What do you think?
Rate this book
شب ایگوانا: نمایشنامه
آثار تنسی ویلیامز سرخوردگی انسان معاصر را بر ملا میکند. این نویسنده بحثبرانگیز به دلیل تصویر نافذ و در عین حال ترحمآمیزی که از ژرفای روح انسان ارائه داده، تحسین جهانیان را برانگیخته است. در سال ۱۹۶۲ نمایشنامه شب ایگوانا جایزه مجمع منتقدان نیویورک را از آن ویلیامز کرد. تقریباً تمامی منتقدان آثار ویلیامز معتقدند که شب یگوانا آخرین نمایشنامه بزرگ تنسی ویلیامز است. این نمایشنامه هم از نظر منتقدان و هم از نظر گیشه موفق بوده است.
چاپ ششم ۱۴۰۳
چاپ ششم ۱۴۰۳
226 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1961
63 people are currently reading
3686 people want to read
About the author
Tennessee Williams
754 books3,690 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
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 240 reviews
February 10, 2018
This is my second Tennessee Williams play, having read A Streetcar Named Desire a couple of years ago. I admit that it’s fortunate I didn’t start with The Night of the Iguana as my introduction to the Pulitzer Prize winning playwright, because my somewhat lukewarm reception of this may have steered me away from reading another. I was swept away by Streetcar – the imagery, the New Orleans atmosphere and the tension between the characters. I felt almost as if I were a participant on that stage. This one didn’t have the same effect. There was a large gap between me and the players; I was perhaps like one sitting in the back row of the theater with a bit of an obstructed view.
The setting is the verandah of a somewhat worn-out hotel on the edge of a cliff on the Pacific coast of Mexico. It is 1940, and while the rest of the world is embroiled in the horrors of World War II, the characters here are experiencing their own form of personal suffering. The defrocked minister, Larry Shannon, is on the verge of a mental breakdown, while the hotel’s proprietress, Maxine, has just lost her husband. The penniless Hannah arrives with soon-to-be ninety-eight year old grandfather, Nonno. This pair evoked the most sympathy from me, and I did admire the rich descriptions of the two. "Hannah is remarkable-looking—ethereal, almost ghostly. She suggests a Gothic cathedral image of a medieval saint, but animated. She could be thirty, she could be forty: she is totally feminine and yet androgynous-looking—almost timeless." The wheelchair-bound Nonno: "He is a very old man but has a powerful voice for his age and always seems to be shouting something of importance. Nonno is a poet and a showman. There is a good kind of pride and he has it, carrying it like a banner wherever he goes." Hannah fears Nonno has very little time left in this world, and Nonno is determined to find inspiration to finish writing his first poem in twenty years.
The last act was the redeeming point in the play. The interaction and dialogue between Larry Shannon and Hannah was absorbing. The themes of loneliness and a desire for human connections were depicted with skill and passion. I felt I had moved up from my back row seat to one center and front. The fate of the iguana, who earlier in the play was caught and tied by rope under the porch, failed to ignite any intense emotion, however, although I did manage to grasp the symbolism of the poor creature. This is one example of a play that I believe I could appreciate more fully had I watched rather than read it. I’ve heard good things about the movie dramatization as well, so I might just give that a chance if ever I feel so inclined.
"We all wind up with something or with someone, and if it’s someone instead of just something, we’re lucky, perhaps . . . unusually lucky."
The setting is the verandah of a somewhat worn-out hotel on the edge of a cliff on the Pacific coast of Mexico. It is 1940, and while the rest of the world is embroiled in the horrors of World War II, the characters here are experiencing their own form of personal suffering. The defrocked minister, Larry Shannon, is on the verge of a mental breakdown, while the hotel’s proprietress, Maxine, has just lost her husband. The penniless Hannah arrives with soon-to-be ninety-eight year old grandfather, Nonno. This pair evoked the most sympathy from me, and I did admire the rich descriptions of the two. "Hannah is remarkable-looking—ethereal, almost ghostly. She suggests a Gothic cathedral image of a medieval saint, but animated. She could be thirty, she could be forty: she is totally feminine and yet androgynous-looking—almost timeless." The wheelchair-bound Nonno: "He is a very old man but has a powerful voice for his age and always seems to be shouting something of importance. Nonno is a poet and a showman. There is a good kind of pride and he has it, carrying it like a banner wherever he goes." Hannah fears Nonno has very little time left in this world, and Nonno is determined to find inspiration to finish writing his first poem in twenty years.
The last act was the redeeming point in the play. The interaction and dialogue between Larry Shannon and Hannah was absorbing. The themes of loneliness and a desire for human connections were depicted with skill and passion. I felt I had moved up from my back row seat to one center and front. The fate of the iguana, who earlier in the play was caught and tied by rope under the porch, failed to ignite any intense emotion, however, although I did manage to grasp the symbolism of the poor creature. This is one example of a play that I believe I could appreciate more fully had I watched rather than read it. I’ve heard good things about the movie dramatization as well, so I might just give that a chance if ever I feel so inclined.
"We all wind up with something or with someone, and if it’s someone instead of just something, we’re lucky, perhaps . . . unusually lucky."
November 29, 2017
Last year I read what is considered the big three of Tennessee Williams' plays: A Streetcar Named Desire, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and The Glass Menagerie. When the Goodreads group the Southern Literary Trail selected Williams' The Night of the Iguana as an upcoming group read, I was intrigued to read one of Williams' other works. A master American playwright who focused on the failings of the human experience, Williams' words are not to be missed; thus, I was more than intrigued to immerse myself in his 1962 work taking place on a veranda of a Mexican rooming house.
It is 1940, and World War II is raging in Europe. Maxine Faulk is newly widowed and spent her life savings in caring for her now deceased husband Fred. Now alone, she is left as the proprietress of a Costa Verde, Mexico rooming house, when she would rather be back in the United States. From the outset, it is clear that Faulk is embittered with her station in life and tries to take out her emotions on all who cross her path, everyone from her Mexican employees who become her lovers to close friends. Nowhere is this clearer than in her relationship with a defrocked southern reverend T. Lawrence Shannon. An old friend of Fred who was looking to come to Mexico to reminisce on old times and drink away his sorrows, Shannon is surprised to find out that Fred passed away a mere two weeks prior to his arrival. More appalling to Shannon is the behavior of Maxine Faulk who attempts to make a pass at him with every opportunity that she gets. This tete a tete between the two leading protagonists sets the stage for a three act play full of memorable characters and dialogues.
Also vacationing in Mexico are a busload of young women, a family of Germans looking to escape the fighting in their country while still supporting the Third Reich, and a spinster artist named Hannah Jelkes along with her nonagenarian grandfather, the poet Jonathan Coffin. This diverse cast of characters has traveled the world for a myriad of reasons and all land on Faulk's doorstep in Costa Verde. Unfortunately, Faulk does not have the monetary funds to support any guests besides Shannon and devises charades to have all of her potential guests removed to other rooming houses or hotels. As a result, the tension between Faulk, Shannon, and Jelkes comes to a head until it reaches its climax in the third act. I grew to disdain Faulk while sympathizing with Jelkes' station in life as I read through this emotional rollercoaster.
Williams, as with all of his drama, paints a solid picture of the time and place of his work. The Germans while minor characters provide a link to the outside world, and their vacationing points to escape from the horrendous war raging around the world. Conversely, the other hotel guests are all Americans who have come to Mexico to escape some emotional downfall they have experienced in one way or another. Williams creates memorable characters full of emotional baggage in Faulk, Shannon, and Jelkes, as well as Jelkes' grandfather Nonno. Jelkes appears as a hustler to Faulk while a shrewd judge of human character to outside observer. No where is this clearer than in the fate of a tied up iguana who comes to symbolize the human suffering in the world, in the world war, and the fate of humans to play g-d in light of the tortures occurring in Europe at the time. Perhaps, Williams wrote this in hindsight to state his views on the war, but, regardless, the multi-faceted characters and emotionally charged dialogues between them result in a heady denouement.
While not quite at the level of A Streetcar Named Desire or Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Night of the Iguana was an emotional read and speaks to the brilliance of Tennessee Williams as a playwright adept in focusing on the failings of human character. This play is selected for January, and I feel it is an apt way to begin a year in a heated discussion about human emotions and where people rise to the occasion and fail physically, spiritually, and emotionally. I look forward to eventually reading through all of Williams' work, and The Night of the Iguana was a timely reminder to me of the excellence of his dramas as a leading American playwright of the 20th century.
4 stars
It is 1940, and World War II is raging in Europe. Maxine Faulk is newly widowed and spent her life savings in caring for her now deceased husband Fred. Now alone, she is left as the proprietress of a Costa Verde, Mexico rooming house, when she would rather be back in the United States. From the outset, it is clear that Faulk is embittered with her station in life and tries to take out her emotions on all who cross her path, everyone from her Mexican employees who become her lovers to close friends. Nowhere is this clearer than in her relationship with a defrocked southern reverend T. Lawrence Shannon. An old friend of Fred who was looking to come to Mexico to reminisce on old times and drink away his sorrows, Shannon is surprised to find out that Fred passed away a mere two weeks prior to his arrival. More appalling to Shannon is the behavior of Maxine Faulk who attempts to make a pass at him with every opportunity that she gets. This tete a tete between the two leading protagonists sets the stage for a three act play full of memorable characters and dialogues.
