One act plays by Tennessee Williams
Encyclopedia
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
playwright Tennessee Williams
Tennessee Williams
Thomas Lanier "Tennessee" Williams III was an American writer who worked principally as a playwright in the American theater. He also wrote short stories, novels, poetry, essays, screenplays and a volume of memoirs...
.
Beauty Is the Word
Beauty Is the Word is Tennessee Williams' first play. The 12-page one-act was written in 1930 while Williams was a freshman at University of MissouriUniversity of Missouri
The University of Missouri System is a state university system providing centralized administration for four universities, a health care system, an extension program, five research and technology parks, and a publishing press. More than 64,000 students are currently enrolled at its four campuses...
in Columbia, Missouri
Columbia, Missouri
Columbia is the fifth-largest city in Missouri, and the largest city in Mid-Missouri. With a population of 108,500 as of the 2010 Census, it is the principal municipality of the Columbia Metropolitan Area, a region of 164,283 residents. The city serves as the county seat of Boone County and as the...
and submitted to a contest run by the school's Dramatic Arts Club. Beauty was staged in competition and became the first freshman play ever to be selected for citation (it was awarded honorable mention); the college paper noted that it was "a play with an original and constructive idea, but the handling is too didactic and the dialog often too moralistic.". The play tells the story of a South Pacific
Oceania
Oceania is a region centered on the islands of the tropical Pacific Ocean. Conceptions of what constitutes Oceania range from the coral atolls and volcanic islands of the South Pacific to the entire insular region between Asia and the Americas, including Australasia and the Malay Archipelago...
missionary, Abelard, and his wife, Mabel, and "both endorses the minister's life and corrects his tendency to Victorian
Victorian morality
Victorian morality is a distillation of the moral views of people living at the time of Queen Victoria's reign and of the moral climate of the United Kingdom throughout the 19th century in general, which contrasted greatly with the morality of the previous Georgian period...
prudery."
Why Do You Smoke So Much, Lily?
Why Do You Smoke So Much, Lily? was written in February 1935. In it, Lily, a frustrated chain-smoking young woman, is hounded by her mother. After being discovered in the papers left to the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee, "Lily" was first produced by the Chattanooga Theatre Centre (Chattanooga, TN) as part of the Fellowship of Southern Writers' Conference on Southern Literature, a biennial event hosted by the Arts and Education Council of Chattanooga.Cairo! Shanghai! Bombay!
Cairo, Shanghai, Bombay! was Williams first produced play. He wrote it in 1935 while he was staying in the Midtown, MemphisMidtown, Memphis
- Overview :Architecturally, Midtown Memphis, Tennessee is marked with residential vintage housing, specialty stores, and high-rise buildings, often all located on the same avenue...
home of his grandparents. It was first performed July 12, 1935 by the Garden Players community theater in Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....
. Regarding this production, Williams wrote, "The laughter ... enchanted me. Then and there the theatre and I found each other for better and for worse. I know it's the only thing that saved my life."
The Magic Tower
The Magic Tower was written quickly by Williams in April 1936 in order to meet the deadline for a one-act play contest sponsored by the Webster Groves Theatre Guild in St. Louis, MissouriSt. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
. Williams won first place and The Magic Tower was performed by the Guild on October 13, 1936 to positive reviews. The play tells the story of a young artist and his ex-actress wife living in a slum that they refer to as their "magic tower," following them as their optimism gradually fades.
Summer at the Lake
Written in 1937 under the title Escape, Summer at the Lake was unproduced until November 11, 2004, when it opened at the New York City CenterNew York City Center
New York City Center is a 2,750-seat Moorish Revival theater located at 131 West 55th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues in Manhattan, New York City. It is one block south of Carnegie Hall...
in a collection of rarely-seen Williams one-acts titled Five by Tenn. The autobiographical play tells the story of Donald Fenway, a sensitive teenager who feels trapped by his self-absorbed Southern mother and his shoe-company executive father, who wants him to abandon his plans for college and find a menial job. The play was interpreted by several critics as "an early snapshot" of the characters and themes that later appeared in Williams' breakthrough 1944
1944 in literature
The year 1944 in literature involved some significant new books.-New books:*Samuel Hopkins Adams – Canal Town*Jorge Amado – Terras do Sem Fim *Saul Bellow – Dangling Man*Jorge Luis Borges – Fictions...
play The Glass Menagerie
The Glass Menagerie
The Glass Menagerie is a four-character memory play by Tennessee Williams. Williams worked on various drafts of the play prior to writing a version of it as a screenplay for MGM, to whom Williams was contracted...
