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The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore
NOTE: The version of the play contained in this acting edition is one which was specifically revised by the author for release to the nonprofessional theatre. As George Oppenheimer describes "We first encounter Mrs. Goforth in one of her three villas on the southern coast of Italy frantically endeavoring to complete her memoirs before her death. However, there is still life in the old girl as she bullies her attractive female secretary, spits venom at a visitor whom she dubs "the witch of Capri," makes propositions to a handsome young itinerant poet over half her age, and dictates night and day, either to the secretary or to any number of tape recorders scattered about the premises, her vapid and ridiculous memories which she believes will form an important social commentary. To the triple homes of Mrs. Goforth comes Chris Flanders, the young poet, who because of his past presence in the company of so many elderly women at the time of their deaths has won the mocking nickname of "the angel of death." At first we take him to be, as does Mrs. Goforth, a hustler who is willing to sell his poems, his mobiles, or his body to susceptible and lonely ancients. To Mrs. Goforth, who has lived a full and promiscuous life and is in mortal fear of relinquishing it, Chris comes as an answer to a carnal prayer, a last fling before she is forced to face ultimate loneliness. Then she discovers that he is unwilling to give in to her seductions at any price, that his is a spiritual nature which seeks only to allay her fears and soothe her pain. Until almost the very end she refuses to believe in his virtue. Her life has been so hedged in viciousness that she cannot accept readily anything but venality."
72 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1963
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About the author
Tennessee Williams
752 books3,668 followersThomas Lanier Williams III, better known by the nickname Tennessee Williams, was a major American playwright of the twentieth century who received many of the top theatrical awards for his work. He moved to New Orleans in 1939 and changed his name to "Tennessee," the state of his father's birth.
Raised in St. Louis, Missouri, after years of obscurity, at age 33 he became famous with the success of The Glass Menagerie (1944) in New York City. This play closely reflected his own unhappy family background. It was the first of a string of successes, including A Streetcar Named Desire (1947), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955), Sweet Bird of Youth (1959), and The Night of the Iguana (1961). With his later work, he attempted a new style that did not appeal to audiences. His drama A Streetcar Named Desire is often numbered on short lists of the finest American plays of the 20th century, alongside Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey into Night and Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman.
Much of Williams' most acclaimed work has been adapted for the cinema. He also wrote short stories, poetry, essays and a volume of memoirs. In 1979, four years before his death, Williams was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame.
From Wikipedia
Raised in St. Louis, Missouri, after years of obscurity, at age 33 he became famous with the success of The Glass Menagerie (1944) in New York City. This play closely reflected his own unhappy family background. It was the first of a string of successes, including A Streetcar Named Desire (1947), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955), Sweet Bird of Youth (1959), and The Night of the Iguana (1961). With his later work, he attempted a new style that did not appeal to audiences. His drama A Streetcar Named Desire is often numbered on short lists of the finest American plays of the 20th century, alongside Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey into Night and Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman.
Much of Williams' most acclaimed work has been adapted for the cinema. He also wrote short stories, poetry, essays and a volume of memoirs. In 1979, four years before his death, Williams was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame.
From Wikipedia
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November 14, 2024
The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore
Tennessee Williams play, "The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore" has never been regarded with much favor but is too good to let go. The play has had a long, difficult history. First produced in Spoleto in 1962, the play had its Broadway premier in 1963 directed by Herbert Marchiz and starring Hermione Baddeley and Paul Roebling. The play closed after 66 performances but received a second chance in 1964 featuring the unlikely combination of Tallulah Bankhead and Tab Hunter in the lead roles directed by Tony Richardson. This time, the play failed catastrophically after only five performances. But that was not the end of Williams' play. In 1968, Williams wrote the screenplay for a film version of the play, retitled "Boom!". Joseph Losey directed the movie which starred none other that Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. Unfortunately, the movie is difficult to find today. In a 2011 revival of the play, Olympia Dukakis played the lead in a New York production directed by Michael Wilson.
The work is suggestive, poetical, and uneven. It is set in 1963 high in the mountains in an elaborate estate in Italy overlooking the Mediterranean Sea owned by a wealthy elderly American widow, Flora (or Sissy) Goforth. She is terminally ill and, the viewer is told at the outset of the play, has only two days to live. Goforth lives on a mixture of drugs and pills and spends her time dictating her memoirs to a young American woman, a "Vassar girl" named Blackie who is likewise an early widow. Goforth has survived four (or six) husbands, the first of whom died leaving her fabulously wealthy while still in her teens. Only the last marriage was based on love. Goforth's memoirs in progress detail her relationships with her husbands and her attempt to bring back a small feeling of love into her ailing, calloused heart.
The play centers on Goforth's relationship with Christopher Flanders 35, a self-described burned out poet and a maker of mobiles. Flanders has acquired the dubious nickname, the "Angel of Death" for reasons unfolded during the play. He climbs to the villa on an old mountain train carrying a heavy bag of mobiles and is attacked by Goforth's watchdogs. Goforth has strong reason to distrust him. She is torn between her distrust and hardness and her need for sexuality and one final attempt at love and intimacy. Flanders is at least equally conflicted. He has made his life preying on elderly women who are lonely, dying, and in need of male companionship. Yet he also has a poetic, compassionate side to his nature. The play develops into a lengthy, twisting emotional dialogue between Goforth and Flanders on what becomes the day of her death. Caught in their own deceptions and shells, both Goforth and Flanders make efforts to be honest with themselves and with each other. The dying Goforth tries to entice Flanders to her bed. In a short intermediary scene, a third character, a friend of Goforth known as "The Witch of Capri" pays a visit and reveals unwelcome details about both Goforth and Flanders. In early productions, the witch was cast as a woman, but in some later versions, a male plays the witch. Thus in "Boom!" Noel Coward.
played the part.
