Student: José Martínez Hernández e-mail: jomarhe5@alumni.uv.es

English Philology. First cicle, first course.

English Theatre XIX & XX Centuries Group B ( evenings ).

Theatre play. El zoo de cristal.

Author: Tennessee Williams. Translation into spanish: León Mirlas.

Directed by Agustín Alezzo. Produced by " Cristina Rota Producciones".

In this play Tennessee Williams reflects some aspects of his life; it is autobiographic, not exempt of certain pain, and there are in his play only four characters( and the reference and portrait of another, his father ).

The three formed by a southern american origin middle-low class family.

Tom. ( Tennessee ) The main one, and the character that is used to narrate us in retrospective the action. He works in the same shoe-shop as Jim. His main features are that he is not satisfied with that job or his life in general, and that he has literary ambitions. As well that he is fed up with his oppressive mother, and willing to escape and leave all behind ( as his father did ), to live life to the full.

Laura: His sister. Very shy and insecure. Even more so because she has a limping ( that along with other things, she tries to hide ). She is not good for fighting in the real world, and she likes to live and seek refuge in her own world, where she collects and cherishes little pieces of animals, a cristal zoo, as fragile as herself.

Amanda. The Mother. She is a manic, neurothic and oppressive character that is always on top of Tom or Laura. She represents as well someone that has not their feet on earth, and her imagination flies towards her wishes world, and way out of the the real one. She has quite an argentinian accent, although that seems to have nothing to do with the play itself.

And Jim colleague of Tom, at a higher position as a foreman in the shoe shop. He comes for dinner to the house, unaware that Jim invited him under pressure from his controlling mother, that is willing to marry her daughter Laura at any cost.

He is a nice and sensible chap, and kind towards Laura, although he does not belong in this private world. He represents the hopes that will not become a reality.

The other character, the father, it is only a reference, as present as his portrait and the presence of the irony of Tennessee. Remarkable the postcard he sent with only " Hello " and " Good bye ".

Action takes place in St. Louis ( Mississippi. EEUU ) at the beginning of pas t century, and the time line is leaded by the commentaries that Tom makes, to situate the public in time and space.

The plot is rather straightforward. Amanda dominates ( in all senses ) the scene in the family, she tries to change the world to adapt it to her wishes, and she is someone unable to accept or live in the real world. Thus she is always remembering the lost and glorious past of the southern countries, and the time when she had many beautiful and rich pretenders.

Her husband, that left the family a long time ago, has a portrait in the middle of the room. It seems really odd, since he did not died in a glorious war, but instead he left her as he couldn´t take it anymore. Probably that represents one of the constants in the play, hope for the unreachable, the world of the imaginary and denial of the truth.

Laura left her studies a long time ago, but pretends the opposite. Her mother finds out, and worries for that and the lack of chances of she getting a good job. Amanda, who as a regular thing pesters Tom with her controlling distrust - thinking always of the worse -, puts pressure on her son to find Laura a date. Tom invites Jim, and then Amanda starts to overdo and exaggerate things up to a pathetic point. She paints again the living room, polishes the cutlery, puts on a southern epoque dress, etc... When Jim comes, Amanda makes Laura open the door; very nervously, Laura discovers that Jim was a companion of studies of hers, and she remembers him as the only guy she was interested in, probably because after her absence from school, he politely interests himself a bit for her. She gets extremely nervous, and does not want to share the table with them, but after dinner, Amanda drags Tom away with the silly excuse of cleaning the dishes, and then Laura starts speaking out her mind to Jim, who tries to comfort her. Even there is a point when they dance and kiss, but Jim tells her that he is engaged. The real world comes to bitter the expectations of Laura ( and her mother ). In the middle of this conversation, one of the cristal figures breaks down. It is the eldest and most cherished of them all. The unicorn, whose horn gests broken. An imaginary unicorn breaks and transforms itself into a horse, an animal of the real world. Thus is the metaphor, as the real world emerges when our imaginary world of expectations breaks. At the end of the play, Tom finally gets the travel of his life, and leaves the house ( like his father did ).

The portrait of the characters is very well done. The four of them are tip top quality actors. The atrezzo is adequate, in accordance with the time it represents, except the epoque dress of Amanda, and as well remarkable the somehow childish dress of Laura.

The settings were nice, helped a lot by an outstanding lighting ( suggesting and nearly poetic in occasions ), used to separate scenes and to help to create the ambiance.

It was represented in the Principal, a theatre that is what the word theatre springs to mind, a first class one, with all its ambiance and the classical lamp dominating the high ceiling. Full of public that gave a long lasting round of applause.

A very nice play to assist to.