, which also focused on a combative mother and a dreamy son bent on escape.
The Palooka
The Palooka is a 1937 one act about an old has-been boxer. The characters are The Palooka (Galveston Joe), The Kid and The Trainer. The Kid is nervous about his first fight, and The Palooka relieves the Kid's anxiety by telling about the fictional life he wanted to lead after he retired as Galveston Joe. Its world premiere was presented by the Chattanooga Theatre Centre (Chattanooga, TN) as part of the Fellowship of Southern Writers' Southern Writers Conference in 2000, and was later performed on October 2, 2003, by the Hartford Stage Company in HartfordHartford, Connecticut
Hartford is the capital of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960, it is the second most populous city on New England's largest river, the Connecticut River. As of the 2010 Census, Hartford's population was 124,775, making...
, Connecticut
Connecticut
Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...
.
The Fat Man's Wife
The Fat Man's Wife was written by Williams in 1938 but remained unproduced until November 11, 2004, when it opened at the New York City CenterNew York City Center
New York City Center is a 2,750-seat Moorish Revival theater located at 131 West 55th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues in Manhattan, New York City. It is one block south of Carnegie Hall...
in a collection of rarely-seen Williams one-acts titled Five by Tenn. The play tells the story of Vera Cartwright, a sophisticated Manhattan society lady who is forced to choose between her boorish husband, a theatrical producer, and a young playwright who has become her admirer. The Fat Man's Wife received the sharpest criticism of any of the five exhumed plays; in The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
, John Lahr
John Lahr
John Lahr is an American theater critic, and the son of actor Bert Lahr. Since 1992, he has been the senior drama critic at The New Yorker magazine.-Biography:...
called it a "heterosexual fantasy awash with false emotion and bad writing," and The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
noted that "Williams is obviously attempting to write in a style entirely alien to him, trying on a faux-urbane manner that fits him like a rented tuxedo in the wrong size."
Adam and Eve on a Ferry
Adam and Eve on a Ferry was written in 1939. It contains three characters: D.H. Lawrence, his wife FriedaFrieda von Richthofen
Frieda Freiin von Richthofen , a distant relative of the "Red Baron" Manfred von Richthofen, who is best known for her marriage to the British novelist D. H. Lawrence.-Life:...
, and a female visitor named Ariadne. Ariadne comes seeking D.H. Lawrence because she had a run-in on a boat with a man, and wants romance and sex advice from Lawrence. The setting is described as “The sun porch of a villa in the Alps Maritimes.” The only things mentioned on the stage are numerous potted plants, two wicker chairs, and “a banner bearing the woven figure of a phoenix in a nest of flames.” Ariadne is described as plain and “spinsterish looking,” and she wears a hat, while Lawrence sports a “gold satin dressing robe with a lavender shawl."
The Parade, or Approaching the End of a Summer
The Parade, or Approaching the End of a Summer is a short autobiographical play that was written in 1941. The Parade is set on the wharfs of Provincetown, MassachusettsProvincetown, Massachusetts
Provincetown is a New England town located at the extreme tip of Cape Cod in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 3,431 at the 2000 census, with an estimated 2007 population of 3,174...
, and tells the story of a young playwright named Don dealing with his unrequited homosexual love for another man. The situations and characters in the play were "clearly drawn from a very autobiographical foundation," with Don's dilemma reflecting a relationship Williams had in Provincetown with "his actual lover for [one] summer, Kip Kiernan." The Parade was written after a fight with Kiernan, and Williams reflected in 1962 that "[the version of Kip in that play] is very, in fact completely different from Kip as he was. When someone hurts us deeply, we no longer see them at all clearly. Not until time has put them back in focus." That year, Williams retitled and expanded The Parade into a full-length play that was produced in 1981 as Something Cloudy, Something Clear
Something Cloudy, Something Clear
Something Cloudy, Something Clear is an autobiographical play by Tennessee Williams that was originally written in 1941 as a short play titled The Parade, or Approaching the End of a Summer, which was produced posthumously in Provincetown in 2006. In 1962, Williams retitled and expanded The Parade...
