2007.1.19 Randy最新的报道文章还有新拍滴照片+文章翻译~~~杂志终于到手了

来源：http://www.lavendermagazine.com/artman/publish/article_3694.php

红叉请点鼠标右键的显示图片，或者多刷刷

Randy Harrison. Photo by George Byron Griffiths

中文翻译BY cadsun

谢谢cadsun的辛勤劳动em23

cadsun博客首发的翻译原址
http://blog.sina.com.cn/u/3f0ca370010007ft
http://blog.sina.com.cn/u/3f0ca370010007g6
http://blog.sina.com.cn/u/3f0ca370010007g9

加黑部分是记者的话（他说的比RANDY多，呵呵，但RANDY是简明扼要，用这个记者的话说是“很有见地”）

蓝色部分是RANDY说的话

Recently Lavender, a western magazine, covered him. And I just translated this article here. There must be something inaccurate in it, but I'm ready to accept your correction. :)

In 1944, master gay playwright Tennessee Williams rocked American theater and society with The Glass Menagerie. Its poetic, yet unsettlingly candid, view of the Wingfields, a family abandoned by their father and husband, now ranks as one of the towering achievements of 20th-Century American drama.
1944年，同志剧作大师 Tennessee Williams 以一出《The Glass Menagerie》在美国戏剧界乃至美国社会引起不小的轰动。该剧富有诗意而无比真实地讲述了Wingfields一家的故事，一个被已为人夫、已为人父的男人所抛弃的家庭。如今，这部作品被誉为美国20世纪最杰出的舞台剧之一。
(注：The Glass Menagerie 有人译作《玻璃动物园》。)

The Glass Menagerie is especially relevant in 2007, given the awareness of the American public about single parents battling rocky economic times. Moreover, in subtle ways, this classic, which was inspired by Williams’s own personal experiences, codifies the playwright’s struggle with his homosexual orientation.
《The Glass Menagerie》在2007年被广为提起，它引起了美国公众对单身父母如何解决经济难题这一问题的关注。此外，这部经典之作取材于 Williams 的个人经历，并融进了他自己面对同性爱倾向而作出的痛苦挣扎的过程。

It’s fitting that the current Guthrie Theater revival features Queer as Folk star Randy Harrison as protagonist Tom. Indeed, given the sensitivity he revealed in that landmark television series, Harrison’s casting seems nothing less than ideal. If Williams’s spirit is out there peeking in on us, he must be ecstatic that Harrison essentially is playing him.
Guthrie 剧院启用了曾出演《Queer As Folk》的名星 Randy Harrison 来担纲主演。事实上，他在该部电视剧中出色表演堪称完美。如果 Williams 在天有灵的话，他肯定会非常高兴由Harrison来演绎自己。

I spoke with Harrison recently about Williams, his play, director Joe Dowling, and Queer as Folk.
最近，我采访了Harrison，谈起了Williams 和他的剧本，导演Joe Dowling 以及《 Queer As Folk 》。

I think of Tom Wingfield as a kind of surrogate for Tennessee Williams himself, and I feel like much of his restlessness and his disquietude has to do with being gay. Of course, Williams couldn’t write about that openly in the 1940s.
我觉得Tom Wingfield 简直就是 Williams 他本人，并且觉得他的焦燥不安的性格都和他是个同志很有关系。当然，在1940 那个年代，Williams 不能表达得那么直接。

I don’t think that’s the largest aspect of it, but I think it’s huge. I think the frustration he’s experiencing in the home has to do with his being an artist more than anything, and his realization that it’s going to be impossible for him to follow that dream [by] staying with his family.
我认为那不是最主要的原因，当然是一个很重要的因素。我觉得他所经历的家庭挫折与他后来成为了一个艺术家有着关密不可分的关系，还有另外的因素，就是他意识到继续留在家里对他来讲是不可能帮助他实现自己的艺术梦想的。