The play is garish indeed. Goforth dresses in elaborate Japanese costumes and expensive ostentatious jewelry while engaging in extreme, eccentric behavior. The writing has a great deal of power and beauty in Williams' florid, sometimes over-wrought style. The scenes involving Goforth, Flanders, and the witch are frequently moving with the dialogue provocative and themes of mortality, purpose, and God seriously explored. The play is also opaque and difficult to follow. Reading the "The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore" requires a great deal of time and attention as there is much detail to be missed. With the reading, it is easy to understand that watching the play cold over its roughly two and one-half hour running time could be a frustrating and difficult experience. Another problem with the play is the dialogue. While it is frequently beautiful, little happens besides talk in the second half of the play, and it comes to a weak, anticlimactic conclusion.
John Lahr's new biography "Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh" (2014) discusses this difficult play at length. He offers insight into the themes of the play while relating it to Williams' own life and to the playwright's fear that he was losing his creative impulse. Lahr discusses the difficulty of working with the iconic Tallulah Bankhead, who was an important model for Goforth. Bankhead apparently performed miserably in the failed 1964 production while Tab Hunter, who was derided for his status as teen age idol, good looks and alleged lack of talent, performed credibly in the role of Flanders.
With its flaws and excesses, "The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore" holds on to a tenuous life. Admirers of Williams will want to read the play. It is available both separately and in the second of the two-volume Library of America set of the plays of Tennessee Williams.
Robin Friedman
Tennessee Williams play, "The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore" has never been regarded with much favor but is too good to let go. The play has had a long, difficult history. First produced in Spoleto in 1962, the play had its Broadway premier in 1963 directed by Herbert Marchiz and starring Hermione Baddeley and Paul Roebling. The play closed after 66 performances but received a second chance in 1964 featuring the unlikely combination of Tallulah Bankhead and Tab Hunter in the lead roles directed by Tony Richardson. This time, the play failed catastrophically after only five performances. But that was not the end of Williams' play. In 1968, Williams wrote the screenplay for a film version of the play, retitled "Boom!". Joseph Losey directed the movie which starred none other that Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. Unfortunately, the movie is difficult to find today. In a 2011 revival of the play, Olympia Dukakis played the lead in a New York production directed by Michael Wilson.
The work is suggestive, poetical, and uneven. It is set in 1963 high in the mountains in an elaborate estate in Italy overlooking the Mediterranean Sea owned by a wealthy elderly American widow, Flora (or Sissy) Goforth. She is terminally ill and, the viewer is told at the outset of the play, has only two days to live. Goforth lives on a mixture of drugs and pills and spends her time dictating her memoirs to a young American woman, a "Vassar girl" named Blackie who is likewise an early widow. Goforth has survived four (or six) husbands, the first of whom died leaving her fabulously wealthy while still in her teens. Only the last marriage was based on love. Goforth's memoirs in progress detail her relationships with her husbands and her attempt to bring back a small feeling of love into her ailing, calloused heart.
The play centers on Goforth's relationship with Christopher Flanders 35, a self-described burned out poet and a maker of mobiles. Flanders has acquired the dubious nickname, the "Angel of Death" for reasons unfolded during the play. He climbs to the villa on an old mountain train carrying a heavy bag of mobiles and is attacked by Goforth's watchdogs. Goforth has strong reason to distrust him. She is torn between her distrust and hardness and her need for sexuality and one final attempt at love and intimacy. Flanders is at least equally conflicted. He has made his life preying on elderly women who are lonely, dying, and in need of male companionship. Yet he also has a poetic, compassionate side to his nature. The play develops into a lengthy, twisting emotional dialogue between Goforth and Flanders on what becomes the day of her death. Caught in their own deceptions and shells, both Goforth and Flanders make efforts to be honest with themselves and with each other. The dying Goforth tries to entice Flanders to her bed. In a short intermediary scene, a third character, a friend of Goforth known as "The Witch of Capri" pays a visit and reveals unwelcome details about both Goforth and Flanders. In early productions, the witch was cast as a woman, but in some later versions, a male plays the witch. Thus in "Boom!" Noel Coward.
played the part.
The play is garish indeed. Goforth dresses in elaborate Japanese costumes and expensive ostentatious jewelry while engaging in extreme, eccentric behavior. The writing has a great deal of power and beauty in Williams' florid, sometimes over-wrought style. The scenes involving Goforth, Flanders, and the witch are frequently moving with the dialogue provocative and themes of mortality, purpose, and God seriously explored. The play is also opaque and difficult to follow. Reading the "The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore" requires a great deal of time and attention as there is much detail to be missed. With the reading, it is easy to understand that watching the play cold over its roughly two and one-half hour running time could be a frustrating and difficult experience. Another problem with the play is the dialogue. While it is frequently beautiful, little happens besides talk in the second half of the play, and it comes to a weak, anticlimactic conclusion.
John Lahr's new biography "Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh" (2014) discusses this difficult play at length. He offers insight into the themes of the play while relating it to Williams' own life and to the playwright's fear that he was losing his creative impulse. Lahr discusses the difficulty of working with the iconic Tallulah Bankhead, who was an important model for Goforth. Bankhead apparently performed miserably in the failed 1964 production while Tab Hunter, who was derided for his status as teen age idol, good looks and alleged lack of talent, performed credibly in the role of Flanders.