. The Parade was not performed until 2006, when it opened on October 1 in Provincetown as part of the First Annual Provincetown Tennessee Williams Festival by Shakespeare on the Cape. Original cast members: Ben Griessmeyer, Vanessa Caye, Elliot Eustis, Megan Bartle, David Landon. Co-Directed by Jef Hall-Flavin and Eric Powell Holm.
The Long Goodbye
The Long Goodbye is a 1940 one act that deals with the male main character's memories of his life from when his family consisted of four people through his father leaving the family, his mother's death, and his sister's fall from grace. The scheme of the play consists of the main character moving out of the apartment he grew up in while experiencing extreme flashbacks of both terrible and glorious moments in his past.The Lady of Larkspur Lotion
The Lady of Larkspur Lotion was written in 1941. It depicts the conflict between a dreamy, delusional heroine (à la Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named DesireA Streetcar Named Desire (play)
A Streetcar Named Desire is a 1947 play written by American playwright Tennessee Williams for which he received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1948. The play opened on Broadway on December 3, 1947, and closed on December 17, 1949, in the Ethel Barrymore Theatre. The Broadway production was...
) and her brusque, practical landlady, who wants to kick her out of her apartment.
At Liberty
At Liberty was written in 1941 and tells the story of a once-successful actress who retreats to her childhood home in MississippiMississippi
Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...
, with fantasies of resuscitating her career.
Portrait of a Madonna
In January 1941, Williams completed a one act play centering around "a deranged spinster living in poverty and with her memories of a former lover." Variously titled Port Mad and The Leafless Block, he revised the play in 1944 and renamed it Portrait of a Madonna. After seeing Jessica TandyJessica Tandy
Jessie Alice "Jessica" Tandy was an English-American stage and film actress.She first appeared on the London stage in 1926 at the age of 16, playing, among others, Katherine opposite Laurence Olivier's Henry V, and Cordelia opposite John Gielgud's King Lear. She also worked in British films...
's performance in a 1947 West Coast
West Coast of the United States
West Coast or Pacific Coast are terms for the westernmost coastal states of the United States. The term most often refers to the states of California, Oregon, and Washington. Although not part of the contiguous United States, Alaska and Hawaii do border the Pacific Ocean but can't be included in...
production of Madonna, Williams decided to cast her in the original production of A Streetcar Named Desire
A Streetcar Named Desire (play)
A Streetcar Named Desire is a 1947 play written by American playwright Tennessee Williams for which he received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1948. The play opened on Broadway on December 3, 1947, and closed on December 17, 1949, in the Ethel Barrymore Theatre. The Broadway production was...
. He later wrote, "It was instantly apparent to me that Jessica was Blanche [DuBois]."
Moony's Kid Don't Cry
Moony's Kid Don't Cry originated as an eight-page melodrama titled Hot Milk at Three in the Morning, which Williams wrote in 1930 at the University of MissouriUniversity of Missouri
The University of Missouri System is a state university system providing centralized administration for four universities, a health care system, an extension program, five research and technology parks, and a publishing press. More than 64,000 students are currently enrolled at its four campuses...
. Hot Milk was produced at MU in 1932, and was revised and titled Moony's Kid Don't Cry in 1941, when it was published in Margaret Mayorga's Best One Act Plays of 1940. It was the first of Williams' plays to be published. In both versions of the play, a poor young married couple get into an argument over their child and, eventually, their relationship.
The Purification
The Purification is the only verse playVerse drama and dramatic verse
Verse drama is any drama written as verse to be spoken; another possible general term is poetic drama. For a very long period, verse drama was the dominant form of drama in Europe...