I think [Tom’s homosexuality] could be part of it, but it totally depends upon the actor’s take, because it’s not implicit. It’s not actually in the text. It’s definitely a part of what he’s going through. Certainly, there is a lot going on that’s unspoken about him, and between him and his family.
我觉得 Tom 的同性爱倾向也算是一个原因，但这就完全取决于演员了，这不是一个很明显的东西。剧本上没有写，但这的确又是他自己真实的经历。当然，围绕着他，他和他的家庭还有很多其它的故事。

What have you been doing to research the play and your interpretation of the character?
对这部舞台剧你做了哪些功课，还有你怎么看你在剧中的这个角色？

I’m reading Williams’s memoirs now. I’ve read a few biographies, and almost all of his plays. I’m thinking I’m almost filled up on the biographical information at this point, and I need to just come back to the play.
我正在读 Williams 的回忆录。已经读了一些他的传记，甚至所有他的舞台剧作品。传记方面的内容读得不少了，现在我得回过头来再多研究一下这部作品。

But there is a lot of him in the play.
这部作品中对他自己有大量的描写。

A huge amount.
巨多。: )

It’s certainly valid for you to be examining his life and work. What are you discovering about Williams? I’ve read the memoirs. He was pretty wild.
毫无疑问，研究Williams 的生活和工作对你来说是很有用的。那么你是怎么看待他这个人的？我读过他的回忆录，觉得他身上有一些野性的东西。

He was. The memoirs are amazing, just because they take place so much later than when he wrote the play. The character is hugely based on him, but it’s a work of fiction ultimately, and you need to be responsible to the script of the play, not to any biographical information. But I’m amazed at how honest the memoirs are.
是的，他的回忆录写得棒极了，里面描述的事情要比他写这部舞台剧的时候晚很多。剧中的角色几乎就是以他蓝本，但必竟是小说性质的，所以得忠于剧本本身，而不是他的传记资料。但他的回忆录这么真实真是让我感到很惊讶。

I had this image of his just being this mess later in his life. But they’re so astute. I know there were exaggerations and things that were left out, but they’re so honest. You really understand why his characters and his plays are so indelible in the way he writes his memoirs. You have to remind yourself of the time he wrote them—1972.
之所以这么说，是因为我觉得他的后半生过得很糟糕。有些东西很敏感，比如有些夸张的地方和别的什么东西被删掉了，但它还是很真实。通过读他的回忆录，你真的会理解为什么他笔下的人物和他的剧本会那么让人无法割舍。要知道，那可是他在1972年那个时候写的东西呀。

They were cutting-edge. And they contain all that wrenching stuff about his mother, Miss Edwina, and his sister, Rose. Just heartbreaking.
他们家生活得很艰苦。书里面还写到了他母亲Edwina女士、姐姐Rose的那些悲惨的经历。真是让人心酸。

Devastating.
非常惨。

It seems like there’s a lot that surfaces in Amanda, Tom’s mother, that we find in Miss Edwina, and a lot in Laura, Tom’s sister, that we find in Rose.
剧中Tom的妈妈Amanda跟Edwina很像，Tom的姐姐Laura跟Rose很像。

A huge amount, but more about Amanda.
非常像，尤其是Amanda.

Many actresses will tell you that Williams wrote some of the best female characters in all of drama. And you played in one of the most groundbreaking series in the history of television. Your character, Justin, is very patient, nurturing, supportive, and he’s very sweet. I recently watched the episode where you play his winning the King of Babylon studly beauty contest.
许多女演员说Williams 对一些女性角色的刻画，在所有戏剧是都是首屈一指的。《Queer As Folk》在电视剧历史上是响当当的作品之一，而你又曾在其中饰演角色。Justin , 是一个非常有耐心、乐于助人、又很讨人喜欢的一个角色。我最近又看了你在Babylon的一次美男赛中比赢得Babylon 王子的那一场戏。

