Director David Kaplan
Known as the Tennessee Suite, The Traveling Companion and The Chalky White Substance, a pair of plays written by Tennessee Williams in 1980, make their European premiere at The Absolut Gay Theatre Festival Dublin, May 10-15, 2010. This Provincetown Tennessee Williams Theater Festival production of the Tennessee Suite travels to Dublin after having been performed in New Orleans, Columbus and Provincetown in 2007 and in Sewanee at the University of the South in 2009.
Directed and designed by David Kaplan, The Traveling Companion and The Chalky White Substance feature performers Jeremy Lawrence and Zachary Clause, and lighting design by Megan Tracy.
Actor Jeremy Lawrence
I was fortunate to see the 2007 production of the Tennessee Suite at the Provincetown Tennessee Williams Theater Festival with actor Jeremy Lawrence as Vieux and Mark, and actor Zachary Clause as Beau and Luke. The Traveling Companion takes place in a Manhattan hotel room with an older author, his much younger traveling companion and one bed. No bed trick here, but one wonders if the young man doth protest too much.
The Chalky White Substance follows. Set in the future, this play about survival, trust and betrayal takes place in the midst of a nuclear winter. The stage lighting emulates swirling snowflakes whose movement ebbs and flows with the drama on stage. As in The Traveling Companion, this play features an older man and a younger man.
Both plays were written three years before Williams’ untimely death. Director and Tennessee Williams scholar David Kaplan puts Williams career in 1980 into perspective for us:
“Eight new plays in one year. Two successful revivals. A Broadway failure, but even so, his future, despite visions of apocalyptic doom, was promising.”
More historical detail about these plays and the late style of Tennessee Williams can be found at David Kaplan’s site.
{ 0 comments }