Also vacationing in Mexico are a busload of young women, a family of Germans looking to escape the fighting in their country while still supporting the Third Reich, and a spinster artist named Hannah Jelkes along with her nonagenarian grandfather, the poet Jonathan Coffin. This diverse cast of characters has traveled the world for a myriad of reasons and all land on Faulk's doorstep in Costa Verde. Unfortunately, Faulk does not have the monetary funds to support any guests besides Shannon and devises charades to have all of her potential guests removed to other rooming houses or hotels. As a result, the tension between Faulk, Shannon, and Jelkes comes to a head until it reaches its climax in the third act. I grew to disdain Faulk while sympathizing with Jelkes' station in life as I read through this emotional rollercoaster.
Williams, as with all of his drama, paints a solid picture of the time and place of his work. The Germans while minor characters provide a link to the outside world, and their vacationing points to escape from the horrendous war raging around the world. Conversely, the other hotel guests are all Americans who have come to Mexico to escape some emotional downfall they have experienced in one way or another. Williams creates memorable characters full of emotional baggage in Faulk, Shannon, and Jelkes, as well as Jelkes' grandfather Nonno. Jelkes appears as a hustler to Faulk while a shrewd judge of human character to outside observer. No where is this clearer than in the fate of a tied up iguana who comes to symbolize the human suffering in the world, in the world war, and the fate of humans to play g-d in light of the tortures occurring in Europe at the time. Perhaps, Williams wrote this in hindsight to state his views on the war, but, regardless, the multi-faceted characters and emotionally charged dialogues between them result in a heady denouement.
While not quite at the level of A Streetcar Named Desire or Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Night of the Iguana was an emotional read and speaks to the brilliance of Tennessee Williams as a playwright adept in focusing on the failings of human character. This play is selected for January, and I feel it is an apt way to begin a year in a heated discussion about human emotions and where people rise to the occasion and fail physically, spiritually, and emotionally. I look forward to eventually reading through all of Williams' work, and The Night of the Iguana was a timely reminder to me of the excellence of his dramas as a leading American playwright of the 20th century.
4 stars
October 12, 2015
I have always wanted to read this book after seeing the film but I somehow never got around to it. It actually took the weather here in France to point me in the right direction. We have had so much rain recently that for some obscure I kept on muttering the title of this play because I knew that a storm had been involved (although I couldn’t remember in what context) from the time I saw the film.
The play is set at the Costa Verde Hotel (which appears to have known better days) in Puerto Barrio, near Acapulco, on the west coast of Mexico. So the setting is exotic in itself but there’s something exciting about reading a play, especially with the asides and comments on and off the stage that are thrown in. I do like a bit of action I must confess and the shouting and roaring, I believe, adds to the atmosphere. For example:
(Wild with rage she turns to Maxim)
(Girl’s voice - Off)
(Voices continue, fading, Shannon returns brokenly to the veranda. Maxine shakes her head)
(Rushes off, shouting at the Mexican boys)
(Pedro goes into a leisurely loping pacer and disappears through the foliage)
(Cutting in, with the bonking sound of a panicky goose.)
AND finally, the most important one:
(The Mexican boys appear with a wildly agitated creature, a captive iguana tied up in a bag…The iguana will naturally have to be masked and should not be heard until he is mentioned in Act …)
I loved that.
The title really intrigued me too. I kept on trying to imagine why the iguana was in the title and if so, how would it appear in this book. I did know that:
“Storms figure greatly in Williams’s work and in all the Night of the Iguana iterations, and as we see here, they have literary associations that connote apocalyptic turning points that carry within them the hope of release. All that will be needed to carry out the stormy climax of the story is the captive iguana to signify the key characters’ plight—that they are all in their own way at the end of their ropes.”
So when the iguana finally made its entrance and, I continued reading, I could see why it was there and also its importance. I could indeed see the iguana’s plight as shown in the above comment that I came across from another review but to me it meant “choice”. The comparison between what was a defenceless, captured animal with no choice due to this, and the choices of the four main characters, those of the defrocked cleric, the Reverend Dr. T. Lawrence Shannon, who is prone to the odd nervous breakdown with sexual pursuits thrown in, especially young girls; the penniless Hannah Jelkes, a globe-trotting artist accompanied by her grandfather Nonno, an endearing poet and nonagenarian (what a splendid sounding word) who recited poetry to guests in hotels and finally writes that fantastic poem for Harpers, and the hotel owner, Maxine Faulk, who is an old friend of the cleric.
Maxine is rather taken with Shannon and is more than welcome to share most things with him, including her bed. Shannon likes to hedge his bets and sees in Hannah, a sort of kindred-spirit. He tries to determine what her sexual appetite is like and she rather shyly admits to two encounters when it is pretty obvious that her needs and wants are different to Shannon but still there is the prospect of a new life. So… what would you do? Take the safe route or the possibility of adventure and a new life, even if there are uncertainties and hardship? I know which route I would follow.
But the ending was not what I expected it to be. Drat!
One thing is for sure. Should the opportunity ever arise that I can see this play, well I’ll jump at it. I loved this book/play. It has stayed in my mind's eye, to be savoured when I need to revisit it.
Splendid Mr Williams! I salute you for bringing such pleasure to mere mortals such as myself. Lynne.
The play is set at the Costa Verde Hotel (which appears to have known better days) in Puerto Barrio, near Acapulco, on the west coast of Mexico. So the setting is exotic in itself but there’s something exciting about reading a play, especially with the asides and comments on and off the stage that are thrown in. I do like a bit of action I must confess and the shouting and roaring, I believe, adds to the atmosphere. For example:
(Wild with rage she turns to Maxim)
(Girl’s voice - Off)
(Voices continue, fading, Shannon returns brokenly to the veranda. Maxine shakes her head)
(Rushes off, shouting at the Mexican boys)
(Pedro goes into a leisurely loping pacer and disappears through the foliage)
(Cutting in, with the bonking sound of a panicky goose.)
AND finally, the most important one:
(The Mexican boys appear with a wildly agitated creature, a captive iguana tied up in a bag…The iguana will naturally have to be masked and should not be heard until he is mentioned in Act …)
I loved that.
The title really intrigued me too. I kept on trying to imagine why the iguana was in the title and if so, how would it appear in this book. I did know that:
“Storms figure greatly in Williams’s work and in all the Night of the Iguana iterations, and as we see here, they have literary associations that connote apocalyptic turning points that carry within them the hope of release. All that will be needed to carry out the stormy climax of the story is the captive iguana to signify the key characters’ plight—that they are all in their own way at the end of their ropes.”
So when the iguana finally made its entrance and, I continued reading, I could see why it was there and also its importance. I could indeed see the iguana’s plight as shown in the above comment that I came across from another review but to me it meant “choice”. The comparison between what was a defenceless, captured animal with no choice due to this, and the choices of the four main characters, those of the defrocked cleric, the Reverend Dr. T. Lawrence Shannon, who is prone to the odd nervous breakdown with sexual pursuits thrown in, especially young girls; the penniless Hannah Jelkes, a globe-trotting artist accompanied by her grandfather Nonno, an endearing poet and nonagenarian (what a splendid sounding word) who recited poetry to guests in hotels and finally writes that fantastic poem for Harpers, and the hotel owner, Maxine Faulk, who is an old friend of the cleric.
Maxine is rather taken with Shannon and is more than welcome to share most things with him, including her bed. Shannon likes to hedge his bets and sees in Hannah, a sort of kindred-spirit. He tries to determine what her sexual appetite is like and she rather shyly admits to two encounters when it is pretty obvious that her needs and wants are different to Shannon but still there is the prospect of a new life. So… what would you do? Take the safe route or the possibility of adventure and a new life, even if there are uncertainties and hardship? I know which route I would follow.
But the ending was not what I expected it to be. Drat!
One thing is for sure. Should the opportunity ever arise that I can see this play, well I’ll jump at it. I loved this book/play. It has stayed in my mind's eye, to be savoured when I need to revisit it.
Splendid Mr Williams! I salute you for bringing such pleasure to mere mortals such as myself. Lynne.
