Review: ORPHEUS DESCENDING at Tennessee Williams Theatre Company

There’s a moment in ORPHEUS DESCENDING when Valentine Xavier, tall, lanky, with enough charisma to make a statue blush, enters a dry goods store in a dying Mississippi town. You just know something is about to combust.

With a snakeskin jacket and a guitar case in hand, Val is no mere drifter. He’s a modern Orpheus arriving from New Orleans instead of ancient Thrace, and like the mythic bard who charmed the gods, Val comes bearing songs, scars and something dangerously close to hope. His arrival in Two Rivers County may not save the town, but it sure as hell wakes it up.

Tennessee Williams’ ORPHEUS DESCENDING, revived by the Tennessee Williams Theatre Company of New Orleans in celebration of their tenth season, isn’t a gentle play. At its heart, it is a story of defiance—against loneliness, against repression and against a town’s deeply ingrained cruelty. Originally a reimagining of “Battle of Angels,” a 1940 stage disaster that barely made it past opening night, ORPHEUS DESCENDING has long lived in the shadow of Williams’ better-known works. But under the direction of Augustin J. Correro, this new production mines the mythological weight and spiritual fervor simmering just below the play’s humid surface.

It’s a smoldering tangle of longing and grief, violence and redemption, where every line of dialogue sounds like it was carved from sweat, secrets and Southern heat.

The story circles around Lady Torrance, played with quiet fire by Leslie Claverie. She’s the Italian-American daughter of a murdered winemaker, now married to a dying tyrant whose cruelty radiates from his sickbed above the store like a curse. Claverie delivers a breathtaking performance as she navigates Lady’s brittle dignity and buried desires with a haunting grace. Her performance never begs for sympathy but earns it all the same.

As Val Xavier, Benjamin Dougherty brings a quiet magnetism. Equal parts dreamer and drifter, his presence in the store and Lady’s life is a disruption and a deliverance. Dougherty plays him with restraint, a man trying hard not to unravel, even as he stirs up everyone around him. His chemistry with Claverie crackles with intensity, making every stolen moment between them feel like an act of rebellion.

The supporting cast is equally formidable. Charlie Carr is electric as Carol Cutrere, a character who might’ve stepped out of another Williams play altogether, already halfway gone. Drenched in desperation and defiance, Carr crashes through scenes like a woman trying to outrun her own story. She doesn’t succeed, none of them really do, but in the trying, she becomes unforgettable.

Judy Lea Steele’s Vee Talbott, the painter-wife of the town’s iron-fisted sheriff, provides a softer counterpoint. Her visionary insights offer hope in a world that is determined to crush dreamers. Meanwhile, James Howard Wright’s Jabe Torrance is a menacing presence throughout, a reminder of the town’s suffocating grip on those who dare to challenge its norms. John Jabaley’s Sheriff Talbott plays a Southern strongman archetype with unnerving control, making even his silences feel like threats.

Director Correro orchestrates this storm of archetypes with precision, preventing Williams’ sprawling, sometimes unwieldy script from splintering. His staging heightens the play’s claustrophobic tension, immersing us in a world where every shadow holds a threat. Nathan Arthur’s set design and Diane Baas’ evocative lighting turn the Marquette Theatre stage into a crucible of memory and menace, while Nick Shackleford’s sound design and music choices enhance the Southern Gothic atmosphere without overwhelming it.

ORPHEUS DESCENDING may never shake its reputation as one of Williams’ “problem plays.” Still, this production argues persuasively for its place in the canon. Yes, the first act wanders, the dialogue occasionally teeters into melodrama and the ending leaves ash where catharsis might be. But it is still a visually striking and emotionally harrowing production. With a decade of groundbreaking productions behind them, this kind of fearless storytelling has cemented TWTC as one of New Orleans’ most vital theatrical forces.

With a gripping combination of raw passion, poetic lyricism and searing social commentary, this production reaffirms TWTC’s reputation for tackling the playwright’s most challenging works with both ferocity and finesse. Staged at Loyola University’s Marquette Theatre, this rendition of ORPHEUS DESCENDING is as urgent and relevant as ever.

ORPHEUS DESCENDING runs through April 13 at Loyola University New Orleans’ Marquette Theatre.

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Best Musical - Top 3

1. ANNIE (Ascension Community Theatre)

20.3% of votes

2. THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME (Sullivan theatre)

18.9% of votes

3. THE WIZARD OF OZ (Slidell Little Theatre)

10.9% of votes

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