With its flaws and excesses, "The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore" holds on to a tenuous life. Admirers of Williams will want to read the play. It is available both separately and in the second of the two-volume Library of America set of the plays of Tennessee Williams.
Robin Friedman
May 1, 2015
با اينكه شهرت اتوبوسى به نام هوس يا باغ وحش شيشه اى رو نداره اما به نظرم خيلى جذاب تر از آن دو بود،خصوصا ديالوگ ها آمرانه تر بودند!
از باجگيرى عاطفى بيزارم.منظورم را خوب مى فهمى.مردمى كه با حقه هاى از مد افتاده خودشان را به تو تحميل مى كنند و كارى مى كنندكه خيال كنى اگر اين اجازه را به آنها ندهى آدم بى عاطفه اى هستى.اين مردم از تو بيزارند،آنقدر كه حتى نمى توانند پنهانش كنند و يكباره با يك كلمه كوچك يا يك نگاه آن را برملا مى سازند.انفجارى از روى نفرت،چرا كه تو چيزى دارى كه آنها ندارند.مى دانى يكى از نويسندگان آن را چه ناميده؟(يك قلب قدرتمند و يك روح جنگجو براى زندگى!)
از باجگيرى عاطفى بيزارم.منظورم را خوب مى فهمى.مردمى كه با حقه هاى از مد افتاده خودشان را به تو تحميل مى كنند و كارى مى كنندكه خيال كنى اگر اين اجازه را به آنها ندهى آدم بى عاطفه اى هستى.اين مردم از تو بيزارند،آنقدر كه حتى نمى توانند پنهانش كنند و يكباره با يك كلمه كوچك يا يك نگاه آن را برملا مى سازند.انفجارى از روى نفرت،چرا كه تو چيزى دارى كه آنها ندارند.مى دانى يكى از نويسندگان آن را چه ناميده؟(يك قلب قدرتمند و يك روح جنگجو براى زندگى!)
November 26, 2014
I chose to read this play because I liked the title. The play itself was not a success on Broadway, though I think it could have been. Tennessee Williams writes of a rich old lady named Sissy Goforth, having survived six marriages, and dictating her memoirs as her health declines. She is interrupted in this by a trespasser, a youngish (but not actually young) poet named Chris Flanders. Sissy treats him abominably -- the way she treats everyone.
Perhaps The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore failed because Miss Goforth's character is essentially static: She dies unchanged from the virago she was in Scene One.
Chris the Poet seems to be a tad mercurial. He creates mobiles. His one book of poetry was written ten years ago, And he likes to be a companion to dying old women, which earns him the nickname "The Angel of Death." In fact, he is no angel of any sort; and his dealings with Miss Goforth are ambiguous.
Even when he is not at the top of his form, Tennessee Williams is worth reading -- and worth seeing.
Perhaps The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore failed because Miss Goforth's character is essentially static: She dies unchanged from the virago she was in Scene One.
Chris the Poet seems to be a tad mercurial. He creates mobiles. His one book of poetry was written ten years ago, And he likes to be a companion to dying old women, which earns him the nickname "The Angel of Death." In fact, he is no angel of any sort; and his dealings with Miss Goforth are ambiguous.
Even when he is not at the top of his form, Tennessee Williams is worth reading -- and worth seeing.
July 2, 2012
You have to be a Williams fan to love this play because it is not one of his seminal works. However, there are such wonderful lines of dialogue and great acerbic wit to it, that I found it equally as compelling as his better known works. I strongly suggest you see it performed, as I did on Broadway with Olympia Dukakis. It simply comes alive. It confirmed that Williams deserves his place in American literature.
January 2, 2012
While the play had an interesting mix of culture, from the frequently spoken Italian, to the Kabuki robes and stagehands, I think that their use was too convoluted and lacked purpose.
The use of stagehands I found particularly frustrating, as though Williams goes to great lengths to explain them, they don't really appear to add any value to the play's content.
Still an interesting read, but not nearly as good as Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (though this is the only other Williams play I have read). Milk Train left me slightly bewildered and disappointed.
The use of stagehands I found particularly frustrating, as though Williams goes to great lengths to explain them, they don't really appear to add any value to the play's content.
Still an interesting read, but not nearly as good as Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (though this is the only other Williams play I have read). Milk Train left me slightly bewildered and disappointed.
July 29, 2022
Fuckin amazing, so much gorgeous symbolism which makes for a very thought provoking and multi faceted read. Ambiguous, but not frustratingly, allowing enough room to guess and second guess and guess again about the plot and the characters intentions even once it’s ended.
November 5, 2022
An old/dying woman seeks love/sex and flees death. Williams suggests that her stance is delusional but grander than the alternatives.
April 23, 2024
3.8⭐️
این کتاب چهارمین اثریه که از تنسی ویلیامز میخوندم. #باغ_وحش_شیشه_ای ، #گربه_روی_شیروانی_داغ و #تابستان_و_دود رو در پست های قبلی معرفی کردم و از خوندن همشون لذت بردم. این نمایشنامه هم مثل بقیه واقعا به دلم نشست. روزهای پایانی زندگی یک زن که پر از شور زندگیه. نمایشنامه دیالوگ های قشنگی داره که خوندنشو لذت بخش میکنه. امیدوارم شما هم این اثر روبخونید و لذت ببرید.