December 25, 2025
The raw Tennessee Williams play from Broadway , The Night of the Iguana filmed afterwards with a great cast of Richard Burton, Ava Gardner , Deborah Kerr and Sue Lyon in 1964 , a massive success though a bit defanged . Reading the stage version but seeing the movie first, naturally bookworms will put the faces of those actors on the characters. Mexico, 1940 in impoverished Puerto Vallarta a sleepy fishing village then not now however, full of wealthy visitors ...blame the cinema version. Maxine Faulk a recent widow welcomes a friend and much more, the defrocked Reverend T. Lawrence Shannon to her cheap, shabby hotel having a nervous breakdown, while guiding a tourist bus full of annoyed, angry ladies . The never reverend too frisky with women especially underaged yet willing Charlotte . Joining the unhappy party, Miss Hannah Jelkes, with her decrypted grandfather the oldest poet at 97 she boasts. Not a surprise Hannah a real lady and no so Maxine become rivals for Shannon's attention, the gloomy, suicidal, drunkard .Jonathan Coffin, grandpa ,called by all Nonno, gives poignant vibes, both funny but also sadness, nevertheless. You the reader will notice that everything is on the hotel 's verandah showing its theatrical origins. Those who seen the cinema have the characters go down to the sea for fun and the thick jungle surrounding the edifice. Opening up as movie people say giving a new view of the action. The play is more of intimate relationships less about place, scenery and weather but a better indications of human differences and their needs. In truth I liked the pair. If I can reveal my favorite scenes are between Rev. Shannon the scandalous playboy, reprobate and the quiet spinster, gentlewoman, ,though understate even so, the heat is palpable. What occurs well my friends they....read the book. The iguana... is a lizard . And the storm outside is worse inside.
January 19, 2018
T. Lawrence Shannon arrives at a second-rate hotel on the west coast of Mexico with a tour bus of American schoolteachers. Before he became a tour guide, Shannon was a defrocked minister who got into trouble after sex with a young woman and preaching heresy. He's on the verge of a breakdown, and wants to talk with his friend who runs the hotel. His friend's wife, Maxine, notifies Shannon that her husband recently died and she seems determined to have Shannon take his place. Hannah Jelkes, a serene impoverished artist, arrives with her poet grandfather a few minutes later.
The play centers on Shannon who will soon lose his job as a tour guide. He is tormented by his failures in life and is thinking of "swimming all the way to China", but Hannah is a calming influence. Like the iguana tied up under the verandah by the Mexican workers at the hotel, Shannon is at the end of his rope. Themes of mental illness, loneliness, sexual problems, and despair run through the play. Shannon also questions the nature of God. But there is also a glimmer of hope for the three main characters, each of whom is facing a challenging time.
"The Night of the Iguana" is the sixth play I have read by the talented Tennessee Williams. My favorites were "A Streetcar Named Desire" and "The Glass Menagerie". It took me a while to get into "The Night of the Iguana", but the last half was wonderful, highlighted by the well-written conversation between Shannon and Hannah. 3.5 stars.
The play centers on Shannon who will soon lose his job as a tour guide. He is tormented by his failures in life and is thinking of "swimming all the way to China", but Hannah is a calming influence. Like the iguana tied up under the verandah by the Mexican workers at the hotel, Shannon is at the end of his rope. Themes of mental illness, loneliness, sexual problems, and despair run through the play. Shannon also questions the nature of God. But there is also a glimmer of hope for the three main characters, each of whom is facing a challenging time.
"The Night of the Iguana" is the sixth play I have read by the talented Tennessee Williams. My favorites were "A Streetcar Named Desire" and "The Glass Menagerie". It took me a while to get into "The Night of the Iguana", but the last half was wonderful, highlighted by the well-written conversation between Shannon and Hannah. 3.5 stars.
March 6, 2019
Weebles wobbling.
Williams does people on the edge, breaking, and broken so beautifully. Like a spinning vase teetering on the edge. There's this exquisite pain of watching someone's world fall apart while everyone else thinks it's a Tuesday. That desperate, silent psychic scream as they claw, trying to hold on and then howl. That's the power of Tennessee Williams.
Having read several of his plays it is very obvious why this is not the one we all read in 9th grade. Somewhere between the sex, religion, madness, alcohol, drugs... oh, and Nazis there's probably way too many parent phone calls to field, so you get Glass Menagerie instead. Which is nice, don't get me wrong, but this is Williams Unplugged. I feel the desire to go reread them all, again.
Williams does people on the edge, breaking, and broken so beautifully. Like a spinning vase teetering on the edge. There's this exquisite pain of watching someone's world fall apart while everyone else thinks it's a Tuesday. That desperate, silent psychic scream as they claw, trying to hold on and then howl. That's the power of Tennessee Williams.
Let's go down and swim in that liquid moonlight.
Having read several of his plays it is very obvious why this is not the one we all read in 9th grade. Somewhere between the sex, religion, madness, alcohol, drugs... oh, and Nazis there's probably way too many parent phone calls to field, so you get Glass Menagerie instead. Which is nice, don't get me wrong, but this is Williams Unplugged. I feel the desire to go reread them all, again.
We all wind up with something or with someone, and if it's someone instead of just something, we're lucky, perhaps . . . unusually lucky.
August 17, 2019
The poor iguana. Always picked on. Tastes like chicken. Do you want Mexican or Texan? I always thought this was a Mexican joke but it’s referenced in the play.
Why iguanas? Ugly, solitary, lonely and if caught, it can chew off it’s tail off to escape.
Defrocked reverend Lawrence Shannon leads a tour group of Baptist women while he beds an underaged girl from the tour party. Not a great idea. Things go badly. He needs to escape.
He chews off his tail to the Costa Verde, run by a widow, Maxine. An old flame? A floosy? She’s rather friendly with her Mexican servants. She’s bitter. Larry is having a breakdown at her expense (and he has done it before). He needs her help.
Visitors. Hannah and her Nonno. Wandering gypsies from Nantucket. Nonno’s poetry acts as a cushion. Tension. Women tension. Larry’s mind explodes. The heat. The rum cocos and beers. The Germans on vacation. It’s 1940 and the Battle of Britain is on. Mexico is a stepping stone to Latin America; a backdoor to America. More tension.
Tennessee Williams examines the gritty realism of people at the end of their ropes. Challenged, defeated, and almost flat out down. Instead of being a vacation, they are almost prisoners to their own issues and faults. They are throwing out the life raft for their own personal shipwrecks. The trick is to find something to hold on to. Or is everyone just passing through.
It’s a funny thing. I have been to Puerto Vallarta many times and it’s a bit of a tourist trap, thanks partially to that movie made by John Houston in 1962-3. The setting for the play was 1940 and PV was just a fishing village on the way to glitzy Acapulco. So in a sense, the play’s setting is of isolation and that adds to the tension. I saw the movie a few months ago and was struck by its darkness (the Black and White film helped). Richard Burton was fabulous as Shannon; as was Ava Gardner as Maxine. Oh their tension.
This play was a real treat to read. The bigger question is what took me so long? And no more iguana jokes, por favor.
Why iguanas? Ugly, solitary, lonely and if caught, it can chew off it’s tail off to escape.
Defrocked reverend Lawrence Shannon leads a tour group of Baptist women while he beds an underaged girl from the tour party. Not a great idea. Things go badly. He needs to escape.
He chews off his tail to the Costa Verde, run by a widow, Maxine. An old flame? A floosy? She’s rather friendly with her Mexican servants. She’s bitter. Larry is having a breakdown at her expense (and he has done it before). He needs her help.
Visitors. Hannah and her Nonno. Wandering gypsies from Nantucket. Nonno’s poetry acts as a cushion. Tension. Women tension. Larry’s mind explodes. The heat. The rum cocos and beers. The Germans on vacation. It’s 1940 and the Battle of Britain is on. Mexico is a stepping stone to Latin America; a backdoor to America. More tension.
Tennessee Williams examines the gritty realism of people at the end of their ropes. Challenged, defeated, and almost flat out down. Instead of being a vacation, they are almost prisoners to their own issues and faults. They are throwing out the life raft for their own personal shipwrecks. The trick is to find something to hold on to. Or is everyone just passing through.
It’s a funny thing. I have been to Puerto Vallarta many times and it’s a bit of a tourist trap, thanks partially to that movie made by John Houston in 1962-3. The setting for the play was 1940 and PV was just a fishing village on the way to glitzy Acapulco. So in a sense, the play’s setting is of isolation and that adds to the tension. I saw the movie a few months ago and was struck by its darkness (the Black and White film helped). Richard Burton was fabulous as Shannon; as was Ava Gardner as Maxine. Oh their tension.
This play was a real treat to read. The bigger question is what took me so long? And no more iguana jokes, por favor.
January 15, 2018
By far not my favorite Tennessee Williams play. I did not feel an affinity with any of the characters, which makes it harder to step into their skin and feel their pain. The tender relationship between Hannah and her Grandfather, and the knowledge that even if he survived this night he could not hope to survive many more, made her character both interesting and worthy of sympathy for me. I could not profess to care what happened to either Larry Shannon or Maxine.
The start was slow, but by the third act I would have been unwilling to leave the theater without knowing what happened. I do think, as with all plays, this might appeal more when "seen" vs. "read".
The start was slow, but by the third act I would have been unwilling to leave the theater without knowing what happened. I do think, as with all plays, this might appeal more when "seen" vs. "read".
October 30, 2024
The Night Of The Iguana
Although he lived and continued to write until 1983, Tennessee Williams' 1961 play "The Night of the Iguana" was to prove his last success on Broadway. Williams painstakingly wrote the play based upon earlier short plays and stories. In the Broadway production, Patrick O'Neal and Margaret Leighton played the lead male and female characters, the Revered Lawrence Shannon and Hannah Jelkes. The venerable Bette Davis who craved for top billing in the show, played the secondary female character, Maxine Faulk. When Davis left the production, Shelly Winters replaced her.