Tennessee Williams wrote; Williams recalled that it was written in the summer of 1940, although his biographer Lyle Leverich thought it more likely written in spring 1942. It was published in 1944 in the anthology New Directions 1944 under the title Dos Ranchos, or the Purification (in later publications, this was shortened to The Purification). Set on a ranch in the mid-19th century, the play deals with an incest
Incest
Incest is sexual intercourse between close relatives that is usually illegal in the jurisdiction where it takes place and/or is conventionally considered a taboo. The term may apply to sexual activities between: individuals of close "blood relationship"; members of the same household; step...
uous brother/sister relationship and a murder trail. The Purification had its New York debut off-Broadway at the Theatre de Lys on December 8, 1959.
Ten Blocks on the Camino Real
Ten Blocks on the Camino Real is a one-act play that was written in early 1946 and published in Williams' 1948 play collection American Blues; in 1952, the playwright expanded it into a full-length play, Camino RealCamino Real (play)
Camino Real is a 1953 play by Tennessee Williams. In the introduction to the Penguin edition of the play, Williams directs the reader to use the Anglicized pronunciation "Cá-mino Réal." The play takes its title from its setting, alluded to El Camino Real, a dead-end place in a Spanish-speaking town...
. Williams directs the reader to use the Anglicized pronunciation "Cá-mino Réal"
This Property Is Condemned
This one-act play was written in 1946. In 19661966 in film
The year 1966 in film involved some significant events.-Events:Animation legend Walter Disney, well known for his creation of Mickey Mouse, died in 15 December 1966 of acute circulatory collapse following a diagnosis of, and surgery for, lung cancer...
, the play was expanded into the film of the same name
This Property is Condemned
This Property Is Condemned is a 1966 American drama film starring Natalie Wood, Robert Redford, Kate Reid, Charles Bronson and Mary Badham and directed by Sydney Pollack. The screenplay was written by Francis Ford Coppola, Fred Coe and Edith Sommer. The story was adapted from the 1946 one-act...
, which starred Natalie Wood
Natalie Wood
Natalie Wood, born Natalia Nikolaevna Zacharenko was an American film and television actress. After first working in films as a child, Wood became a successful Hollywood star as a young adult, receiving three Academy Award nominations before she was 25 years old.Wood began acting in movies at the...
and Robert Redford
Robert Redford
Charles Robert Redford, Jr. , better known as Robert Redford, is an American actor, film director, producer, businessman, environmentalist, philanthropist, and founder of the Sundance Film Festival. He has received two Oscars: one in 1981 for directing Ordinary People, and one for Lifetime...
.
27 Wagons Full of Cotton
27 Wagons Full of Cotton is a 1946 one-act that Williams referred to as "a Mississippi DeltaMississippi Delta
The Mississippi Delta is the distinctive northwest section of the U.S. state of Mississippi that lies between the Mississippi and Yazoo Rivers. The region has been called "The Most Southern Place on Earth" because of its unique racial, cultural, and economic history...
comedy." In it, Jake, a middle-aged, shady cotton gin owner burns down the mill of Silva Vicarro, a rival in the cotton business. His rival, who knows what happened but cannot prove it, seeks revenge by seducing Jake's young, frail, delicate wife, Flora. Elia Kazan
Elia Kazan
Elia Kazan was an American director and actor, described by the New York Times as "one of the most honored and influential directors in Broadway and Hollywood history". Born in Istanbul, the capital of the Ottoman Empire, to Greek parents originally from Kayseri in Anatolia, the family emigrated...
's controversial 1956
1956 in film
The year 1956 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* October 5 - The Ten Commandments opens in cinemas and becomes one of the most successful and popular movies of all time, currently ranking 5th on the list of all time moneymakers * February 5 - First showing of documentary films by...
movie Baby Doll
Baby Doll
Baby Doll is a 1956 black comedy /drama film directed by Elia Kazan. It was produced by Kazan and Tennessee Williams, and adapted by Williams from his own one-act play 27 Wagons Full of Cotton...
was based on this play. Incidentally, the play's title is written as a line of trochaic pentameter (e.g. TWENty SEVen WAGons FULL of COTTon).