این کتاب چهارمین اثریه که از تنسی ویلیامز میخوندم. #باغ_وحش_شیشه_ای ، #گربه_روی_شیروانی_داغ و #تابستان_و_دود رو در پست های قبلی معرفی کردم و از خوندن همشون لذت بردم. این نمایشنامه هم مثل بقیه واقعا به دلم نشست. روزهای پایانی زندگی یک زن که پر از شور زندگیه. نمایشنامه دیالوگ های قشنگی داره که خوندنشو لذت بخش میکنه. امیدوارم شما هم این اثر روبخونید و لذت ببرید.
January 6, 2015
I feel this play is one of Williams' most underrated works. While it can be difficult if not high handed in its characters and dialogue, it is at its core, a sad and touching document with a very spiritual message.
One reason I think that it suffers the reputation that it does is that, as with many of Williams' works, there are two versions of the play. The "published" or reading version includes the two stage hands in the manner of Kabuki theatre which as other reviewers have pointed out add nothing to the plot and tend to distract through their artifice. The "staged" or performing version does not include these characters and I think comes off much better.
Williams loved such devices. I believe it is the "reading" version of "The Glass Menagerie" which includes the strange scrim with various slides projected on it throughout the play as when the young girl talks of suffering from pleurosis which the gentleman caller recalls as thinking she was referring to "blue roses," at which time a slide of blue roses appears.
I saw the "Milk Train" performed in Los Angeles at the intimate Fountain Theatre, with a great cast. I enjoyed it so much I went several times.
I think the play can be appreciated on two different levels. On its surface it is sharp, witty, Tennessee Williams dialogue at its most acerbic (and likely therefore hard to really enjoy or care about the characters). But with a good cast, or I think if you are able to read the version without the Kabuki touches, it reveals much deeper insights into death approaching someone who is certainly not ready for it. Instead of Chris Flanders being the "Angel of Death" as he is quickly identified to be, I saw him as a Christ figure trying to help Sissy transition to her own passing and finally accept it. Although Sissy is largely unlikable if you read her lines as they are written, with a good performer, much of the dialogue becomes largely comic and amusing. Many great actresses have played this role; it is unfortunate that the filmed version features Elizabeth Taylor who was too young at the time and clearly lacked the acting chops to tackle such a role. I would have liked to have seen Elizabeth Ashley who also played it on stage; it seems to me she had the bite as well as the depth to give the character life. Olympia Dukakis was acclaimed in the part though to me she's a little too earthy to play it.
All in all, probably a play only for lovers of Williams, but I think one which deserves a second look. Seek out the performing version without the Kabuki touches and stage hand charcters to get closer to what is a more humanistic approach to this play which touches on very universal themes of death and loss.
One reason I think that it suffers the reputation that it does is that, as with many of Williams' works, there are two versions of the play. The "published" or reading version includes the two stage hands in the manner of Kabuki theatre which as other reviewers have pointed out add nothing to the plot and tend to distract through their artifice. The "staged" or performing version does not include these characters and I think comes off much better.
Williams loved such devices. I believe it is the "reading" version of "The Glass Menagerie" which includes the strange scrim with various slides projected on it throughout the play as when the young girl talks of suffering from pleurosis which the gentleman caller recalls as thinking she was referring to "blue roses," at which time a slide of blue roses appears.
I saw the "Milk Train" performed in Los Angeles at the intimate Fountain Theatre, with a great cast. I enjoyed it so much I went several times.
I think the play can be appreciated on two different levels. On its surface it is sharp, witty, Tennessee Williams dialogue at its most acerbic (and likely therefore hard to really enjoy or care about the characters). But with a good cast, or I think if you are able to read the version without the Kabuki touches, it reveals much deeper insights into death approaching someone who is certainly not ready for it. Instead of Chris Flanders being the "Angel of Death" as he is quickly identified to be, I saw him as a Christ figure trying to help Sissy transition to her own passing and finally accept it. Although Sissy is largely unlikable if you read her lines as they are written, with a good performer, much of the dialogue becomes largely comic and amusing. Many great actresses have played this role; it is unfortunate that the filmed version features Elizabeth Taylor who was too young at the time and clearly lacked the acting chops to tackle such a role. I would have liked to have seen Elizabeth Ashley who also played it on stage; it seems to me she had the bite as well as the depth to give the character life. Olympia Dukakis was acclaimed in the part though to me she's a little too earthy to play it.
All in all, probably a play only for lovers of Williams, but I think one which deserves a second look. Seek out the performing version without the Kabuki touches and stage hand charcters to get closer to what is a more humanistic approach to this play which touches on very universal themes of death and loss.
June 1, 2025
Goforth is a ferocious and vibrant character (which seemed like the perfect role for the likes of Tallulah Bankhead and Elizabeth Taylor). Though it wasn’t difficult to see why their vehicles flopped.
The play lacked dynamism — a particularly egregious crime when the lead character is nothing but dynamic. There are no challenges nor foils to Goforth, and rather than building a crescendo through the scenes, there remained a static loudness.
I do applaud the play’s use of a chorus and a Japanese-inspired fluidity in its stage crew and setting. The interpretations of this is where (I would believe) one can find the strength in the story.
Favourite quote? “It’s my turn, now, to go forth, and I’ve got no choice but to do it”.
Favourite moment? When Goforth ignored the stage assistants and insisted on avoiding “death”.
The play lacked dynamism — a particularly egregious crime when the lead character is nothing but dynamic. There are no challenges nor foils to Goforth, and rather than building a crescendo through the scenes, there remained a static loudness.
I do applaud the play’s use of a chorus and a Japanese-inspired fluidity in its stage crew and setting. The interpretations of this is where (I would believe) one can find the strength in the story.