A lengthy play in three acts, "The Night of the Iguana" requires slow, careful reading. The action is less overt and violent than in much of Williams. The play is set in the summer of 1940 in what Williams describes as "a rather rustic and very Bohemian hotel, the Sosta Verde, which, as its name implies, sits on a jungle-covered hilltop overlooking the 'caleta,' or 'morning beach' of Puerto Barrio in Mexico". World War II hangs over the play. The guests at the hotel include a family of Germans on vacation. The head of the household is the president of a firm that manufactures tanks. The family is unabashedly Nazi and follow the progress while on their holiday of the Battle of Britain. They offer largely comic interludes to the internal, private drama of the play.
Williams wrote that the theme of this play is "how to live beyond despair and still live." In Shannon, Hannah Jelkes, and Mrs Faulke as well the play shows tormented lonely people "at the end of their rope" who strive to make a human connection and to find meaning in their lives. The iguana in the title of the play shares the condition of the characters. A group of boys have caught a large lizard and tied it by the neck under the hotel with the goal of killing and eating it the next day. At a climactic moment, Shannon recognizes the suffering iguana as one of God's creatures and cuts it loose. The play's human characters strive to free themselves from the ropes that bind them.
Shannon is an ordained minister who lost the only pulpit he ever held when he had sex with a young girl and then gave a blustering sermon in church in which he denied the existence of a God who was a "senile delinquent" or an "angry, petulant old man". For ten years he has been giving tours in various parts of the world while suffering from alcoholism and frequent mental breakdowns. He is leading tours to Mexico for a small Texas bus company and his final group, consisting of 11 unmarried women from a Texas religious college for women, refuse to travel further with him after he has had sex with a 16-year old girl who accompanies the women. The women refuse to stay at the Sosta Verde and with Mrs. Faulke, the proprietor. The lusty but frustrated Mrs Faulke has just been widowed and she has designs on Shannon, who had been a friend of her husband. Hannah Jelkes comes to the hotel shortly after Shannon in the company of her grandfather, 97. Hannah, 40 and never married, is an artist and her grandfather is a poet. There is an immediate, unstated attraction between Hannah and Shannon.
The play develops slowly. Williams explores the past lives of the primary characters and their attempts at finding peace. Shannon has a severe emotional breakdown when he loses his job as a tour guide. He and Hannah have a lengthy and close emotional evening of talk but cannot reach physical intimacy. Shannon stays on as a companion to Mrs Faulke to comfort her, help with the hotel, and satisfy its female guests. Hannah must deal with being alone.
Hannah is probably the key figure in the play and an unusual character for Williams. She is from New England rather than from the South. She is also measured, restrained, and philosophical. "Accept whatever situation you cannot improve" Hannah advises Shannon during the evening of their emotional intimacy. The play explores spiritual themes. It appears to reject the "senile delinquent" view of God (a caricature of monotheism) in favor of a more spiritual Eastern form of pantheism, perhaps, or stoicism.
John Lahr's new biography, "Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh" (2014) puts "The Night of the Iguana" into the context of Williams' life and offers insights into the writing and editing of the play, its themes and production, and the difficulties of working with Bette Davis. I learned a great deal from Lahr about Williams and about "The Night of the Iguana." The play is more about the universal human feelings of loneliness, despair, and hope than it is about the specifics of Williams' own difficult life.
Robin Friedman
Although he lived and continued to write until 1983, Tennessee Williams' 1961 play "The Night of the Iguana" was to prove his last success on Broadway. Williams painstakingly wrote the play based upon earlier short plays and stories. In the Broadway production, Patrick O'Neal and Margaret Leighton played the lead male and female characters, the Revered Lawrence Shannon and Hannah Jelkes. The venerable Bette Davis who craved for top billing in the show, played the secondary female character, Maxine Faulk. When Davis left the production, Shelly Winters replaced her.
A lengthy play in three acts, "The Night of the Iguana" requires slow, careful reading. The action is less overt and violent than in much of Williams. The play is set in the summer of 1940 in what Williams describes as "a rather rustic and very Bohemian hotel, the Sosta Verde, which, as its name implies, sits on a jungle-covered hilltop overlooking the 'caleta,' or 'morning beach' of Puerto Barrio in Mexico". World War II hangs over the play. The guests at the hotel include a family of Germans on vacation. The head of the household is the president of a firm that manufactures tanks. The family is unabashedly Nazi and follow the progress while on their holiday of the Battle of Britain. They offer largely comic interludes to the internal, private drama of the play.
Williams wrote that the theme of this play is "how to live beyond despair and still live." In Shannon, Hannah Jelkes, and Mrs Faulke as well the play shows tormented lonely people "at the end of their rope" who strive to make a human connection and to find meaning in their lives. The iguana in the title of the play shares the condition of the characters. A group of boys have caught a large lizard and tied it by the neck under the hotel with the goal of killing and eating it the next day. At a climactic moment, Shannon recognizes the suffering iguana as one of God's creatures and cuts it loose. The play's human characters strive to free themselves from the ropes that bind them.
Shannon is an ordained minister who lost the only pulpit he ever held when he had sex with a young girl and then gave a blustering sermon in church in which he denied the existence of a God who was a "senile delinquent" or an "angry, petulant old man". For ten years he has been giving tours in various parts of the world while suffering from alcoholism and frequent mental breakdowns. He is leading tours to Mexico for a small Texas bus company and his final group, consisting of 11 unmarried women from a Texas religious college for women, refuse to travel further with him after he has had sex with a 16-year old girl who accompanies the women. The women refuse to stay at the Sosta Verde and with Mrs. Faulke, the proprietor. The lusty but frustrated Mrs Faulke has just been widowed and she has designs on Shannon, who had been a friend of her husband. Hannah Jelkes comes to the hotel shortly after Shannon in the company of her grandfather, 97. Hannah, 40 and never married, is an artist and her grandfather is a poet. There is an immediate, unstated attraction between Hannah and Shannon.
The play develops slowly. Williams explores the past lives of the primary characters and their attempts at finding peace. Shannon has a severe emotional breakdown when he loses his job as a tour guide. He and Hannah have a lengthy and close emotional evening of talk but cannot reach physical intimacy. Shannon stays on as a companion to Mrs Faulke to comfort her, help with the hotel, and satisfy its female guests. Hannah must deal with being alone.
Hannah is probably the key figure in the play and an unusual character for Williams. She is from New England rather than from the South. She is also measured, restrained, and philosophical. "Accept whatever situation you cannot improve" Hannah advises Shannon during the evening of their emotional intimacy. The play explores spiritual themes. It appears to reject the "senile delinquent" view of God (a caricature of monotheism) in favor of a more spiritual Eastern form of pantheism, perhaps, or stoicism.
John Lahr's new biography, "Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh" (2014) puts "The Night of the Iguana" into the context of Williams' life and offers insights into the writing and editing of the play, its themes and production, and the difficulties of working with Bette Davis. I learned a great deal from Lahr about Williams and about "The Night of the Iguana." The play is more about the universal human feelings of loneliness, despair, and hope than it is about the specifics of Williams' own difficult life.
Robin Friedman
July 10, 2020
izvrsno uređena zbirka od petnaestak kratkih priča i nekoliko pisama tennessee williamsa (čega se god vojo šindolić primi, pretvara u zlato).
williams, najpoznatiji po dramama "tramvaj zvan čežnja" i "mačka na vrućem limenom krovu" (i po jednoj od najbizarnijih smrti - ugušio se slučajno progutavši plastični poklopac od bočice tableta koje je konzumirao) tako jednostavno, lako i dostojanstveno piše da je pravi užitak prepuštati se njegovim rečenicama. priče su više kao isječci, crtice - savršeno zaokružene u svojoj nedorečenosti, a pisma... ahh, pisma kao što su nekad znala biti pisana - mala literarna djela, uz otkrivanje intime i toplinu koja se može prenijeti samo preko papira stavljenog u kovertu s markicom.
williams, najpoznatiji po dramama "tramvaj zvan čežnja" i "mačka na vrućem limenom krovu" (i po jednoj od najbizarnijih smrti - ugušio se slučajno progutavši plastični poklopac od bočice tableta koje je konzumirao) tako jednostavno, lako i dostojanstveno piše da je pravi užitak prepuštati se njegovim rečenicama. priče su više kao isječci, crtice - savršeno zaokružene u svojoj nedorečenosti, a pisma... ahh, pisma kao što su nekad znala biti pisana - mala literarna djela, uz otkrivanje intime i toplinu koja se može prenijeti samo preko papira stavljenog u kovertu s markicom.
Read
March 26, 2010John Huston's 1964 adaptation of Tennessee Wiliams's Night of the Iguana is one of my dad's favorite films of all time, so I grew up knowing the characters: Reverend Larry Shannon, battling his demons after being locked out of his Episcopal church for having sex with a young Sunday-school teacher; Maxine Faulk (my hands-down favorite at the time), the crass, sexually omnivorous widow whose at whose hotel Shannon arrives, with twenty angry female Baptists in tow; the otherworldly spinster Hannah Jelkes and her 97-year-old grandfather, the oldest practicing poet in the world.
