Stubbs Leads Cast in Shared’s Glass Menagerie

Directed by joint artistic director of Shared Experience Polly Teale, the new production “explores the inner world of memory as Tennessee himself returns to confront the past, and his family come to haunt the stage”.

Set in St Louis in the 1930s, The Glass Menagerie tells the story of the Wingfield family – Tom, who is torn between his obligation to his family and his desire to break away, his overbearing mother Amanda, and his frail sister Laura, whose memory he cannot escape.

The full cast comprises: Imogen Stubbs (recently seen on stage in Hampstead Theatre’s revival of Michael Frayn’s Alphabetical Order) as Amanda Wingfield; Patrick Kennedy (Atonement) as Tom; Emma Lowndes (Cranford) as Laura; and Kyle Soller as the Gentleman Caller.

The production marks something of a new venture for Shared Experience, best known for its innovative physical theatre productions of new writing (often using devised scripts) and literary adaptations. In addition to War and Peace, the company’s lauded adaptations have included Jane Eyre, A Passage to India, The Magic Toyshop, Anna Karenina and Mill on the Floss, several of which have also transferred to the West End.

The Glass Menagerie is designed by Naomi Dawson, with lighting by Colin Grenfell, video by Thomas Grey and music by Peter Salem.