Eight years ago!
那是八年前的事儿了！

That’s one big reason why it will be so interesting for your TV fans to see you play Tom. He’s a very restless character—a real contrast.
这正是你的电视粉丝们很想看到你饰演Tom的主要原因。他是一个焦燥不安的角色----跟Justin相比，有很大的反差。

It feels very, very different.
非常、非常不一样。

You’ve done a lot of musical theater.
你已经出演了很多的音乐舞台剧。

I haven’t done a lot of musicals in a while. I sang in college, so it was an easier way to get my Equity card, and to start working professionally. There are a lot more opportunities in it. About three years ago, I did Wicked, and since then, I’ve been doing just straight theater—Amadeus and Equus.
也没演太多，我在大学里是学演唱的，所以进入这个行当相对容易一些，然后就开始了专业的表演。舞台剧也有很多的机会，大概三年前，我出演了《Wicked》，打那儿以后，我就一直在从事这方面的工作，还演过Amadeus 和 Equus。
（注：《Wicked》是一部很有名的舞台剧，一般中文译作《罪恶坏女巫》）

You portrayed the lead roles in those two very demanding pieces. And this one is also very demanding—one of the plum men’s roles in American drama. Many would call it the plum role for a young American actor.
你已经在这两个表演难度很大的作品中饰演过主要角色。目前的这部难度也很大----这是一个在美国舞台剧中份量很足的角色。很多人把它看成是美国年轻男演员的一个挑战和美差。

By the way, many people in the local queer community are very happy that the Guthrie has been doing Tennessee Williams plays more regularly since Joe Dowling has been Artistic Director.
顺便说一下，自从Joe Dowling 担当艺术导演以来，Guthrie剧院有上演了很多Tennessee Williams的剧目，很多本地的同性爱者为此而非常高兴。

Before his tenure, it seemed like Anton Chekhov and other great playwrights were emphasized. Nothing wrong with that, of course, but Dowling’s interest in Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams has been wonderful.
在Dowling上任以前，好象Anton Chekhov和其它伟大的剧作家的作品更被看重。当然，这并不是什么问题，Dowling更偏爱Arthur Miller和Tennessee Williams，这也是很棒的事情。

Miller was hetero, but his social consciousness was second to none, and so is automatically adored by most queer theatergoers. And Williams’s unmistakably queer sensibility gives us a window into how that sensibility had to be expressed in the decades before Stonewall.
Miller是一个异性爱者，但他并不像社会大众一样对同性爱持歧视态度，自然而然地，他受到了同志戏迷们的推崇。而Williams作品让我们了解到在1969年Stonewall事件以前的几十年里，如何去表达同性爱这个敏感的问题。
（注： Stonewall是1969年美国历史上第一次同性爱者反抗示威活动，其事由是因为纽约警察进入Stonewall逮捕大量同性爱者而引起的。这次事件被看作是美国同性爱运动觉醒的标志。）

Dowling has this instinctive understanding of the mid-20th-Century American world these two giants encompassed. His production of Death of a Salesman a few years back was just spellbinding. He captured that dance between gritty reality and delicate memory. And The Glass Menagerie also dances that dance.
Dowling导演对美国20世纪中叶的这两个伟大的编剧有着独到的感悟和理解。他几年前执导过一部舞台剧《Death of a Salesman》就很引人注目。在该剧中我们可以看到介于脆弱的回忆和残酷的现实之间的一种舞蹈。在《The Glass Menagerie》中会依然沿用这种舞蹈形式。

He’s phenomenal, and he really understands family. And maybe this is why you think he’s done such good work with American classics, because so much is about family. He’s so very astute about family dynamics.
Dowling是一个感性的人，对家庭的概念有着很好的理解。也许这正是为什么他对美国经典剧目做出了这么大的贡献，因为这都与家庭有关。而他恰恰对家庭的变迁十分敏感。