I grew up knowing them, but, as my dad said when I mentioned that I was reading the play along with my "Non-Structured" blog pals, how much of these characters and their interactions can you really understand at the age of fifteen? It is, as he pointed out, an "adult" story, and not just because it involves themes of sexual desperation and sexual contempt—Shannon with his teenage girls; Maxine with her cabana boys—that adults usually keep from children. I think the thing I most failed to identify as a teenager is how worn down all three main characters are, and how that desperate exhaustion imbues their small acts of basic human kindness toward one another with a significance bordering on the heroic. I understood ennui (what teenager doesn't?), but I didn't understand the way that living under emotionally taxing conditions stops being glamorous pretty shortly and starts wearing away at a person's reserves. Luckily, I still can't empathize with the choice between starvation and the kindness of strangers, but I do understand being engaged in a seemingly endless emotional struggle, and how exhausting and panic-inducing that can be.
I also had a much different perspective on the Charlotte/Shannon relationship than I do now. Watching the story unfold as a 15-year-old girl, Shannon's behavior doesn't read as predatory the way it can to an older viewer; my friends, after all, were all for dating "older men." But what I now think is interesting about Williams's portrayal of Shannon is that the Reverend's sexual exploits are not his real crime here—in the playwright's eyes, I think, it's Shannon's cold treatment of these young girls after sleeping with them that exposes the real ugliness in his character. I think, as Williams sees it, Shannon squanders the chance to connect with another human, and that's his sin.
It's interesting that in the 1964 film, Huston chose to remove any discussion of this coldness on Shannon's part, which strikes me as so important in the original play. Perhaps the director felt that a habit of seducing underage women was enough of a barrier for Shannon, as a basically sympathetic character, to overcome.
Another interesting change to Shannon's character in the Huston film is that his theology is completely transformed. In both versions, he objects to the "petulant old man" worshiped by his Virginia congregation. But Huston's Shannon is a sort of nascent hippie environmentalist: as he chases his parishioners out of his church, he speaks of "the God of loving kindness"; and in the scene where he is describing his "researches" to Hannah, he defines "man's inhumanity to God" in terms of polluted rivers and exploited natural resources. These are tropes that a theater audience would immediately understand and relate to. The theology of the original Shannon, on the other hand, is much more complex, and I've always found it difficult to understand. Here, for example, is how he defines his God to Hannah:
Much weirder, no? I can understand why Huston decided to alter Shannon into the more easily-understandable "loving kindness" variety of Christian. But what is he actually saying here? The "stray dogs vivisected" line suggests the idea that God is everywhere, even in the ugly parts of life, and it's wrong of the complacent Virginian congregants not to recognize that. But really, Shannon's recognition of God is no more universal than theirs. If they are only willing to see the divine in anodyne respectability, he only seems willing to recognize it at the most extreme margins of human experience—not in a calm blue sky, but in a dramatic, stormy sunset; not in a pampered house pet, but in a vivisected stray dog. On the other hand, he sees God as "oblivious," unconcerned with the travails of humans. I have always had a hard time wrapping my head around this seeming contradiction: if we're dealing with an unconcerned, "clock-maker" type God, why would he be more manifest in some aspects of life than others? Perhaps Shannon feels that humans are most able to connect with God when they are, themselves, in extremity, and it takes Hannah's calm plea for compassion, for a recognition that all humans have their struggles and their shadows, to balance out his glamorization of the extreme:
Oddly, although I strongly relate to Hannah's philosophy of endurance and human compassion irrespective of God's existence, I find her the least compelling of the three in terms of her actual character, especially on the page. She seems at times just a pretext through which Williams can speak directly to the audience; whereas Shannon and Maxine both talk like real people, Hannah often sounds written to me. Deborah Kerr's performance does a lot to dispel that impression, but Richard Burton and Ava Gardner are still more human-seeming to watch.
There are things in both versions of Night of the Iguana that walk a thin line between bothering and intriguing me: are the depictions of "butch" Judy Fellowes, for example, anti-lesbian misogyny, or an examination of how remaining closeted can cause a person to become cruel and vindictive? (Interestingly, tough-guy Huston actually added material that would favor the second hypothesis. It definitely surprises me that John Huston would be easier on closeted lesbians than Tennessee Williams!) The depictions of Maxine's cabana boys reflect a ridiculous level of casual racism, but it's unusual, especially for 1961, to see a mostly-sympathetic female extract unapologetic sexual enjoyment from men in the way male characters often make sexual use of women. Williams doesn't exactly congratulate Maxine (nor am I arguing that he should), but her employment of Pedro and Pancho is viewed as another desperate attempt at human contact in an alienated world—and Williams, like Hannah Jelkes, respects any attempt at survival that isn't cruel or childish.
In any case, I'm glad to have revisited this old family favorite. I suspect my appreciation of it will continue to grow with time.
I grew up knowing them, but, as my dad said when I mentioned that I was reading the play along with my "Non-Structured" blog pals, how much of these characters and their interactions can you really understand at the age of fifteen? It is, as he pointed out, an "adult" story, and not just because it involves themes of sexual desperation and sexual contempt—Shannon with his teenage girls; Maxine with her cabana boys—that adults usually keep from children. I think the thing I most failed to identify as a teenager is how worn down all three main characters are, and how that desperate exhaustion imbues their small acts of basic human kindness toward one another with a significance bordering on the heroic. I understood ennui (what teenager doesn't?), but I didn't understand the way that living under emotionally taxing conditions stops being glamorous pretty shortly and starts wearing away at a person's reserves. Luckily, I still can't empathize with the choice between starvation and the kindness of strangers, but I do understand being engaged in a seemingly endless emotional struggle, and how exhausting and panic-inducing that can be.
I also had a much different perspective on the Charlotte/Shannon relationship than I do now. Watching the story unfold as a 15-year-old girl, Shannon's behavior doesn't read as predatory the way it can to an older viewer; my friends, after all, were all for dating "older men." But what I now think is interesting about Williams's portrayal of Shannon is that the Reverend's sexual exploits are not his real crime here—in the playwright's eyes, I think, it's Shannon's cold treatment of these young girls after sleeping with them that exposes the real ugliness in his character. I think, as Williams sees it, Shannon squanders the chance to connect with another human, and that's his sin.
HANNAH: [...:] The episode in the cold, inhuman hotel room, Mr. Shannon, for which you despise the lady almost as much as you despise yourself. Afterward you are so polite to the lady that I'm sure it must chill her to the bone, the scrupulous little attentions that you pay her in return for your little enjoyment of her. The gentleman-of-Virginia act that you put on for her, your noblesse oblige treatment of her...Oh no, Mr. Shannon, don't kid yourself that you ever travel with someone. You have always traveled alone except for your spook, as you call it.
It's interesting that in the 1964 film, Huston chose to remove any discussion of this coldness on Shannon's part, which strikes me as so important in the original play. Perhaps the director felt that a habit of seducing underage women was enough of a barrier for Shannon, as a basically sympathetic character, to overcome.
Another interesting change to Shannon's character in the Huston film is that his theology is completely transformed. In both versions, he objects to the "petulant old man" worshiped by his Virginia congregation. But Huston's Shannon is a sort of nascent hippie environmentalist: as he chases his parishioners out of his church, he speaks of "the God of loving kindness"; and in the scene where he is describing his "researches" to Hannah, he defines "man's inhumanity to God" in terms of polluted rivers and exploited natural resources. These are tropes that a theater audience would immediately understand and relate to. The theology of the original Shannon, on the other hand, is much more complex, and I've always found it difficult to understand. Here, for example, is how he defines his God to Hannah:
SHANNON: It's going to storm tonight—a terrific electrical storm. Then you will see the Reverend T. Lawrence Shannon's conception of God Almighty paying a visit to the world he created. I want to go back to the Church and preach the gospel of God as Lightning and Thunder...and also stray dogs vivisected and...and...and...[He points out suddenly toward the sea.:] That's him! There he is now! [He is pointing out at a blaze, a majestic apocalypse of gold light, shafting the sky as the sun drops into the Pacific.:] His oblivious majesty—and here I am on this...dilapidated verandah of a cheap hotel, out of season, in a country caught and destroyed in its flesh and corrupted in its spirit by its gold-hungry conquistadors that bore the flag of the Inquisition along with the Cross of Christ.
