Storytelling Done Live
We went to the Guthrie Theater again on Thursday for the second of our plays for this year- another top quality production. This was Tennessee William's The Glass Menagerie. It was William's first big hit and brought him the fame that he so well deserved.

It is not a comedy. It fulfills all the emotional requirements of tragedy, done with enough humor to keep you from being overwhelmed. Williams presents this difficult family in difficult times with difficult issues. The son who wants to be out on his own. The daughter who has a physical disability and needs a "suitor." The mother. Oh, yes, the mother. Control personified. Guilt-inducing in the flesh. Fear and anger gushing from every pore.

To watch this play is to be on a roller coaster of emotions. You are drained at the end. You can sometimes identify some of the characters as people from your own life, perhaps you own. You blush and get angry and feel empathy and sympathy. You see life exposed for all to see in front of your eyes. You leave the theater feeling as if you have been touched by life in all its hope and fear and hopefully with a different understanding of your own.

Like movies, a younger cousin of the stage, live drama or comedy is, of course, storytelling. It is entertainment in its broadest sense, but it is also a peek inside the human soul and psyche. With real people standing there in front of you, live and in the flesh, you have to work a little harder than in a movie to turn it into reality, but it is worth the effort and the opportunity. There, in the dark, you will probably discover new things about youself.

It is worth the journey.