Glasshouses

Synopsis

Nottingham, August 1963 to May 1965

Jim Cooper, a frustrated seventeen-year-old, watches with growing resentment as his mother Dora sacrifices herself for his father Arthur, whom Jim sees as intellectually and morally lacking. Across the street, Elsie Ashton rules her household with an iron fist, having thoroughly emasculated her husband Frank.

Lowe’s play weaves moments of extraordinary pathos and poetry into its fabric, creating a tapestry of working-class life that is both brutally honest and deeply moving. Through acute, bracing, and often funny depictions of adolescence and family dynamics, the play explores the search for human dignity in a world rife with lies, evasions, and hypocrisies. As the characters navigate their changing relationships and societal expectations, Glasshouses offers a timely reflection on the complexities of growing up and the struggle to maintain one’s sense of self amidst the pressures of family and community.