Much weirder, no? I can understand why Huston decided to alter Shannon into the more easily-understandable "loving kindness" variety of Christian. But what is he actually saying here? The "stray dogs vivisected" line suggests the idea that God is everywhere, even in the ugly parts of life, and it's wrong of the complacent Virginian congregants not to recognize that. But really, Shannon's recognition of God is no more universal than theirs. If they are only willing to see the divine in anodyne respectability, he only seems willing to recognize it at the most extreme margins of human experience—not in a calm blue sky, but in a dramatic, stormy sunset; not in a pampered house pet, but in a vivisected stray dog. On the other hand, he sees God as "oblivious," unconcerned with the travails of humans. I have always had a hard time wrapping my head around this seeming contradiction: if we're dealing with an unconcerned, "clock-maker" type God, why would he be more manifest in some aspects of life than others? Perhaps Shannon feels that humans are most able to connect with God when they are, themselves, in extremity, and it takes Hannah's calm plea for compassion, for a recognition that all humans have their struggles and their shadows, to balance out his glamorization of the extreme:
HANNAH: I have a strong feeling you will go back to the Church with this evidence you've been collecting, but when you do and it's a black Sunday morning, look out over the congregation, over the smug, complacent faces for a few old, very old faces, looking up at you, as you begin your sermon, with eyes like a piercing cry for something to still look up to, something to still believe in. And then I think you'll not shout what you say you shouted that black Sunday in Pleasant Valley, Virginia. I think you will throw away the violent, furious sermon, you'll toss it into the chancel, and talk about...no, maybe talk about...nothing...just...
SHANNON: What?
HANNAH: Lead them beside still waters because you know how badly they need the still waters, Mr. Shannon.
Oddly, although I strongly relate to Hannah's philosophy of endurance and human compassion irrespective of God's existence, I find her the least compelling of the three in terms of her actual character, especially on the page. She seems at times just a pretext through which Williams can speak directly to the audience; whereas Shannon and Maxine both talk like real people, Hannah often sounds written to me. Deborah Kerr's performance does a lot to dispel that impression, but Richard Burton and Ava Gardner are still more human-seeming to watch.
There are things in both versions of Night of the Iguana that walk a thin line between bothering and intriguing me: are the depictions of "butch" Judy Fellowes, for example, anti-lesbian misogyny, or an examination of how remaining closeted can cause a person to become cruel and vindictive? (Interestingly, tough-guy Huston actually added material that would favor the second hypothesis. It definitely surprises me that John Huston would be easier on closeted lesbians than Tennessee Williams!) The depictions of Maxine's cabana boys reflect a ridiculous level of casual racism, but it's unusual, especially for 1961, to see a mostly-sympathetic female extract unapologetic sexual enjoyment from men in the way male characters often make sexual use of women. Williams doesn't exactly congratulate Maxine (nor am I arguing that he should), but her employment of Pedro and Pancho is viewed as another desperate attempt at human contact in an alienated world—and Williams, like Hannah Jelkes, respects any attempt at survival that isn't cruel or childish.
In any case, I'm glad to have revisited this old family favorite. I suspect my appreciation of it will continue to grow with time.
October 12, 2015
I feel like a bit of a punk giving Tennessee Williams three stars, but this didn't completely land with me. It was obviously well-written, and the characters were solid, but I don't think it has much staying power. I kept asking myself, "What's the point?" and couldn't really think of one - and that's fine, but it seemed to be striving for one and not quite making it there.
The story of an assortment of people who find themselves essentially stuck at a not exactly glamorous hotel in Mexico, the titular iguana is captured by the staff of young Mexican boys there who then plan to feed it and then eat it. It becomes a clear stand-in metaphor for the people who are "at the end of their rope" and feeling stuck there: Maxine, who runs the place and finds herself sexually and emotionally lonely in the aftermath of the death of her husband; Father Shannon, a defrocked minister with an appetite for emotional break-downs, booze, and young women; Nonno, at 97 the oldest living poet with a fading mind who's struggling to write his last great poem before he dies; his grand-daughter, Hannah, a water-colorist who's taking care of Nonno while they travel the world with nary a bill left in their pockets. The story covers the course of one day and night centering on these four, with a few supporting characters for color. Nonno is a hair less central than the other three, but I include him here because it's a different story without him, since Hannah's life course and identity seem so tied into his.
The supporting cast - the tour group left to the mercies of their tour guide, Father Shannon, the Nazis honeymooning at the hotel - felt mostly purposeless, particularly the Nazis. Perhaps they were supposed to help set the era of the play, but aside from giving some context of when the story is happening (which doesn't feel central to it, actually), they seemed to mostly serve as a distraction. The tour group served a purpose, but felt more involved than it needed to be. The story could've entirely focused on the above four and I think I would've felt just as satisfied.
Maxine, Shannon, Nonno, and Hannah are all wonderful characters - flawed and longing for something that feels out of reach. (First rule of all my creating writing classes - make your characters want something, even if it's just a glass of water!" Seriously though, I think I heard a teacher/professor say that in every writing class I ever had.) Someone on GR mentioned in their review that Hannah feels more "written" while Maxine and Shannon seem more realistic, and there's credence to that. She's the most eloquent character, but in part because of that, one of the more difficult to accept.
There was resolution in the end, but it wasn't satisfying, and I'm wondering if it's because it seemed too easy? To have all this drama arise and then find resolution in the course of a night maybe feels to quick.
There were some really lovely turns of phrase, and I enjoyed the overall experience, but it didn't hold much emotional or mental weight with me, which is something I look for and treasure in a good read.
The story of an assortment of people who find themselves essentially stuck at a not exactly glamorous hotel in Mexico, the titular iguana is captured by the staff of young Mexican boys there who then plan to feed it and then eat it. It becomes a clear stand-in metaphor for the people who are "at the end of their rope" and feeling stuck there: Maxine, who runs the place and finds herself sexually and emotionally lonely in the aftermath of the death of her husband; Father Shannon, a defrocked minister with an appetite for emotional break-downs, booze, and young women; Nonno, at 97 the oldest living poet with a fading mind who's struggling to write his last great poem before he dies; his grand-daughter, Hannah, a water-colorist who's taking care of Nonno while they travel the world with nary a bill left in their pockets. The story covers the course of one day and night centering on these four, with a few supporting characters for color. Nonno is a hair less central than the other three, but I include him here because it's a different story without him, since Hannah's life course and identity seem so tied into his.
The supporting cast - the tour group left to the mercies of their tour guide, Father Shannon, the Nazis honeymooning at the hotel - felt mostly purposeless, particularly the Nazis. Perhaps they were supposed to help set the era of the play, but aside from giving some context of when the story is happening (which doesn't feel central to it, actually), they seemed to mostly serve as a distraction. The tour group served a purpose, but felt more involved than it needed to be. The story could've entirely focused on the above four and I think I would've felt just as satisfied.
Maxine, Shannon, Nonno, and Hannah are all wonderful characters - flawed and longing for something that feels out of reach. (First rule of all my creating writing classes - make your characters want something, even if it's just a glass of water!" Seriously though, I think I heard a teacher/professor say that in every writing class I ever had.) Someone on GR mentioned in their review that Hannah feels more "written" while Maxine and Shannon seem more realistic, and there's credence to that. She's the most eloquent character, but in part because of that, one of the more difficult to accept.
There was resolution in the end, but it wasn't satisfying, and I'm wondering if it's because it seemed too easy? To have all this drama arise and then find resolution in the course of a night maybe feels to quick.
There were some really lovely turns of phrase, and I enjoyed the overall experience, but it didn't hold much emotional or mental weight with me, which is something I look for and treasure in a good read.
September 30, 2024
A noite do iguana é uma das melhores peças do Tennessee Williams, mas talvez não seja tão montada como outras mais famosas do dramaturgo.
O grande John Huston a adaptou para cinema em 1964 num filme excelente, com elenco igualmente fantástico que mantém o humor, a tensão e o tesão da peça.
Enfim, recomendo tanto o texto quanto o filme, especialmente essa edição da New Directions que tem textos de apoio e o conto que Williams escreveu baseado na peça.
O grande John Huston a adaptou para cinema em 1964 num filme excelente, com elenco igualmente fantástico que mantém o humor, a tensão e o tesão da peça.
Enfim, recomendo tanto o texto quanto o filme, especialmente essa edição da New Directions que tem textos de apoio e o conto que Williams escreveu baseado na peça.
July 31, 2025
No sé si ganará representado, pero los diálogos eran el cacareo incesante de un cúmulo de personajes insípidos.
January 8, 2022
برای من، عایدهای میان آثار ویلیامز وجود ندارد. نه مثل وودی آلن احساساتم را غلغلک میدهد، نه میتواند الهامبخشم باشد.
December 16, 2025
The Night of the Iguana by Tennessee Williams
Excellent
What a great play! And there is also a movie based on the work of Tennessee Williams.
All the characters are fascinating, except perhaps for the “pool boys”, who are torturing the iguana, albeit on orders from their boss.
Shannon is at the center of it all.
He is the rugged man, with plenty of vices and failures- perhaps we could even call him “loser” in some ways.
And yet he is the coveted prize that three women want, all the major female personages, including a supporting role.
Reverend Lawrence Shannon has been defrocked and ever since he had spoken out in a sermon that had offended people and got him out of the church, he works in the travel business.
At the beginning of the play, we meet Shannon as he is taking a group of women to the hotel run by his friend Maxine Faulk.
As a tour guide, he has managed to upset the leader, who is concerned by the relationship between Shannon and young Charlotte Goodall.