The Last of My Solid Gold Watches
The Last of My Solid Gold Watches was written in 1946, and centers around a Mississippi shoe salesman named Charlie Colton "whose time has passed and who pathetically echoes himself"; Williams is thought to have drawn on aspects of his father, a traveling salesman, in his portrait of Colton.Hello from Bertha
Hello from Bertha is a 1946 one act, about the dramatic life and death of a prostitute in a low-class bordello. It is very strong and very poetic as Bertha imagines events and allusions to her last moments. There are three characters in the play: Lena, a young prostitute who listens to Bertha, and Goldie the old lady of the house who wants to evict Bertha.Lord Byron's Love Letter
Written in 1946, Lord Byron's Love Letter takes place in New Orleans in the late 19th century during Mardi GrasMardi Gras
The terms "Mardi Gras" , "Mardi Gras season", and "Carnival season", in English, refer to events of the Carnival celebrations, beginning on or after Epiphany and culminating on the day before Ash Wednesday...
. A Spinster and an Old Woman advertise that they have one of Lord Byron's love letters (written to her grandmother). A Matron stops by to look at it and drags her partially inebriated Husband along. As the spinster reads from her grandmother's diary, it becomes apparent that the grandmother and the old woman are one and the same. According to the two women, the grandmother met Lord Byron in Greece, shortly before his death, and they had a summer filled with romance. After he died, the grandmother retired from the world and remained in complete seclusion as an honor to his memory (this does not prevent her from commenting on the spinster's every action). The Matron and her Husband aren't permitted to read the letter, only to look at it from a distance.
I Rise in Flame, Cried the Phoenix
I Rise in Flame, Cried the Phoenix presents a fictionalized version of the death of English writer D. H. LawrenceD. H. Lawrence
David Herbert Richards Lawrence was an English novelist, poet, playwright, essayist, literary critic and painter who published as D. H. Lawrence. His collected works represent an extended reflection upon the dehumanising effects of modernity and industrialisation...
on the French Riveria; Lawrence was one of Williams' chief literary influences. The play was completed in 1941, but was not published until 1951, when New Directions Publishers
New Directions Publishers
New Directions Publishing Corp. is an independent book publishing company that was founded in 1936 by James Laughlin. The company was incorporated in 1964 as the New Directions Publishing Corporation and operates from New York City, and its books today are distributed by WW Norton & Company. Its...
released it in a limited edition.
Talk to Me Like the Rain and Let Me Listen
Talk to Me Like the Rain and Let Me Listen was written in 1953 as part of a series of one-acts Williams wrote in particular for community theatreCommunity theatre
Community theatre refers to theatrical performance made in relation to particular communities—its usage includes theatre made by, with, and for a community...
. Unlike the large scenic demands of his larger works (i.e. A Streetcar Named Desire
A Streetcar Named Desire (play)
A Streetcar Named Desire is a 1947 play written by American playwright Tennessee Williams for which he received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1948. The play opened on Broadway on December 3, 1947, and closed on December 17, 1949, in the Ethel Barrymore Theatre. The Broadway production was...
) Talk Like The Rain... features a small-scale, bare-room situation. It involves an unnamed Man
Man
The term man is used for an adult human male . However, man is sometimes used to refer to humanity as a whole...
and Woman
Woman
A woman , pl: women is a female human. The term woman is usually reserved for an adult, with the term girl being the usual term for a female child or adolescent...
who are bound together in an endless cycle by their hopeless poverty. Major William's themes are explored in the Man's alcoholism and the Woman's desperation. Although not specified, the one-act can be worked in a more surrealist fashion. Monologues for both sexes, with the Woman's being substantially longer, spanning several pages.
The Case of the Crushed Petunias
The Case of the Crushed Petunias was written in 1941 and is the story of Dorothy Simple, a woman trapped in her job at a prim and proper shop in Massachusetts. Her complacent existence is interrupted by a visit from a tall man who works for LIFE Inc. who, she discovers, trampled her petunias the night before. With offers of poetry and packets of seeds, he helps her break free from her dreary life.A Perfect Analysis Given by a Parrot
A Perfect Analysis Given by a Parrot was written in 1958.Suddenly, Last Summer
Suddenly, Last Summer was written in 1958, and debuted as part of a double bill of one-act plays written by Williams titled Garden District. (The other one-act play was Something Unspoken.) Garden District premiered Off-BroadwayOff-Broadway
Off-Broadway theater is a term for a professional venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, and for a specific production of a play, musical or revue that appears in such a venue, and which adheres to related trade union and other contracts...
at the York Playhouse on January 7, 1958.