A majority of this play is about this give-and-take—this pushing and pulling that happens within families. And he’s been remarkable about getting in there with us. He has such a keen eye, and such an understanding of who’s winning and who’s losing as far as the pushing and pulling.
这出戏中大部分情节讲得是家庭内部的平等互让与分分合合。在排练过程中，Dowling给了我们很大的帮助。他有一种敏锐的眼光和洞察力，他能很清晰地感悟家庭生活中的是是非非。

Those kind of things really set people off when they’re in that pressure-cooker environment, being in a small home with a family—which is what Death of a Salesman is about.
这些东西真的能烘托出人们在一个大家族里的一个小家里面、在这种高压环境下是如何生活的。这也正是《Death of a Salesman》所呈现给我们的。

There’s something Williams talks about regarding shared family pain in Memoirs that comes through The Glass Menagerie as well.
Williams在他的回忆录中提到关于分担家庭重担的问题，这在《The Glass Menagerie》中也有同样的描述。

The play’s characters, Tom and Laura, brother and sister, exist in their St. Louis tenement apartment after they had lived in a much more accepting, sylvan, and gentler environment down South.
剧中的人物 Tom 和 Laura是一对姐弟，本来在南方住得很舒适，但后来却住进了 St. Louis 廉租房。

St. Louis is this comparably harsh, horrible reality for them. Williams says in his memoirs that he feels that when his own family moved to St. Louis, it was traumatic for both him and Rose.
在St. Louis 的生活，对他们来讲简直是差劲极了。Williams 在他的回忆录中也提到了搬家到 St. Louis 对他和 Rose 来说就象是一场灾难。

They found themselves ostracized, judged negatively and snobbishly by those in their community and neighborhood there. They didn’t have the same brusqueness and coarser vocal rhythms that others around them had. And they were looked down on for not having as much money.
在他们所住的社区里，他们承受着邻居们的排斥，势利和消极的对待。他们因为说话没有当地人的口音而受到歧视，当然对他们也不喜欢那些粗鄙的当地话。此外，他们也因为贫困而备受歧视。

Oh, yeah. The way in which the family is isolated from the rest of the community in St. Louis. In the play, it’s not indicated whether or not they were born in the South, and moved there, or if they had been there the entire time, and just the mother was from there. But we’re choosing that we actually went on the same journey Tennessee Williams had when he left Mississippi.
哦，是的。这个家庭被St. Louis 的那个社区所孤立。在这部戏中，并没有明确指出他们姐弟是否是在美国南部出生并且后来搬到那儿，或者他们就是一直在那儿或者只是他们的妈妈来自那儿，但我们还是选择了Williams离开Mississippi后的那段真实的旅程。

I think that’s the right way to go with it.
我觉得这是一个很好的艺术处理。

Right. The family is isolated from the rest of the community both by their being Southern and being poorer. But it is the Depression, and there’s this sense that everybody—all of America—has been forced into this desperate situation. It comes through in his monologues.
是的。因为是南方人并且家里经济条件不好，这个家庭被他们居住的社区所孤立。但此时恰又处于美国历史上的经济大箫条时期，每个人，美国上上下下所有的人都处于一种绝望的状态之中。于是，就有了他的一段精彩独白。

And I think they’re more isolated for being Southern. The mother comes from an entirely different reality than the one they’re attempting to live in right now. I think that’s a huge thing that’s making Tom completely restless—his being a part of that other world, and then coming back to this world.
我觉得他们更多的因为是南方人而受到排斥。剧中的母亲来自一个与他们要入住的这个社区截然不同的生活环境。我想正是因为这件事才让Tom感到非常的不安分，他是属于另外一个世界里的人，却不得不生活在眼前的这个世界。

And as he grows up, he more and more realizes the world that his family has erected—his mother specifically, but Laura, too—that he’s been forced to live in, is an illusion. And he has to separate from that in order to engage with reality, and become an adult and an artist.
在成长的过程中，他越来越意识到在他的家庭世界----特别是他的妈妈，还有Laura----他被迫生活其中的家庭，这是一个幻象。他必须离开他们才能回到真正的现实、才能长大、才能成为艺术家。

