Gentlemen Callers: Tennessee Williams, Homosexuality, and Mid-Twentieth-Century Drama

by Michael Paller

Gentlemen Callers provides a fascinating look at America's greatest Twentieth-century playwright and perhaps the most-performed, even today. Michael Paller looks at Tennessee Williams's plays from the 1940s through the 1960s against the backdrop of the playwright's life story, providing fresh details. Through this lens Paller examines the evolution of Mid-Twentieth-century America's acknowledgment and acceptance of homosexuality. From the early Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and one-act Auto-da-Fé , through The Two-Character Play and Something Cloudy, Something Clear , Paller's book investigates how Williams's earliest critics marginalized or ignored his gay characters and why, beginning in the 1970s, many gay liberationists reviled them. Lively, blunt, and provocative, this book will appeal to anyone who loves Williams, Broadway, and the theater.

Genres: Nonfiction

282 pages, Hardcover

First published April 16, 2005

Reviews

[Flungoutofspace (Chris) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a nicely concise mix of biography and queer theatre studies

[Joe Hartman · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Gentlemen Callers" looks at Tennessee William's feelings and attitudes towards homosexuality as expressed in his plays, but unlike most of today's critics he places these thoughts and attitudes in the context of their time and shows a man who was both ahead of his time and of his time. One of the main charges against William's is that his gay characters were self loathing and miserable. What one forgets is that William's in the 1950's was not in denial of his sexuality, nor was he closeted. And they neglect the fact that his straight characters were equally miserable and racked with questions.

The book looks deep into his classics "Glass Menagerie", "Cat On A Hot Tin Roof" and "Suddenly Last Summer" as well as his lesser known later works in which the climate had changed and it was more feasible to place gay characters center stage in a Broadway play, but where the need to conceal as well as reveal was gone and so was a dynamic which gave Williams' work much of it's poignancy.

It helps to be invested in the subject, because the approach can be heavy on the academic, but if you're gay and a Tennessee Williams fan, this book is terrific, and one that gives him his due as an artist fighting, not against his own acceptance of his sexuality, but with society's acceptance of it.

[Corey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've only read a few chapters of this book while doing research for a some roles. I'll mark it as "read" because I think it's really a book that should be used as reference and study in connection with the plays it discusses. Paller does a wonderful job of putting these characters into social and historical context. The chapter on Brick Pollitt is especially revelatory.

[Jason Mock · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating account of some of Williams' most famous
and not-so famous plays in social context.
Recommended!