to withstand it. His debut play "The Glass Menagerie" made the American author Tennessee Williams famous overnight. Stephan Kimmig's production at the Deutsches Theater Berlin underlines the timelessness of the family constellation depicted.
April 20, 2024
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