The fact is that the two have spent the previous night together, but Shannon is nearly 100% innocent, since the young woman had busted in his room.
Furthermore, she did not take no for an answer and insinuated herself into the bed of the former reverend.
Another central character is Maxine Faulk, who is now a widow, after her husband – Frank- had died a short while ago.
She is a very strong, determined, resilient and brave woman. She does come across as harsh and cold hearted at times.
Even more, she seems to be immoral and ruthless, at least when we hear how she had hired two Mexicans, who appear to act as gigolos. They had been brought at the hotel while Frank was alive.
The dead husband had not minded and the marriage had been a strange arrangement, with Frank an intriguing, if secondary personage.
Maxine wants Shannon to stay. Well, I am wrong- not just to stay, but to act as official replacement for Frank.
To the two women who want Shannon we must add a third, albeit more mysterious woman – Hannah Jelkes, played in the movie by Deborah Kerr.
Ava Gardner was Maxine and the wonderful Richard Burton played the sinful reverend.
Hannah Jelkes comes to the hotel with yet another worthy character – her grandfather, who is a poet. Maxine is annoyed by the presence of a rival
- Let Shannon alone, you think I did not see the energy going on between the two of you??
Maxine wants the woman painter and her poet grandfather to go to another pension in the town, where she makes arrangements.
Indeed, Hannah and her elderly relative are paupers; they have no more money after they had to buy a wheel chair.
But she is a proud and strong woman, making me wonder-
- Who is stronger, Maxine or Hannah?
On the face of it, Maxine would win, with her more brutish, unscrupulous ways.
But a woman ready to travel alone around the world, after having escorted and caring for a ninety seven year old man is to be reckoned with.
A wonderful play, with amazing characters.
Excellent
What a great play! And there is also a movie based on the work of Tennessee Williams.
All the characters are fascinating, except perhaps for the “pool boys”, who are torturing the iguana, albeit on orders from their boss.
Shannon is at the center of it all.
He is the rugged man, with plenty of vices and failures- perhaps we could even call him “loser” in some ways.
And yet he is the coveted prize that three women want, all the major female personages, including a supporting role.
Reverend Lawrence Shannon has been defrocked and ever since he had spoken out in a sermon that had offended people and got him out of the church, he works in the travel business.
At the beginning of the play, we meet Shannon as he is taking a group of women to the hotel run by his friend Maxine Faulk.
As a tour guide, he has managed to upset the leader, who is concerned by the relationship between Shannon and young Charlotte Goodall.
The fact is that the two have spent the previous night together, but Shannon is nearly 100% innocent, since the young woman had busted in his room.
Furthermore, she did not take no for an answer and insinuated herself into the bed of the former reverend.
Another central character is Maxine Faulk, who is now a widow, after her husband – Frank- had died a short while ago.
She is a very strong, determined, resilient and brave woman. She does come across as harsh and cold hearted at times.
Even more, she seems to be immoral and ruthless, at least when we hear how she had hired two Mexicans, who appear to act as gigolos. They had been brought at the hotel while Frank was alive.
The dead husband had not minded and the marriage had been a strange arrangement, with Frank an intriguing, if secondary personage.
Maxine wants Shannon to stay. Well, I am wrong- not just to stay, but to act as official replacement for Frank.
To the two women who want Shannon we must add a third, albeit more mysterious woman – Hannah Jelkes, played in the movie by Deborah Kerr.
Ava Gardner was Maxine and the wonderful Richard Burton played the sinful reverend.
Hannah Jelkes comes to the hotel with yet another worthy character – her grandfather, who is a poet. Maxine is annoyed by the presence of a rival
- Let Shannon alone, you think I did not see the energy going on between the two of you??
Maxine wants the woman painter and her poet grandfather to go to another pension in the town, where she makes arrangements.
Indeed, Hannah and her elderly relative are paupers; they have no more money after they had to buy a wheel chair.
But she is a proud and strong woman, making me wonder-
- Who is stronger, Maxine or Hannah?
On the face of it, Maxine would win, with her more brutish, unscrupulous ways.
But a woman ready to travel alone around the world, after having escorted and caring for a ninety seven year old man is to be reckoned with.
A wonderful play, with amazing characters.
September 5, 2018
This play conjures images similar to what you'd get from Malcom Lowery, William Burroughs or Roberto Bolano in their Mexicali treatments. It's the classic 'it happened one night' one-off menagerie of happenstance characters come together in mystic setting with mother nature adding inclement weather and the lonely iguana a sacrificial prop - somethin' got to give and it probably gone be a hoot fore the wind dies back down. It's a two toddy three act gothic palooza.
April 7, 2013
There is not a more perfect way to have read this than sitting around with friends eating fabulous food and getting drunk. Tennessee Williams makes me laugh. His characters are very "human" and realistic, which is what makes humor. Life is funny just by the tragedy of what it entails. The part of the writing that makes Williams so incredible is his descriptions of the stage direction. He uses metaphors of obscure things to explain how they should appear. I love the way he writes and I need to read some more. Having people perform the roles does bring it alive in a way that is different from just reading it.
My Night with the Iguana was not what I had been expecting. I had no idea what it was about or that it took place in Mexico. I started my day by cleaning my grandfather's apartment. He asked me what my plans were for the weekend. His eyes lit up at the mention of the play I was planning on reading. I knew one of his crazy Mexico stories was about to take place. He then described how he was in Puerto Vallarta while they were filming it, back when it was just a tiny village. The most drunk he ever got was at a Cantina run by a Canadian there and he had tried to swim out to the boat and almost drowned. Life is kind of Random.
My Night with the Iguana was not what I had been expecting. I had no idea what it was about or that it took place in Mexico. I started my day by cleaning my grandfather's apartment. He asked me what my plans were for the weekend. His eyes lit up at the mention of the play I was planning on reading. I knew one of his crazy Mexico stories was about to take place. He then described how he was in Puerto Vallarta while they were filming it, back when it was just a tiny village. The most drunk he ever got was at a Cantina run by a Canadian there and he had tried to swim out to the boat and almost drowned. Life is kind of Random.
August 7, 2018
نمایشنامه ای از تنسی ویلیامز و پیرو آثار معروف و قویترش مثل باغ وحش شیشه ای ، اتوبوسی به نام هوس و گربه ای روی شیروانی داغ به وجوه روانی انسان های شکلی از زندگی که ما در ادبیات با عنوان رئالیسم نام میبریم میپردازه . در شب ایگوانا نمایش در مورد مردی به نام شانون میباشد که نقش یک کشیش هوس باز و یاغی رو در نمایش داره . این کشیش که دست به انواع جرم ها و اعمال مغایر اخلاق زده درنمایش در آستانه دیوانگی دیده میشه واین دیوانگی رو با دو زن قسمت میکنه . شب ایگوانا روایت روان انسان های سرکوب شده مدرن که در ارتباطات منفعل و در زندگی بی هدف هستند میباشد ..
August 19, 2024
SHANNON: Honey girl, don’t you know that nothing worse could happen to a girl in your, your . . . unstable condition . . . than to get emotionally mixed up with a man in my unstable condition, huh?
Δεν μπορώ να πω ότι μου άρεσε τόσο όσο η μαγική δυαδα που προηγήθηκε ("a Streetcar named desire", "the glass menagerie"),αλλά και πάλι ήταν ένα πολύ ενδιαφέρον και διασκεδαστικό ανάγνωσμα που εδραιώνει τον Williams ως αγαπημένο μου πλέον ...
🌟🌟🌟💫/5 αστέρια
Δεν μπορώ να πω ότι μου άρεσε τόσο όσο η μαγική δυαδα που προηγήθηκε ("a Streetcar named desire", "the glass menagerie"),αλλά και πάλι ήταν ένα πολύ ενδιαφέρον και διασκεδαστικό ανάγνωσμα που εδραιώνει τον Williams ως αγαπημένο μου πλέον ...
🌟🌟🌟💫/5 αστέρια
March 23, 2021
Much heavier focus on repressed sexualities and their grotesque consequences than other works of Tennessee Williams that I've read so far. Sex (or the lack thereof) is the sole element that drives the plot of the play yet also what leaves its characters imprisoned "at the end of their rope" to suffer in their own corners of isolation.
The setting being a hotel planted so far deep in a remote Mexican town gave me the impression that the character of Lawrence Shannon represents more than just human desire and lust. Costa Verde hotel and its residents are left far away from civilisation and instead engulfed by nature, free to strip off their ideals and give in to instinct, which really puts my initial theory that sex is keeping the characters bound into question. And honestly? I find myself enjoying being kept in the dark about which is the more accurate answer.
The setting being a hotel planted so far deep in a remote Mexican town gave me the impression that the character of Lawrence Shannon represents more than just human desire and lust. Costa Verde hotel and its residents are left far away from civilisation and instead engulfed by nature, free to strip off their ideals and give in to instinct, which really puts my initial theory that sex is keeping the characters bound into question. And honestly? I find myself enjoying being kept in the dark about which is the more accurate answer.
