FREEPORT — Freeport Factory Stage’s first production of the 2012 season, Tennessee Williams’ drama, “ The Glass Menagerie,” plays through Feb. 25.

A release from the theater company describes the production as follows:

Set in pre-World War II, when Americans were just beginning to get back to work after a long depression, this is a memory play that is as relevant today as it was when first produced in New York in 1945.

“The Glass Menagerie” is a play about family bonds — what ties us to the past, what haunts us and what happens to dreamers when they finally awaken.

Tom Wingfield works for a shoe manufacturing company, but he dreams of a future that provides him with adventure, travel and freedom.

Hoping to free himself from being trapped within the four walls of a cold water tenement in St. Louis, at the continual nagging of his mother, Amanda, Tom agrees to invite a gentleman caller to meet his sister, Laura.

If this is a play about family, it is also a play about work, and being trapped in a job that has no future. Tom says, “ I get up, I go, for $ 65 a month.”

The economy in the mid- 1930s was still shaky. But the world was on the brink of a second war, and in Spain and other places there was revolution.

“The Glass Menagerie” cast includes J.P. Guimont as Tom Wingfield. Elizabeth Somerville plays Laura, Tom’s sister, whose slight physical defect has left her emotionally crippled and detached from the realities of the world.

Performances are Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m.. and Sundays at 2 p.m.

All Thursday performances are “ pay what you want.” Tickets for all other performances are $ 19 general admission and $ 15 for students and seniors 65 and older.

Tickets are available online at www.freeportfactory.com or by calling the box office at 865-5505.