Something Unspoken
Something Unspoken was written in 1958, and debuted as part of a double bill of one-act plays written by Williams titled Garden District. (The other one-act was Suddenly, Last Summer.) Garden District premiered Off-BroadwayOff-Broadway
Off-Broadway theater is a term for a professional venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, and for a specific production of a play, musical or revue that appears in such a venue, and which adheres to related trade union and other contracts...
at the York Playhouse on January 7, 1958. The title Garden District is a misnomer, because while Suddenly, Last Summer takes place in the Garden District of New Orleans
Garden District, New Orleans
The Garden District is a neighborhood of the city of New Orleans. A subdistrict of the Central City/Garden District Area, its boundaries as defined by the City Planning Commission are: St. Charles Avenue to the north, 1st Street to the east, Magazine Street to the south and Toledano Street to the...
, Something Unspoken takes place in Meridian, Louisiana.
And Tell Sad Stories of the Deaths of Queens . . .
And Tell Sad Stories of the Deaths of Queens . . . (A Play in Two Scenes) was initially written in 1957 and worked on as late as 1962. It was published in 2005 by New Directions in Mister Paradise and Other One-Act Plays (NDP1007). A slightly different version was first published in Political Stages: Plays That Shaped a Century (Applause Theatre & Cinema Books, 2002). The play concerns the private life of "Candy" Delaney, a successful interior decorator and landlord who is also a transvestite. It was first performed by the Shakespeare Theatre CompanyShakespeare Theatre Company
The Shakespeare Theatre Company is a regional theatre company located in Washington, D.C. Their self professed mission "is to present classic theatre of scope and size in an imaginative, skillful and accessible American style that honors the playwrights’ language and intentions while viewing their...
on April 22, 2004 at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.
The Mutilated
The Mutilated was written in 1966, and debuted as part of a double-bill of one act plays written by Williams titled Slapstick Tragedy (the other one act was The Gnädiges Fräulein.) Slapstick Tragedy premiered on BroadwayBroadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
at the Longacre Theatre
Longacre Theatre
The Longacre Theatre is a Broadway theatre located at 220 West 48th Street in midtown Manhattan.-Theatre History:Designed by architect Henry Beaumont Herts in 1912, it was named for Longacre Square, the original name for Times Square...
on February 22, 1966.
The Gnädiges Fräulein
The Gnädiges Fräulein was written in 1966, and debuted as part of a double-bill of one act plays written by Williams titled Slapstick Tragedy (the other one act was The Mutilated.) Slapstick Tragedy premiered on BroadwayBroadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
at the Longacre Theatre
Longacre Theatre
The Longacre Theatre is a Broadway theatre located at 220 West 48th Street in midtown Manhattan.-Theatre History:Designed by architect Henry Beaumont Herts in 1912, it was named for Longacre Square, the original name for Times Square...
on February 22, 1966.
Now the Cats with Jewelled Claws
Now the Cats with Jewelled Claws was written in 1969. Set in the anteroom of HellHell
In many religious traditions, a hell is a place of suffering and punishment in the afterlife. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hells as endless. Religions with a cyclic history often depict a hell as an intermediary period between incarnations...
, it was described by Williams biographer Donald Spoto
Donald Spoto
Donald Spoto is an American celebrity biographer, Catholic theologian, and former monk. He is best known for his best-selling biographies of film and theatre celebrities such as Alfred Hitchcock, Laurence Olivier, Tennessee Williams, Ingrid Bergman, James Dean, Elizabeth Taylor, Grace Kelly,...
as "gruesome....a tale of madness, depravity and death."
I Can't Imagine Tomorrow
I Can't Imagine Tomorrow was a two-character play written for television, broadcast with Talk To Me Like The Rain And Let Me Listen under the collective title "Dragon Country" on WNET-TV in 1970. Kim StanleyKim Stanley
Kim Stanley was an American actress, primarily in television and theatre, but with occasional film performances....
plays a lonely but spirited spinster being courted by a pathologically shy teacher, played by William Redfield
William Redfield (actor)
William Redfield was an American actor and author who appeared in numerous theatrical, film, radio, and television roles.-Acting career:...