June 16, 2025
This is the quintessential Tennessee Williams experience! It doesn’t reach the heights of “Streetcar” or “Menagerie” but Williams shines in his ability to put a diverse group of vibrant characters in a room and watch that powder keg tick tick boom into a climatic confrontation.
There’s no better way to describe this but have you watched the “Nosedive” episode from Black Mirror? Yeah, this play is that episode. But you’re in the jungle. Oh, and there’s an iguana.
Favourite moment? Shannon and Hannah reading each other in Act 3.
Favourite quote? “Oh, God, can’t we stop now? Finally? Please let us. It’s so quiet here, now.”
There’s no better way to describe this but have you watched the “Nosedive” episode from Black Mirror? Yeah, this play is that episode. But you’re in the jungle. Oh, and there’s an iguana.
Favourite moment? Shannon and Hannah reading each other in Act 3.
Favourite quote? “Oh, God, can’t we stop now? Finally? Please let us. It’s so quiet here, now.”
Read
July 1, 2025کتابی که من دارم، به غیر از نمایشنامه شب ایگوانا، داستان کوتاه «شب ایگوانا»ی نویسنده را هم دارد که در همان فضا اتفاق میافتد ولی داستانش ربطی به نمایشنامه ندارد. (همچنین هیچ کدام از دو داستان ربطی به لنگ و پاچه ندارند.) یک یادداشت هم از نویسنده هست که توضیح میدهد چطور آن فضا را پیدا کرده است.
شاهکار نبود. اتوبوسی به نام هوس چیز دیگری بود.
شاهکار نبود. اتوبوسی به نام هوس چیز دیگری بود.
November 6, 2020
I do not see what the big deal was about this book - almost no plot and only mediocre character development. I go to Puerta Vallarta annually and there are references to the movie from this book all over the place. There is a statue of John Huston, tours focused on the movie, and dinner themes referencing the movie. Maybe there remains so much in P.V. because of the draw of Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor? But when I see the reviews of the movie, even those don't reflect well for it. Maybe it's because the book just didn't have enough in it. I watched the trailer for the movie and there is certainly more in that than there was in the book (no surprise). I did find a documentary about the filming of the movie and much was made about the collaboration of the local people with the film crew so maybe that's the intrigue. With that, I will continue to enjoy the ambience in P.V. for what it is and have no more curiosity about "The Night of the Iguana."
November 18, 2021
This is a great dark little piece about some pathetic characters at the end of their run in a 40’s Mexican hotel. Shannon is the de-frocked priest, always on the verge of a nervous breakdown, contemptuous of the American tourists he is responsible for transporting between hotels and attractions. Maxine, the “stout, swarthy woman…affable and rapaciously lusty,” handily manages the hotel on her hustling, but admits that she only has a few years left “to make this place attractive to the male clientele, the middle-aged ones at least.” Even the relatively young Hannah is tired of her strange life as traveling sketch artist, accompanying her poet-showman grandfather, who is approaching the end of his literal life (his last name is “Coffin!”).
No one is particularly likable—Shannon with his weak constitution and resignation; Maxine with her brass and overbearance; the tourist women with their annoying demands.
And yet, it’s dark, as I say; like you want to eat popcorn while you enjoy watching people fail. Perhaps like the fun the local hotel workers have tying up a caught iguana…. Wiliams seems to enjoy making fun of his characters as well. He helpfully explains “One can see [Shannon] exchanging these pleasantries with the rocking-chair brigades of summer hotels at the turn of the century—and with professors’ wives at little colleges in New England. But now it has become somewhat grotesque in a touching way, this desire to please, this playful manner, these venerable jokes.” I loved the playwright’s well-placed descriptions like this one and the wicked dialogue exchanged between the characters.
No one is particularly likable—Shannon with his weak constitution and resignation; Maxine with her brass and overbearance; the tourist women with their annoying demands.
And yet, it’s dark, as I say; like you want to eat popcorn while you enjoy watching people fail. Perhaps like the fun the local hotel workers have tying up a caught iguana…. Wiliams seems to enjoy making fun of his characters as well. He helpfully explains “One can see [Shannon] exchanging these pleasantries with the rocking-chair brigades of summer hotels at the turn of the century—and with professors’ wives at little colleges in New England. But now it has become somewhat grotesque in a touching way, this desire to please, this playful manner, these venerable jokes.” I loved the playwright’s well-placed descriptions like this one and the wicked dialogue exchanged between the characters.
July 21, 2012
For years, I thought was familiar with Night of the Iguana, but it seems I was remembering only bits and pieces of the John Huston film, which is very different. It was even more reinforced in my mind because I had visited Mismaloya Beach, the area south of Puerto Vallarta where the film was shot. In the end, I wound up liking the original play better, because of the touching relationship between the defrocked minister, Larry Shannon, and Hannah Jelkes. I particularly loved Shannon's description of God as a senile delinquent:
This is not Williams's best play by any means, but it is interesting enough that I would love to see a live performance of it.
Yeah, this angry, petulant old man. I mean he's represented like a bad-tempered childish old, old, sick, peevish man -- I mean like the sort of old man in a nursing home that's putting together a jigsaw puzzle and can't put it together and gets furious at it and kicks over the table. Yes, I tell you they do that, all our theologies do it -- accuse God of being a cruel senile delinquent, blaming the world and brutally punishing all he created for his own faults in construction....In that remote Mexican hotel overlooking the Pacific Ocean, Shannon goes mad, by bits and pieces, while Hannah tries to keep him together. All the time this is happening, Maxine, the owner of the hotel, wants Shannon for herself. Having known him from other visits during which he had breakdowns, she is willing to take the chance and wants a someone to replace her deceased husband Fred.
This is not Williams's best play by any means, but it is interesting enough that I would love to see a live performance of it.
April 8, 2010
The edition I read (ISBN 978-0-8112-1852-8) was published in 2009 by New Directions and contains a new introduction by Doug Wright and a new essay by Kenneth Holditch. Both Holditch's essay and Wright's introduction are copyright 2009, so these are fresh perspectives. Williams's 1948 short story "The Night Of The Iguana" is included, as well as the play, of course, which was first performed (on Broadway, at least) in 1961. Williams essay on the genesis of the play is here as well.
The differences between the story and the play are radical, but the story is well worth reading for itself. The story is funny, disturbing and haunting. Williams shows an almost Conradian sense of the primal in it.
As an introduction to Williams, this particular edition of THE NIGHT OF THE IGUANA is just about perfect. Doug wright's introduction is one of the few pieces of writing on Tennessee Williams about his effect on the generation which grew up when Williams the man was fading from the scene. Kenneth Holditch's essay describes the Chicago premiere of the play, with actors who, of course, knew Williams.
My guess is Williams is more loved than O'Neill and it is certain his plays are performed as frequently as O'Neill's. Williams is the quotable one.
All of Tennessee Williams's major themes are in the short story, and I would say the story lent as much to STREETCAR as it did to the stage version of IGUANA.
The differences between the story and the play are radical, but the story is well worth reading for itself. The story is funny, disturbing and haunting. Williams shows an almost Conradian sense of the primal in it.
As an introduction to Williams, this particular edition of THE NIGHT OF THE IGUANA is just about perfect. Doug wright's introduction is one of the few pieces of writing on Tennessee Williams about his effect on the generation which grew up when Williams the man was fading from the scene. Kenneth Holditch's essay describes the Chicago premiere of the play, with actors who, of course, knew Williams.
My guess is Williams is more loved than O'Neill and it is certain his plays are performed as frequently as O'Neill's. Williams is the quotable one.
All of Tennessee Williams's major themes are in the short story, and I would say the story lent as much to STREETCAR as it did to the stage version of IGUANA.
January 15, 2019
بسیار کتاب جالبیه، در عجبم که چطور نویسنده ایی میتونه آنقدر مطالب عمیقی را در این حجم کم بیان بکند. تقابل خیر و شر، خدا و شیطان، عشق و شهوت، رهایی انسان مدرن از فشارهای روانی بواسطه هنر( نقاشی و شعر). چقدر نمادهای قشنگی در این نمایشنامه بکار برده شده مخصوصا اوج آن که رهایی ایگوانا از بند بود، ایگوانایی که نمیتواند در بند باشد و زنده بماند و ترجیح می دهد دُمش را بخورد تا از بند رهایی یابد. چه زیبا ویلیامز به عقده های روانی شانون از دوران کودکی اش اشاره دارد جاییکه مادرش اورا کتک می زد تا بلکه مورد قهر خدا قرار نگیرد. شانون هم پس از برقراری رابطه جنسی با دختران نوجوان آنان را کتک میزند تا شاید مورد استغفار قرار گیرند.
July 8, 2014
There's a line that stands out for me as quintessential Williams: Bigger than life, and twice as unnatural.
The man liked drama, and even if I'm not sure what he's on about, I still appreciate his inclinations.
The man liked drama, and even if I'm not sure what he's on about, I still appreciate his inclinations.
March 19, 2015
Interesting character study. Perhaps not as relevant today as it was when first written. Quick read, though, and I'm glad I read it again.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 240 reviews