Great point. The mother, Amanda, goes on about her gentlemen callers, and has this sort of Antebellum South romanticism gone haywire.
你说得很有见地。这个母亲Amanda，爱唠叨起那些给她打电话的绅士们。到后来，这个有着内战前南方浪漫主义色彩的女人精神失常了。

Right. And it’s the Depression. It’s not happening anymore.
是啊，但那是发生在经济萧条期的事情。这种事情不会再发生了。

That’s another thing that I think makes the play more relevant now than, say, only a decade ago. It has a new pertinence now, because we’re seeing a starker division between rich and poor in American society. We’re always finding evidence about the disappearing middle class.
我想有另外一个原因也让这出剧目比十年前更备受关注。现在有了一个新的关注点，美国社会的贫富差距越来越大。我们总在试图找到已经消失了的中产阶级的足迹。

Though that division has surely been creeping up on us since the ’80s, people are now more acutely aware of it. There seems to be less hope for the future, and there’s a desperation just below the surface now.
虽然贫富差距早在80年代就已形成，但现在人们更能真切地感觉到它。未来谁也说不准，但现在在表面现象的下面好象正隐藏着一种绝望。

Amanda comes from a time when there were no government-funded safety nets, and now, more of our safety nets have been cut. In Amanda’s heyday, you had to have means when you were old, or a financially solvent husband who would leave you enough to live on when he died.
Amanda 所处的时代没有政府性的安全、保险机构，而现在，我们的社会也在大量削减这些机构。在Amanda看来，必须得找到防老的办法，要不就找个有钱的老公，等他死了也能留下一笔遗产。

She talks about pitiful cases of desperate women she saw in the South—like she’s haunted by that.
在剧中她提起了她在美国南部所看到的几个绝望的、让人同情的女人----就象她自己也在受那些折磨一样。

“Birdlike women.” That’s right.
“她一个爱唠叨的女人。”没错。

Well I can’t wait to see you in this. You are perfect for this role. Now, I must ask you about Queer as Folk. When did you last work on it?
好的，很想马上就可以看到你在这部剧中的表演。这个角色由你来演真是再合适不过了。下面，我想问问你关于《Queer As Folk》的事情。你离开剧组有多长时间了？

It’s been about two-and-a-half years.
已经两年半了。

It really portrayed gay characters on their own terms in a brutally honest and funny way. It showed that you can keep your soul, even in a sex-drenched world.
这部电视剧以同志的眼光，用客观、风趣的方式刻画了剧中的同性爱角色。这说明即使在一个“性欲横流”的世界，也可以保持一种精神层面上的东西。

You know, it’s not a world that I’ve ever been a part of, so I’m not in a position to know if it was accurate or not.
但是，我并不是真的生活在那样的环境中，所以我不太好说你说的是否准确。

I think it’s a brilliant show. It compels queer people to look at themselves.
我觉得它是个很棒的电视剧，它促使同性爱人群更多地审视自己。

It’s definitely gritty.
它是一部很有勇气的电视剧。

Do you miss doing it?
怀念拍摄的那段日子吗？

No. It was a wonderful job. I did it for five years. It was a long time, but it was a wonderful break for me. I learned so much working on it, but I was ready to move on when it was over.
不。那是一段让人愉快的经历，我拍了五年。很长的一段时间，但对我来说也是一个很完美的结束。在拍摄过程中我收获了很多，但当它结束的时候，我已经准备好继续向前走。

END

原文

Splendor in the Glass
Randy Harrison’s Tennessee Waltz
by John Townsend

In 1944, master gay playwright Tennessee Williams rocked American theater and society with The Glass Menagerie. Its poetic, yet unsettlingly candid, view of the Wingfields, a family abandoned by their father and husband, now ranks as one of the towering achievements of 20th-Century American drama.

The Glass Menagerie is especially relevant in 2007, given the awareness of the American public about single parents battling rocky economic times. Moreover, in subtle ways, this classic, which was inspired by Williams’s own personal experiences, codifies the playwright’s struggle with his homosexual orientation.

