with Isabelle Huppert, Justine Bachelet, Cyril Gueï, Antoine Reinartz

In The Glass Menagerie, the events are framed by the memories of Tom, author Tennessee William's double. Despite the autobiographical elements of the play, what’s really at stake in Williams’ art is the transfiguration of reality. Through poetry, the author shares his characters’ resistance. Laura, the sister, takes refuge in an inner world. Tom is always "at the movies" or involved in secret adventures. Amanda, the mother, locks herself in an ideal past. To Ivo van Hove, the fragility of this family is also the flip side of the harshness of the 1930s. This production, interrupted twice before being revived this season, marks his encounter with Isabelle Huppert who plays Amanda in all her resilience.

Cast

dramaturgy Koen Tachelet
set design, light Jan Versweyveld
costumes An D’Huys
sound, music George Dhauw
stage director Matthieu Dandreau

production Odéon-Théâtre de l'Europe


coproduction Onassis Stegi - Athens, La Comédie de Clermont-Ferrand scène nationale, deSingel - Antwerp, Barbican - London


La Ménagerie de verre is presented by virtue of an exceptional agreement with The University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee


the play is managed in French-speaking Europe by Marie-Cécile Renauld, MCR Agence Littéraire in agreement with Casarotto Ramsay Ltd

Biography of Ivo van Hove

Since his debut in Belgium in the 1980s, Ivo van Hove, director of the Internationaal Theater Amsterdam from 2001 to 2024, has established himself as one of the most important directors on the European stage. His repertoire ranges from the classics to modern texts and film scripts.

In 2008, his Roman Tragedies based on Shakespeare, transposed into a contemporary world of power, met with the enthusiasm of French audiences. He subsequently presented Le Misanthrope at the Ateliers Berthier in 2012, with the Schaubühne company, Arthur Miller's Vu du pont (in 2015 and 2017), and Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead (2016). He directed Juliette Binoche in Antigone in 2015, then directed Les Damnés after Visconti at the Comédie-Française in 2016, Électre / Oreste in 2019, and Tartuffe ou l'hypocrite in 2022, while his Don Giovanni (created in 2019 at Garnier) was revived at the Opéra Bastille.