Ocean State Libraries

"The Glass Menagerie marked a crucial turning point in American theater, and forever changed the life of its then unknown author. Williamss elegiac masterpiece brought a radical new lyricism to Broadway the tragedy, fragility, and tenderness of this 'memory play' have made it one of Americas most powerful, timeless, and compelling plays. The introduction by Tony Kushner sparkles with the kind of rich, unique insight that only a fellow playwright...

"Brick, an alcoholic ex-football player, drinks his days away and resists the affections of his wife, Maggie. His reunion with his father, Big Daddy, who is dying of cancer, jogs a host of memories and revelations for both father and son." --

The play has strong autobiographical elements, featuring characters based on its author, his histrionic mother, and his mentally fragile sister Laura. A faded Southern belle, abandoned by her husband, who is trying to raise her two children under harsh financial conditions. Amanda yearns for the comforts of her youth and also longs for her children to have the same comforts, but her devotion to them has made her -- as she admits at one point -- almost...

The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone is vintage Tennessee Williams. Published in 1950, his first novel was acclaimed by Gore Vidal as "splendidly written, precise, short, complete, and fine." It is the story of a wealthy, fiftyish American widow recently a famous stage beauty, but now "drifting." The novel opens soon after her husband's death and her retirement from the theatre, as Mrs. Stone tries to adjust to her aimless new life in Rome. She is adjusting,...

The vengeance of Nitocris -- A lady's beaded bag -- Something by Tolstoi -- Big black: a Mississippi idyll -- The accent of a coming foot -- Twenty seven wagons full of cotton -- Sand -- Ten minute stop -- Gift of an apple -- The field of blue children -- In memory of an aristocrat -- The dark room -- The mysteries of the Joy Rio -- Portrait of a girl in glass -- The angel in the alcove -- Oriflamme -- The vine -- The malediction -- The important...

Dragon Country, the country of pain, is an uninhabitable country which is inhabited. Williams expresses the theme of endured but unendurable pain which runs through all of these eight plays.