It’s fitting that the current Guthrie Theater revival features Queer as Folk star Randy Harrison as protagonist Tom. Indeed, given the sensitivity he revealed in that landmark television series, Harrison’s casting seems nothing less than ideal. If Williams’s spirit is out there peeking in on us, he must be ecstatic that Harrison essentially is playing him.

I spoke with Harrison recently about Williams, his play, director Joe Dowling, and Queer as Folk.

I think of Tom Wingfield as a kind of surrogate for Tennessee Williams himself, and I feel like much of his restlessness and his disquietude has to do with being gay. Of course, Williams couldn’t write about that openly in the 1940s.

I don’t think that’s the largest aspect of it, but I think it’s huge. I think the frustration he’s experiencing in the home has to do with his being an artist more than anything, and his realization that it’s going to be impossible for him to follow that dream [by] staying with his family.

I think [Tom’s homosexuality] could be part of it, but it totally depends upon the actor’s take, because it’s not implicit. It’s not actually in the text. It’s definitely a part of what he’s going through. Certainly, there is a lot going on that’s unspoken about him, and between him and his family.

What have you been doing to research the play and your interpretation of the character?

I’m reading Williams’s memoirs now. I’ve read a few biographies, and almost all of his plays. I’m thinking I’m almost filled up on the biographical information at this point, and I need to just come back to the play.

But there is a lot of him in the play.

A huge amount.

It’s certainly valid for you to be examining his life and work. What are you discovering about Williams? I’ve read the memoirs. He was pretty wild.

He was. The memoirs are amazing, just because they take place so much later than when he wrote the play. The character is hugely based on him, but it’s a work of fiction ultimately, and you need to be responsible to the script of the play, not to any biographical information. But I’m amazed at how honest the memoirs are.

I had this image of his just being this mess later in his life. But they’re so astute. I know there were exaggerations and things that were left out, but they’re so honest. You really understand why his characters and his plays are so indelible in the way he writes his memoirs. You have to remind yourself of the time he wrote them—1972.

They were cutting-edge. And they contain all that wrenching stuff about his mother, Miss Edwina, and his sister, Rose. Just heartbreaking.

Devastating.

It seems like there’s a lot that surfaces in Amanda, Tom’s mother, that we find in Miss Edwina, and a lot in Laura, Tom’s sister, that we find in Rose.

A huge amount, but more about Amanda.

Many actresses will tell you that Williams wrote some of the best female characters in all of drama. And you played in one of the most groundbreaking series in the history of television. Your character, Justin, is very patient, nurturing, supportive, and he’s very sweet. I recently watched the episode where you play his winning the King of Babylon studly beauty contest.

Eight years ago!

That’s one big reason why it will be so interesting for your TV fans to see you play Tom. He’s a very restless character—a real contrast.

It feels very, very different.

You’ve done a lot of musical theater.

I haven’t done a lot of musicals in a while. I sang in college, so it was an easier way to get my Equity card, and to start working professionally. There are a lot more opportunities in it. About three years ago, I did Wicked, and since then, I’ve been doing just straight theater—Amadeus and Equus.

You portrayed the lead roles in those two very demanding pieces. And this one is also very demanding—one of the plum men’s roles in American drama. Many would call it the plum role for a young American actor.

By the way, many people in the local queer community are very happy that the Guthrie has been doing Tennessee Williams plays more regularly since Joe Dowling has been Artistic Director.

Before his tenure, it seemed like Anton Chekhov and other great playwrights were emphasized. Nothing wrong with that, of course, but Dowling’s interest in Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams has been wonderful.

Miller was hetero, but his social consciousness was second to none, and so is automatically adored by most queer theatergoers. And Williams’s unmistakably queer sensibility gives us a window into how that sensibility had to be expressed in the decades before Stonewall.