Favourite quote? “It’s my turn, now, to go forth, and I’ve got no choice but to do it”.
Favourite moment? When Goforth ignored the stage assistants and insisted on avoiding “death”.
September 20, 2020
يك نمايشنامه ازروزهاي اخر زندگي زني كه سرشاراز شوق به زندگي بود.
قسمتي از كتاب:
زمين گردونه اي در يك قمارخانه بسيار بزرگ است
بالهاي قوي ميتوانند در هر جهتي پرواز كنند
احساسات احساسات ناگفته بيان كننده تر از كلمات هستند
قسمتي از كتاب:
زمين گردونه اي در يك قمارخانه بسيار بزرگ است
بالهاي قوي ميتوانند در هر جهتي پرواز كنند
احساسات احساسات ناگفته بيان كننده تر از كلمات هستند
July 30, 2022
Sassy and comical but also surprisingly tender and moving. Up there with The Two Character Play and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof as my favourite Tennessee Williams plays.
April 11, 2025
"has it ever struck you that life is all memory, except for the one present moment that goes by you so quick you hardly catch it going"
June 11, 2018
As the angel of death climbs the narrow mountain road. The world around her starts to get in focus.
July 24, 2013
I can try to tap into Williams' thought process on this one - "I've got this really cool thing going with dominant and outlandish female characters of a certain age...but I'm running out of places to put them. I've done the old plantation sex maniac thing, I've done the mad sister thing, I've done the overbearing mother thing (oh boy, have I done the overbearing mother thing...)...what is left? Death. That is what is always left. Death. Death Comes To The Harridan? Death Be Not Loud and Obnoxious? Death of a Medusa?...Ah, I'll get the title later, but I think I can work with this..."
I'm ragging on it, but this one does have the feel of a one-trick pony. A not very nice woman almost comes to terms with her mortality on an Italian coast villa when a stranger ("The Angel of Death", aka Flanders ,not the Simpson's Ned Flanders...alas...) comes to visit.
There is a lot of great comic monologues, but there just isn't much depth to the characters or the situation. I did like the Kabuki staging effects, but it wasn't essential as Williams seems to think. It is only essential because there isn't much else to generate interest. I imagine if I was in the audience I would be concentrating on two things: 1. Waiting for the next outrageous thing to come out of the main character's mouth and 2. Waiting for what the next Kabuki-like effect will be. That isn't the recipe for a good play.
I'm ragging on it, but this one does have the feel of a one-trick pony. A not very nice woman almost comes to terms with her mortality on an Italian coast villa when a stranger ("The Angel of Death", aka Flanders ,not the Simpson's Ned Flanders...alas...) comes to visit.
There is a lot of great comic monologues, but there just isn't much depth to the characters or the situation. I did like the Kabuki staging effects, but it wasn't essential as Williams seems to think. It is only essential because there isn't much else to generate interest. I imagine if I was in the audience I would be concentrating on two things: 1. Waiting for the next outrageous thing to come out of the main character's mouth and 2. Waiting for what the next Kabuki-like effect will be. That isn't the recipe for a good play.
December 19, 2014
I don't understand why this play has such a bad rep; maybe the productions were just plain bad or something, I don't know, I imagine that this text can come off as a bit heavy-handed on stage, but I really enjoyed reading it and was genuinely intrigued by it. I especially liked the fact that Williams intended it to be a kind of fairytale play - maybe those elements weren't properly incorporated in the productions... I get the feeling the play would fail miserably unless that is done just right. In any case, I strongly recommend that anyone interested in theatre and in Williams' work in particular give this a read and never mind the bad press. It's definitely worth it.
October 20, 2014
It's hard to enjoy spending an entire play with one of the most unlikable characters imaginable. There's some great bitchy dialog in this play, but it feels like a slog after awhile since you don't get the sense that Sissy is going to develop any. I almost want to read what was going on in Williams' life when he wrote this so I can get a better idea of how to process this play. I'm thinking maybe it was inspired by Bette Davis' notorious behavior during the Broadway run of Night of the Iguana? I'm not sure.
March 8, 2015
I thought there was a very interesting (and enjoyably read) mixtures of cultures. At some point the setting seemed to be a bit too ostentatious for me (as much as I understand where he was coming from with the 'plastic theatre' style). Plot-wise I enjoyed it quite a lot: the underlying theme of death and companionship (loneliness) was expertly brought up through engaging, multi-dimensional characters, leaving me somewhat pensive and broody.
January 13, 2018
First, this is a seriously underrated Tennessee play. It seemed to be one of those plays where two sides of Williams' character wrestle with each other: a rich, panicky old diva and a young striving artist, who knows that while he cannot save his older wildly successful self, he can at least help it to a peaceful end. For this reason, it has the feel of a valedictory play. It seems as if Williams intends to break his staff and drown is book, even though he has another 17 years to write.
July 25, 2011
goooood
June 30, 2013
Read with Portland Playreaders.
October 31, 2019
Ένα πολύ βαρετό έργο του συνήθως εξαιρετικού αυτού θεατρικού συγγραφέα. Όταν μάλιστα μπλέχτηκαν στη μέση και διάφορες περίεργες θεολογικές αναζητήσεις, το έργο έχασε κάθε ενδιαφέρον.
February 23, 2016
Eh, this one didn't really hold my attention. Didn't really care for any of the characters and just felt like I sloggeed through reading it.
January 18, 2020
The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here was not a play with a great track record for success. Early productions flopped spectacularly, and a movie version sank with a trace, despite having Richard Burton and Liz Taylor in their heyday.
