The Glass Mendacity
Cite' des Arts , 109 Vine St., Lafayette
directed by Jody L. Powell
produced by NathanaelT Productions
"a streetcar full of laughs"......The Times Picayune
"literature’s most dysfunctional family, the DuBois clan - Tennessee with a Twist"........Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival
Tennessee Williams’ more well-known plays "The Glass Menagerie", "A Streetcar Named Desire", and "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" are family dramas, and as such, they are filled with fragile and damaged Southern characters who are driven to madness, alcoholism, deceit, and fantasy. Thus, they are easy targets for lampooning and parody, which is just what the authors of this play have done with them. In addition, the authors have taken family members from each play, mixed them up, and created an entirely new outrageous brood. Audiences with a strong familiarity of Williams’ plays will get the most out of the show, but the humor of "The Glass Mendacity" is broad enough to make it appealing to all.
Tennessee Williams’ more well-known plays "The Glass Menagerie", "A Streetcar Named Desire", and "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" are family dramas, and as such, they are filled with fragile and damaged Southern characters who are driven to madness, alcoholism, deceit, and fantasy. Thus, they are easy targets for lampooning and parody, which is just what the authors of this play have done with them. In addition, the authors have taken family members from each play, mixed them up, and created an entirely new outrageous brood. Audiences with a strong familiarity of Williams’ plays will get the most out of the show, but the humor of "The Glass Mendacity" is broad enough to make it appealing to all.
In this mingling of characters where families are merged and relationships are shifted, Big Daddy, the patriarch dying of a spastic colon, is married to Amanda Dubois who still recounts the number of gentlemen callers she had in her youth (the number grows with each new telling). Together, they are the parents of Brick, so rendered catatonic by self-pity and alcohol that he comes across as a real stiff; Blanche, the tragic nut case, now married to the working-class brute Stanley Kowalski; and Laura, the dreamer whose shyness is underscored by her limp. True to her original story, Maggie the Cat, the scheming seductress, is still married to Brick. And of course, there’s Mitch, a combination of the gentleman caller and the lawyer acquaintance who properly greases the wheels and can’t keep his eyes off of Blanche.
The two-act comedy has plenty of verbal gags twisted from Williams' original scripts that will keep the audience in stitches. The actors deliver the original plays’ best lines with sharp characterizations and all the flair as if they were playing the originally written roles.
The cast includes:
Michael Cato as Mitch O'Connor
Katryn Schmidt as Maggie the Cat
Mary Gail Lamonte DeVillier as Amanda Dubois
Brick Dubois as Himself
Deborah D. Ardoin as Blanche Dubois
John Snyder as Stanley Kowalski
Billy Walker as Big Daddy Dubois
Erin Segura as Laura Dubois
Performances dates:
Friday, June 22 at 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, June 23 at 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, June 24 at 2:00 p.m.
Michael Cato as Mitch O'Connor
Katryn Schmidt as Maggie the Cat
Mary Gail Lamonte DeVillier as Amanda Dubois
Brick Dubois as Himself
Deborah D. Ardoin as Blanche Dubois
John Snyder as Stanley Kowalski
Billy Walker as Big Daddy Dubois
Erin Segura as Laura Dubois
Performances dates:
Friday, June 22 at 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, June 23 at 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, June 24 at 2:00 p.m.
Tickets are available at citedesarts.org or by calling 291-1122 or at the door. Tickets are $15 for adults, $10 for seniors and students.
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