Dowling has this instinctive understanding of the mid-20th-Century American world these two giants encompassed. His production of Death of a Salesman a few years back was just spellbinding. He captured that dance between gritty reality and delicate memory. And The Glass Menagerie also dances that dance.

He’s phenomenal, and he really understands family. And maybe this is why you think he’s done such good work with American classics, because so much is about family. He’s so very astute about family dynamics.

A majority of this play is about this give-and-take—this pushing and pulling that happens within families. And he’s been remarkable about getting in there with us. He has such a keen eye, and such an understanding of who’s winning and who’s losing as far as the pushing and pulling.

Those kind of things really set people off when they’re in that pressure-cooker environment, being in a small home with a family—which is what Death of a Salesman is about.

There’s something Williams talks about regarding shared family pain in Memoirs that comes through The Glass Menagerie as well.

The play’s characters, Tom and Laura, brother and sister, exist in their St. Louis tenement apartment after they had lived in a much more accepting, sylvan, and gentler environment down South.

St. Louis is this comparably harsh, horrible reality for them. Williams says in his memoirs that he feels that when his own family moved to St. Louis, it was traumatic for both him and Rose.

They found themselves ostracized, judged negatively and snobbishly by those in their community and neighborhood there. They didn’t have the same brusqueness and coarser vocal rhythms that others around them had. And they were looked down on for not having as much money.

Oh, yeah. The way in which the family is isolated from the rest of the community in St. Louis. In the play, it’s not indicated whether or not they were born in the South, and moved there, or if they had been there the entire time, and just the mother was from there. But we’re choosing that we actually went on the same journey Tennessee Williams had when he left Mississippi.

I think that’s the right way to go with it.

Right. The family is isolated from the rest of the community both by their being Southern and being poorer. But it is the Depression, and there’s this sense that everybody—all of America—has been forced into this desperate situation. It comes through in his monologues.

And I think they’re more isolated for being Southern. The mother comes from an entirely different reality than the one they’re attempting to live in right now. I think that’s a huge thing that’s making Tom completely restless—his being a part of that other world, and then coming back to this world.

And as he grows up, he more and more realizes the world that his family has erected—his mother specifically, but Laura, too—that he’s been forced to live in, is an illusion. And he has to separate from that in order to engage with reality, and become an adult and an artist.

Great point. The mother, Amanda, goes on about her gentlemen callers, and has this sort of Antebellum South romanticism gone haywire.

Right. And it’s the Depression. It’s not happening anymore.

That’s another thing that I think makes the play more relevant now than, say, only a decade ago. It has a new pertinence now, because we’re seeing a starker division between rich and poor in American society. We’re always finding evidence about the disappearing middle class.

Though that division has surely been creeping up on us since the ’80s, people are now more acutely aware of it. There seems to be less hope for the future, and there’s a desperation just below the surface now.

Amanda comes from a time when there were no government-funded safety nets, and now, more of our safety nets have been cut. In Amanda’s heyday, you had to have means when you were old, or a financially solvent husband who would leave you enough to live on when he died.

She talks about pitiful cases of desperate women she saw in the South—like she’s haunted by that.

“Birdlike women.” That’s right.

Well I can’t wait to see you in this. You are perfect for this role. Now, I must ask you about Queer as Folk. When did you last work on it?

It’s been about two-and-a-half years.

It really portrayed gay characters on their own terms in a brutally honest and funny way. It showed that you can keep your soul, even in a sex-drenched world.

You know, it’s not a world that I’ve ever been a part of, so I’m not in a position to know if it was accurate or not.

I think it’s a brilliant show. It compels queer people to look at themselves.

It’s definitely gritty.

Do you miss doing it?

No. It was a wonderful job. I did it for five years. It was a long time, but it was a wonderful break for me. I learned so much working on it, but I was ready to move on when it was over.

The Glass Menagerie
Jan. 20-Mar. 25
Guthrie Theater
818 S. 2nd St., Mpls.
(612) 377-2224
www.guthrietheater.org