Part of the problem might be over-familiarity with some of the Tennessee Williams themes. Williams had written his most famous works by this time, and his appeal may have been lessened. Audiences and critics may not have warmed to yet another tale of an older woman being taken advantage of by a handsome but selfish younger man.
While the play is high on poetry, it is low on action, compared to earlier plays. Perhaps the ending was too mean for some. When I first read the play, I gasped in horror at the final scene of the play where a young man steals the rings from a dying woman’s hand.
Reading it again this time, I found myself more appreciative of the artistry of Williams. The language is typically lyrical and poetic, and the story strains for allegorical interpretation, though I would not overstate that.
The story is about an ailing older woman, who is not merely struggling and failing to cope with the effects of time, a typical theme in Williams, but even with death itself. Mrs Goforth is in denial about her mortal condition, and yet working on her memoirs.
Memory is important in this play. Mrs Goforth is anxious that her memories should be set down in print before her death. Yet what is life but memories? As Mrs Goforth tells her ‘friend’, The Witch:
“Has it ever struck you, Connie, that life is all memory, except for the one present moment that goes by you so quick you hardly catch it going? It’s really all memory, Connie, except for each passing moment.”
Curiously the memories themselves are not that important. Mrs Goforth gives out a few desultory details of her past life, but they are not of any great interest to the play. Even her memoirs are disjointed and muddled, a nightmare for her long-suffering secretary Blackie to collect together. What really matters in this play is the here-and-now.
Mrs Goforth is a woman for whom kind feeling has been lost. She was hostess to many guests, and some of them were frauds. Now she lives in a remote location, where her servant sets the dogs on intruders. Dealing with spongers and cheats has caused the milk of human kindness to dry up. The milk train doesn’t stop here anymore.
This applies to her daughter too. We do not learn much about this daughter, but she has sent a device to help Mrs Goforth, who is unappreciative, and insists that she will leave her daughter nothing in her will.
Is her daughter truly bad, or after her mother’s wealth? Or has she grown tired of this demanding and selfish old woman, and lost all sympathy, like many of the other characters here? The milk train doesn’t stop here anymore.
The milk train is missing in Blackie, the secretary who is not unkind, but who has grown tired of the whims and moods of Mrs Goforth. She is hanging on, but ready to quit. She is at least better than the other servants who wander in and out anonymously like Kabuki actors, offering a cynical commentary on Mrs Goforth, and ready to make off with her possessions at any point.
Onto the scene comes a stranger, a young man called Chris who claims to have met Mrs Goforth before. She does not remember or trust him, and keeps him at arms’ length, but loneliness draws her to him, and she succumbs to him as she dies.
Who is Chris? He claims to be a poet, and yet seems more weathered than that. The Witch calls him The Angel of Death, and tells Mrs Goforth that he moves in on dying wealthy people in the hope of getting something from them.
Is he helping these dying people to a better death, or taking advantage of them? Is he a hustler, or is Chris a Christ-like figure, as his name almost suggests? Perhaps he is the actual Angel of Death come to assist the dying to make peace with death. Viewed in this way, even his thefts would be appropriate. Death steals the possessions from the living. Perhaps those possessions always stopped the living from enjoying life anyway.
Williams himself does not seem able to make up his mind about Chris. The very stage directions contain ambiguous instructions. When Chris signs a waiver to say that he will not take legal action against Mrs Goforth because her servant set the dogs on, Williams writes instructions that the stage manager can either have Chris secretly crumple the note up and throw it away when she isn’t looking, or not.
It is as if Williams himself cannot decide what kind of person Chris is. Yet this is a minor issue. Whatever Chris's intentions, he is not going to sue Mrs Goforth for minor injuries. He has bigger fish to fry, either helping Mrs Goforth in her last stages, or exploiting her for what he can get, depending on how you read it.
The play has few of the fireworks of Williams’ more famous plays, but there is a lyrical intensity and textual ambiguity in the play that makes it a rich and rewarding read.
Part of the problem might be over-familiarity with some of the Tennessee Williams themes. Williams had written his most famous works by this time, and his appeal may have been lessened. Audiences and critics may not have warmed to yet another tale of an older woman being taken advantage of by a handsome but selfish younger man.
While the play is high on poetry, it is low on action, compared to earlier plays. Perhaps the ending was too mean for some. When I first read the play, I gasped in horror at the final scene of the play where a young man steals the rings from a dying woman’s hand.
Reading it again this time, I found myself more appreciative of the artistry of Williams. The language is typically lyrical and poetic, and the story strains for allegorical interpretation, though I would not overstate that.
The story is about an ailing older woman, who is not merely struggling and failing to cope with the effects of time, a typical theme in Williams, but even with death itself. Mrs Goforth is in denial about her mortal condition, and yet working on her memoirs.
Memory is important in this play. Mrs Goforth is anxious that her memories should be set down in print before her death. Yet what is life but memories? As Mrs Goforth tells her ‘friend’, The Witch:
“Has it ever struck you, Connie, that life is all memory, except for the one present moment that goes by you so quick you hardly catch it going? It’s really all memory, Connie, except for each passing moment.”
Curiously the memories themselves are not that important. Mrs Goforth gives out a few desultory details of her past life, but they are not of any great interest to the play. Even her memoirs are disjointed and muddled, a nightmare for her long-suffering secretary Blackie to collect together. What really matters in this play is the here-and-now.