. "Dragon Country" is available on DVD as part of the Broadway Theatre Archive.
The Frosted Glass Coffin
Written in 1970, The Frosted Glass Coffin follows a group of retirees living at a hotel in Miami, FloridaMiami, Florida
Miami is a city located on the Atlantic coast in southeastern Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, the most populous county in Florida and the eighth-most populous county in the United States with a population of 2,500,625...
. In his memoirs, Williams wrote that he believed the "rather depressing" work to be "one of [his] best short plays."
Kirche, Kŭche und Kinder
Kirche, Kŭche und Kinder was written in 1979. The title translates as "Church, Kitchen and Children" and is a reference to a well-known German sloganKinder, Küche, Kirche
Kinder, Küche, Kirche , or the 3 K’s, is a German slogan translated as “children, kitchen, church”. At the present time it has a derogative connotation describing an antiquated female role model...
. It was first performed by The Jean Cocteau Repertory Company as a work-in-progress in September, 1979 at the Bouwerie Lane Theatre in New York City where it ran in repertory until January, 1980. The play is subtitled (An Outrage for the Stage). It was published in 2008 by New Directions in The Traveling Companion & Other Plays (NDP1106).
The Chalky White Substance
The Chalky White Substance was written in 1980. It was originally published in Issue 66 of Antaeus (magazine)Antaeus (magazine)
Antaeus was a literary quarterly founded by Daniel Halpern and Paul Bowles and edited by Daniel Halpern. It was originally published in Tangier, Morocco, but operations were later shifted to New York City. The first number appeared in the summer of 1970, the final issue in 1994...
in 1991. It was first performed by the Running Sun Theater Company on May 3, 1996 at the Center Stage in New York City on a double-bill with The Traveling Companion, collectively entitled Williams' Guignol. The play is dedicated to author James Purdy
James Purdy
James Otis Purdy was a controversial American novelist, short story-writer, poet, and playwright who, since his debut in 1956, published over a dozen novels, and many collections of poetry, short stories, and plays. His work has been translated into more than 30 languages. He has been praised by...
.
This Is Peaceable Kingdom or Good Luck God
This Is Peaceable Kingdom or Good Luck God was written in 1980.The One Exception
The One Exception was written in 1983. It was originally published in The Tennessee Williams Annual Review, Volume 3, in 2000. It was first performed on October 2, 2003 by the Hartford Stage Company of Hartford, Connecticut.One act publication history
- 27 Wagons Full of Cotton (New Directions PublishersNew Directions PublishersNew Directions Publishing Corp. is an independent book publishing company that was founded in 1936 by James Laughlin. The company was incorporated in 1964 as the New Directions Publishing Corporation and operates from New York City, and its books today are distributed by WW Norton & Company. Its...
, February 1946, first edition; NDP217)- Collects 27 Wagons Full of Cotton; The Lady of Larkspur Lotion; The Last of My Solid Gold Watches; Portrait of a Madonna; Auto Da Fé; Lord Byron's Love Letter; This Property Is Condemned; The Long Goodbye; At Liberty; Moony's Kid Don't Cry; The Strangest Kind of Romance; Hello from Bertha; and The Purification.
- American Blues: Five Short Plays (Dramatists Play ServiceDramatists Play ServiceEstablished in 1936 by members of the Dramatists Guild and the Society for Authors' Representatives, Dramatists Play Service, Inc. is a theatrical publishing and licensing house...
, 1948)- Collects The Dark Room; Ten Blocks on the Camino Real; The Case of the Crushed Petunias; The Unsatisfactory Supper; and Moony's Kid Don't Cry.
- Dragon Country: A Book of Plays (New Directions Publishers, 1970; NDP287)
- Collects (along with the full-length play In the Bar of a Tokyo HotelIn the Bar of a Tokyo Hotel- Synopsis :Mark is an alcoholic painter on the verge of a nervous breakdown who is trying to boost his sagging career by developing a new style in his Tokyo hotel room...
