The SpeakEasy Stage Company Presents 'New' Works By Tennessee Williams

"Five by Tenn"                                        

A collection of one-act plays by Tennessee Williams            

Director Scott Edmiston, Set Design Janie E. Howland, Costume Design Gail A. Buckley, Lighting Design Karen Perlow, Original Music/Sound Design Dewey Dellay

Featuring Ellen Adair, Christopher Brophy, Allyn Burrows, Mary Klug, Will McGarrahan, Eric Rubbe, Anne Scurria, and William Young                                                                                                             Performances through February 25    Box Office 617-933-8600   www.bostontheatrescene.com

Tennessee Williams summed up his life's work as follows: "I have only one major theme for all my work which is the destructive impact of society on the sensitive, nonconformist individual." That description could apply to the characters in these short plays and, most assuredly, to Williams himself as he struggled with his homosexuality and expressed that struggle in his writing. The plays and one additional scene featured at the SpeakEasy Stage Company represent works from every major period of the poet-playwright's life, from adolescence to old age, covering a forty-year span.

Director Edmiston takes us on a journey through Williams' life and evolution, both as a writer and as a homosexual. While each of the plays stands on its own, the director has connected them in a way that makes them fit together as a cohesive unit. There are several themes that recur, like the inability to show love for one another, the fear of change and time being the enemy, and the sometimes destructive power of desire.

We are drawn into the New Orleans world that Williams adopted by Janie E. Howland's two-tiered set that represents a movie theatre with its grand staircase, a summer cottage, a writer's garret, a comfortable love nest, and an old man's place to die. The wrought iron rails and scrollwork pillars, slatted bifold doors, and billowing curtains speak to us of the French Quarter where most of the stories take place.

"These Are The Stairs You Got To Watch" introduces us to the young Williams, personified by a boy in his first job as an usher at a movie theatre called the Joy Rio. Eric Rubbe, who plays the Williams figure throughout, is believable in his nervousness and insecurity as the new kid being shown the ropes by a senior (28 year old) usher. The grand staircase stage right takes center stage, so to speak, as the stairs mentioned in the title. No one is allowed on the "forbidden" staircase, the implication being that unseemly activities have taken place in the balcony in the past. The play was adapted from a short story that focused on the men who frequent the theatre, the basis for the dirty secrets.

"Stairs" morphed seamlessly into "Summer At The Lake" and the exploration of a mother-son conflict similar to that in "The Glass Menagerie." Anne Scurria is so convincing as Mrs. Fenway that the audience can feel her smothering effect on son Donald (Rubbe) and totally understand his eye-rolling and faraway look. Williams' own mother has been described as high-strung and his father was a traveling salesman. In this story, the parents have separated and the less than prosperous family fortunes have resulted in the need to sell the cottage at the lake. Mirroring the author's own passion for swimming, Donald finds solace in the water and ultimately his escape.

While Rubbe's character seems to disappear at the conclusion of "Lake," in his role as Writer in "Vieux Carre" (a scene from a 1977 full-length play) it is plausible that the boy became this young man, experiencing the bohemian decadence and sexual freedom of New Orleans. The scene selected here is significant because it is Williams' first stage depiction of intimacy between men after years of veiled references and innuendo in his works. Will McGarrahan's Nightingale embodies the dark, seamy side of life in the French Quarter as he entices Writer to tell his coming out story. Nightingale comes on as the serpent in the Garden of Eden, knowing the young man better than he knows himself, but shows his own lonely heart and need for connection in the end.

"And Tell Sad Stories Of The Death Of Queens" is the real showpiece of the collection. Allyn Burrows gives a magnificent performance as he transforms from a mild-mannered gentleman to a sweet, nurturing gentlewoman. As the drag queen, every nuance of his dress, his voice, and his gestures hypnotizes us into suspension of disbelief and all of our senses tell us that this is a woman. Christopher Brophy's Karl is as dazzled and dazed by her as the audience until he shakes his head to clear away the illusion. While Candy wants only his friendship and companionship, Karl spitefully tells the drag queen, "Remember that you'll get nothing." And she says, "Getting nothing is something I never forget." Again, it is her loneliness and need for human connection that drive her and underlie the story. She wistfully acknowledges her aging, illustrating Williams' theme of time as the enemy.

"I Can't Imagine Tomorrow" is a departure in style as it reflects Williams' exploration of the theatre of the absurd made popular by Pinter, Sartre, and Beckett. William Young (One) is the elder to Rubbe (Two) as he struggles to accept the impending change (read: loss) in their relationship. One seems resigned to his fate and accepting of it, but is frustrated by the young man's fears that seem to render him immovable. To get Two to talk about his feelings, One makes a game out of having him write down whatever his thoughts are, then responding in kind. One says, "Time is a big broom sweeping us out of the way." The timing and chemistry between Young and Rubbe is smooth and charming at once.

When the lights come up on the final segment of the program, the poet as elder is resting on the staircase when he is approached by a Bryn Mawr coed who has stumbled upon a thin volume of his poems in an antique store. Believing that she has made a marvelous discovery, she wants to rescue him and share him with the world. He is bewildered by her exuberance and wants only to be left in oblivion. He does not wish to be reborn, even in paradise. While it is not known exactly what year "Mister Paradise" was conceived or completed (sometime in the 1970's), actor Eli Wallach told Edmiston, "That play is Tennessee's whole life."

Tennessee Williams has earned acclaim over the years for his well-known works such as "The Glass Menagerie," "A Streetcar Named Desire," and "Cat On A Hot Tin Roof," but what he accomplished in these brief one-act plays is amazing. Every character is fleshed out and we come to know them as well as if we had seen them in a full-length play. The exquisite writing, complemented by intelligent and creative directing, is totally solidified by the quality cast of actors who breathe life into Williams' creations. And, if we are sensitive individuals, we recognize ourselves on the stage.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To post a comment, you must register and login.