Mrs Goforth is a woman for whom kind feeling has been lost. She was hostess to many guests, and some of them were frauds. Now she lives in a remote location, where her servant sets the dogs on intruders. Dealing with spongers and cheats has caused the milk of human kindness to dry up. The milk train doesn’t stop here anymore.
This applies to her daughter too. We do not learn much about this daughter, but she has sent a device to help Mrs Goforth, who is unappreciative, and insists that she will leave her daughter nothing in her will.
Is her daughter truly bad, or after her mother’s wealth? Or has she grown tired of this demanding and selfish old woman, and lost all sympathy, like many of the other characters here? The milk train doesn’t stop here anymore.
The milk train is missing in Blackie, the secretary who is not unkind, but who has grown tired of the whims and moods of Mrs Goforth. She is hanging on, but ready to quit. She is at least better than the other servants who wander in and out anonymously like Kabuki actors, offering a cynical commentary on Mrs Goforth, and ready to make off with her possessions at any point.
Onto the scene comes a stranger, a young man called Chris who claims to have met Mrs Goforth before. She does not remember or trust him, and keeps him at arms’ length, but loneliness draws her to him, and she succumbs to him as she dies.
Who is Chris? He claims to be a poet, and yet seems more weathered than that. The Witch calls him The Angel of Death, and tells Mrs Goforth that he moves in on dying wealthy people in the hope of getting something from them.
Is he helping these dying people to a better death, or taking advantage of them? Is he a hustler, or is Chris a Christ-like figure, as his name almost suggests? Perhaps he is the actual Angel of Death come to assist the dying to make peace with death. Viewed in this way, even his thefts would be appropriate. Death steals the possessions from the living. Perhaps those possessions always stopped the living from enjoying life anyway.
Williams himself does not seem able to make up his mind about Chris. The very stage directions contain ambiguous instructions. When Chris signs a waiver to say that he will not take legal action against Mrs Goforth because her servant set the dogs on, Williams writes instructions that the stage manager can either have Chris secretly crumple the note up and throw it away when she isn’t looking, or not.
It is as if Williams himself cannot decide what kind of person Chris is. Yet this is a minor issue. Whatever Chris's intentions, he is not going to sue Mrs Goforth for minor injuries. He has bigger fish to fry, either helping Mrs Goforth in her last stages, or exploiting her for what he can get, depending on how you read it.
The play has few of the fireworks of Williams’ more famous plays, but there is a lyrical intensity and textual ambiguity in the play that makes it a rich and rewarding read.
March 26, 2023
This review was originally written in November 2020:
What a long and ambiguous title for a, well, I won't say long, but this play is definitely really ambiguous throughout, and that's what I love about it. I really enjoyed this piece from start to finish, as I tried to make my own interpretations on the symbolism so clearly stated throughout the piece, whether that be the title of the piece itself or the inclusion of the stage assistants named One and Two, who make snide remarks on the cast throughout the piece, though I can't pretend that I understand the inclusion of all of these elements, which is kind of the point of ambiguity.
My favourite element of the ambiguity is that of the character Chris, who is left in ambiguity for most of the piece. This man, nicknamed "The Angel of Death", finds himself going around the world helping the elderly to cope with their deaths, though it is uncertain whether he is doing this out of the goodness of his heart, or rather as a rouse to steal the wealthy's money. I personally believe more in the former, but his character is so ambiguous its hard to tell whether what he's doing is a big rouse or not.
I really loved reading this play, though I was quite surprised to learn after the fact that this film was a flop on Broadway, which I can at least understand, because it is quite a weird and melodramatic piece, where it is sometimes hard to understand the main meat of it because of the ambiguity that I keep on mentioning, though that is one of the main reasons I love it. I can only hope that through the time since its original release people have come to understand and enjoy this piece as much as I have, through its imperfections and faults, it is in its core a good play.
What a long and ambiguous title for a, well, I won't say long, but this play is definitely really ambiguous throughout, and that's what I love about it. I really enjoyed this piece from start to finish, as I tried to make my own interpretations on the symbolism so clearly stated throughout the piece, whether that be the title of the piece itself or the inclusion of the stage assistants named One and Two, who make snide remarks on the cast throughout the piece, though I can't pretend that I understand the inclusion of all of these elements, which is kind of the point of ambiguity.
My favourite element of the ambiguity is that of the character Chris, who is left in ambiguity for most of the piece. This man, nicknamed "The Angel of Death", finds himself going around the world helping the elderly to cope with their deaths, though it is uncertain whether he is doing this out of the goodness of his heart, or rather as a rouse to steal the wealthy's money. I personally believe more in the former, but his character is so ambiguous its hard to tell whether what he's doing is a big rouse or not.
I really loved reading this play, though I was quite surprised to learn after the fact that this film was a flop on Broadway, which I can at least understand, because it is quite a weird and melodramatic piece, where it is sometimes hard to understand the main meat of it because of the ambiguity that I keep on mentioning, though that is one of the main reasons I love it. I can only hope that through the time since its original release people have come to understand and enjoy this piece as much as I have, through its imperfections and faults, it is in its core a good play.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 19, 2025
The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore (1963) is a mid-career Tennessee Williams play and one of his more experimental works.
The title suggests a missed chance at redemption, but the play reads more as a meditation on coming to terms with the loss of beauty, of power, and with death.
Sissy, a wealthy, aging woman living in isolation on the Italian coast, is terminally ill and spends her days dictating her memoirs, drinking, and clinging to her fading beauty and power. It’s reminiscent of Sunset Boulevard (1950). It’s about the fear of becoming irrelevant. Sissy uses luxury, theatricality, and memory to avoid facing reality—and she knows this, at least unconsciously.