) I Rise in Flame, Cried the Phoenix; The Mutilated; I Can't Imagine Tomorrow; Confessional; The Frosted Glass Coffin; The Gnädiges Fräulein; and A Perfect Analysis Given by a Parrot.
- Collects (along with the full-length play In the Bar of a Tokyo Hotel
- Tennessee Williams, Plays 1937-1955 (Library of AmericaLibrary of AmericaThe Library of America is a nonprofit publisher of classic American literature.- Overview and history :Founded in 1979 with seed money from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Ford Foundation, the LoA has published over 200 volumes by a wide range of authors from Mark Twain to Philip...
, 2000; #119)- Collects (along with his full-length plays) 27 Wagons Full of Cotton; The Lady of Larkspur Lotion; The Last of My Solid Gold Watches; Portrait of a Madonna; Auto Da Fé; Lord Byron's Love Letter; This Property Is Condemned; Talk to Me Like the Rain and Let Me Listen; and Something Unspoken.
- Tennessee Williams, Plays 1957-1980 (Library of America, 2000; #120)
- Collects (along with his full-length plays) Suddenly, Last Summer and The Mutilated.
- Mister Paradise and Other One-Act Plays (New Directions Publishers, 2005; NDP1007)
- Collects These Are the Stairs You Got to Watch; Mister Paradise; The Palooka; Escape; Why Do You Smoke So Much, Lily?; Summer at the Lake; The Big Game; The Pink Bedroom; The Fat Man's Wife; Thank You, Kind Spirit; The Municipal Abattoir; Adam and Eve on a Ferry; and And Tell Sad Stories of the Deaths of Queens.
- The Traveling Companion & Other Plays (New Directions Publishers, 2008; NDP1106)
- Collects (along with the full-length play Will Mr. Merriweather Return from Memphis?Will Mr. Merriweather Return from Memphis?Will Mr. Merriweather Return from Memphis? is a play by Tennessee Williams.Although he wrote it in 1969, it wasn't staged until January 1980, when the Tennessee Williams Fine Arts Center, situated on the campus of Florida Keys Community College, presented it as their opening production...
) The Chalky White Substance; The Day on Which a Man Dies; A Cavalier for Milady; The Pronoun "I"; The Remarkable Rooming-House of Mme. LeMonde; Kirche, Küche, Kinder; Green Eyes; The Parade; The One Exception; Sunburst; and The Traveling Companion.
- Collects (along with the full-length play Will Mr. Merriweather Return from Memphis?
- Camino Real (New Directions Publishers, 2008; NDP1122)
- Collects (along with the full-length play Camino RealCamino Real (play)Camino Real is a 1953 play by Tennessee Williams. In the introduction to the Penguin edition of the play, Williams directs the reader to use the Anglicized pronunciation "Cá-mino Réal." The play takes its title from its setting, alluded to El Camino Real, a dead-end place in a Spanish-speaking town...
) Ten Blocks on the Camino Real.
- Collects (along with the full-length play Camino Real
- Sweet Bird of Youth (New Directions Publishers, 2008; NDP1123)
- Collects (along with the full-length play Sweet Bird of YouthSweet Bird of YouthSweet Bird of Youth is a 1959 play by Tennessee Williams which tells the story of a gigolo and drifter, Chance Wayne, who returns to his home town as the accompaniment of a faded movie star, Princess Kosmonopolis , whom he hopes to use to help him break into the movies...
) The Enemy: Time.
- Collects (along with the full-length play Sweet Bird of Youth
- The Rose Tattoo (New Directions Publishers, 2010; NDP1172)
- Collects (along with the full-length play The Rose TattooThe Rose Tattoo- External links :*...
) The Dog Enchanted by the Divine View.
- Collects (along with the full-length play The Rose Tattoo
- The Magic Tower and Other One-Act Plays (New Directions Publishers, 2011; NDP1182)
- Collects At Liberty; The Magic Tower; Mr. Vashya; Curtains for the Gentleman; In Our Profession; Every Twenty Minutes; Honor the Living; The Case of the Crushed Petunias; The Pretty Trap; Some Problems for the Moose Lodge; Interior: Panic; Mooney's Kid Don't Cry; Kingdom of Earth; I Never Get Dressed Till After Dark on Sundays; and The Dark Room.