Black Swan State Theatre Company of WA is about to unveil its new production of The Glass Menagerie at His Majesty’s Theatre in Perth. Winner of the New York Drama Critics’ Circle award for Best American Play in 1944, Tennessee Williams’ semi-autobiographical family drama is being re-examined with a contemporary audience in mind by director Clare Watson. For Mandy McElhinney, taking on the role of the family matriarch Amanda Wingfield is a dream come true. They both talk to Limelight ahead of the first performance on 2 August.

Mandy McElhinney in The Glass Menagerie © Cross Border Productions

Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie needs little introduction. It is a theatre classic by which many directors and actors are measured. Amanda Wingfield is a faded Southern belle, who slips in and out of reality as she desperately pushes her two children back up the social ladder. In this production, Clare Watson has cast Mandy McElhinney as Amanda, Joel Jackson as Amanda’s son Tom – who is generally regarded as a representation of the playwright himself – and Acacia Daken as his sister Laura, while Jake Fryer-Hornsby plays Tom’s friend Jim O’Connor,...