Chris, a mysterious young man, arrives. Rumor has it he visits wealthy, dying women to comfort them—and to be with them in their final moments. He goes by the nickname ‘Angel of Death.’ The play explores the encounter between these two: one facing death, the other drawn to those who are dying.
This is a short play, deliberately less realistic than Williams’s more famous works of the 1940s and ’50s, and more interested in symbolism (it’s also very rarely performed—the most recent performance I’m aware of, which was poorly reviewed, starred Rupert Everett in drag as Sissy). Still, the narrative is clear and easy to follow—a quick read, yet full of the wisdom of Williams’s later years.
The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore was adapted into the 1968 film Boom!, starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.
The title suggests a missed chance at redemption, but the play reads more as a meditation on coming to terms with the loss of beauty, of power, and with death.
Sissy, a wealthy, aging woman living in isolation on the Italian coast, is terminally ill and spends her days dictating her memoirs, drinking, and clinging to her fading beauty and power. It’s reminiscent of Sunset Boulevard (1950). It’s about the fear of becoming irrelevant. Sissy uses luxury, theatricality, and memory to avoid facing reality—and she knows this, at least unconsciously.
Chris, a mysterious young man, arrives. Rumor has it he visits wealthy, dying women to comfort them—and to be with them in their final moments. He goes by the nickname ‘Angel of Death.’ The play explores the encounter between these two: one facing death, the other drawn to those who are dying.
This is a short play, deliberately less realistic than Williams’s more famous works of the 1940s and ’50s, and more interested in symbolism (it’s also very rarely performed—the most recent performance I’m aware of, which was poorly reviewed, starred Rupert Everett in drag as Sissy). Still, the narrative is clear and easy to follow—a quick read, yet full of the wisdom of Williams’s later years.
The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore was adapted into the 1968 film Boom!, starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.
June 25, 2025
Summary: Mrs. Goforth is an aging widow who is currently working on writing (or rather dictating) her memoirs with the help of her assistant, known as Blackie. Then this poet named Chris shows up. He has a reputation as showing up right before an elderly person dies, garnering him the nickname "angel of death". Mrs. Goforth is in denial about how sick she is. Honestly, not much happens and in the end, she does die.
Review: So yeah like I said, there isn't that much that happens in this one. I do feel like I'm reaching the point in Tennessee Williams' plays that they just aren't as good as his earlier work but we shall see. Overall, this one just didn't cut it for me.
Grade: D+
Review: So yeah like I said, there isn't that much that happens in this one. I do feel like I'm reaching the point in Tennessee Williams' plays that they just aren't as good as his earlier work but we shall see. Overall, this one just didn't cut it for me.
Grade: D+
November 7, 2022
تنسی ویلیامز رو خیلی دوست دارم، چیزی که مینویسه انگار از عمق دلش میاد و برای همینه که همونقدر عمیق به دل میشینه....
چه درست گفت،
ما شبیه اون حیوونهایی هستیم که تو یه خونه زندگی میکنن، تموم روز سعی میکنن بازیگوشی و دلبری کنن تا صاحبشون دوستشون داشته باشه، اما اونا صاحبشون رو نمیشناسن، اون خونه رو نمیشناسن، میترسن و اعتماد ندارن اما راه دیگهای هم ندارن. برای همین دووم میارن، بدنهاشونو به هم میمالن و چون کس دیگهای شبیهشون اونجا هست، دووم میارن، چون جای دیگهای ندارن اونجا میمونن، حتی اگه امن نباشه و بترسن، میدونن این تنها جاییه که براشون هست....
چه درست گفت،
ما شبیه اون حیوونهایی هستیم که تو یه خونه زندگی میکنن، تموم روز سعی میکنن بازیگوشی و دلبری کنن تا صاحبشون دوستشون داشته باشه، اما اونا صاحبشون رو نمیشناسن، اون خونه رو نمیشناسن، میترسن و اعتماد ندارن اما راه دیگهای هم ندارن. برای همین دووم میارن، بدنهاشونو به هم میمالن و چون کس دیگهای شبیهشون اونجا هست، دووم میارن، چون جای دیگهای ندارن اونجا میمونن، حتی اگه امن نباشه و بترسن، میدونن این تنها جاییه که براشون هست....
April 7, 2025
Chris: Yes, that night it was silence, it was the meaning of silence.
Mrs. Goforth: Silence? Meaning?
Chris: Acceptance.
Mrs. Goforth: What of?
Chris: Oh, many things, everything, nearly. Such as how to live and to die in a way that's more dignified than most of us know how to do it. And of how not to be frightened of not knowing what isn't meant to be known, acceptance of not knowing anything but the moment of still existing, until we stop existing– and acceptance of that moment, too.
❤️ Williams, the playwright you were.
Mrs. Goforth: Silence? Meaning?
Chris: Acceptance.
Mrs. Goforth: What of?
Chris: Oh, many things, everything, nearly. Such as how to live and to die in a way that's more dignified than most of us know how to do it. And of how not to be frightened of not knowing what isn't meant to be known, acceptance of not knowing anything but the moment of still existing, until we stop existing– and acceptance of that moment, too.
❤️ Williams, the playwright you were.
March 6, 2025
This play is a mess. Worse, it's a dull mess. The characters are basically metaphors, and they lack depth. The play is about Mrs. Goforth, who is about to go forth (die), and she does. That's pretty much it. There's still some interesting speechifying in here, but in the service of what? Not a fan of this one, but not completely dreadful either.
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