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The Mutilated
72 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1998
52 people want to read
About the author
Tennessee Williams
755 books3,721 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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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
November 20, 2024
The Mutilated
"The Mutilated" is an almost forgotten late play by Tennessee Williams that has found recent, unexpected success. First produced in Broadway in 1966 as part of a double-bill called "Slapstick Tragedy" the play closed after only seven performances. The play then seems to have been unproduced for 47 years until, in the Fall of 2013, it was revived off-Broadway in a production directed by Cosmin Chevu with highly imaginative casting. Two underground actresses played the leading roles: the unlikely- named Penny Arcade and Mink Stole. Penny Arcade is a performing artist and writer who began to work with Andy Warhol when she was released from reform school. She has worked in New York theater for over 40 years and has become well-known for her opposition to "gentrification" in New York City. Based in Baltimore, Mink Stole has gained fame through her roles in all the films of John Walters and has also made a career as a singer and writer. "The Mutilated" provided one of the few traditional theater roles for both Mink Stole and Penny Arcade.. By all accounts, their performances shined. With their gaudy, larger-than-life characters, they were perfect fits for Williams' strange play. The New York Times, which had panned the play in 1966 as a "boozy delusion", gave a highly favorable review to the 2013 revival. In 2014, the Drama League nominated "The Mutilated" for the award of best revival of a Broadway or off-Broadway play, the only off-Broadway production to be so honored.
"The Mutilated" is a short, dark, extreme comedy set on Christmas Eve in the 1930s in seedy sections of New Orleans. The play tells the story of the off-again, on-again friendship of two lonely, vulnerable women. Celeste, 50 is a bosomy, aggressive prostitute and shoplifter, whose spirit Williams describes as "unconquerable". She has been released from prison on Christmas Eve and she tries to ingratiate herself with her former friend, Trinket. Both Trinket and Celeste have lived in a seedy rooming house, but Trinket resides there by choice, as she has both education and a large income from her father's oil wells. Trinket has had a breast removed and feels inadequate and alone, with no male companions and only Celeste as a friend. In their better days, Trinket has treated Celeste to meals and movies in exchange for company. But the two had a falling-out when Celeste has tried to blackmail Trinket by exposing her secret "mutilation". When Celeste tries to renew the friendship on Christmas Eve, Trinket rebuffs her strongly. The two separately wander the streets and bars of New Orleans and both ultimately find themselves trying to pick-up the same pair of drunken sailors. On Christmas day, the two women reconcile and share an ersatz religious experience.
In his New York Times review of November 13, 2013, Charles Isherwood described Celeste and Trinket and the in-character performances of Penny Arcade and Mink Stole.
"Dressed in a flashy floral dress that suggests a sausage casing in a pattern by Arcimboldo, with her marcelled red hair beginning to come un-marcelled, Celeste sneaks around after Trinket like a mangy cat on the trail of a mouse. Although she maliciously threatens to broadcast her secret to the world and throws a cranky tantrum when all her efforts seem to be going nowhere, Celeste nevertheless possesses a big-hearted humanity that makes her impossible to dislike. Her appetites are what keep her going (“As long as you have longings, satisfaction is possible,” she philosophizes), and Penny Arcade’s big, bold performance radiates a lusty hunger that perfectly captures the character’s essence.
Mink Stole is equally fine as the more genteel Trinket. Keeping her arm curled upward reflexively, to camouflage what she sees as the glaring fact of her “mutilation,” Trinket treads gingerly through the seamy French Quarter streets, trailing an air of apology. Her frightened eyes search like floodlights for an answering compassion, but when, in desperation for company, she picks up a sailor, Trinket’s fluttery attempts at drawing him out bring only humiliation. The actress invests this embattled, fragile woman with a moving dignity."
Tennessee Williams' late plays generally were spurned, but they seem to be undergoing a revival. Even John Lahr's new biography of Williams "Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh" (2014) has little to say about "The Mutilated" in spite of its new-found success. The play, however, is included in the second volume of the Library of America's compilation of Williams' plays and is thus easily accessible. I was glad to read the play and to learn of its recent revival in New York with Mink Stole and Penny Arcade.
Robin Friedman
"The Mutilated" is an almost forgotten late play by Tennessee Williams that has found recent, unexpected success. First produced in Broadway in 1966 as part of a double-bill called "Slapstick Tragedy" the play closed after only seven performances. The play then seems to have been unproduced for 47 years until, in the Fall of 2013, it was revived off-Broadway in a production directed by Cosmin Chevu with highly imaginative casting. Two underground actresses played the leading roles: the unlikely- named Penny Arcade and Mink Stole. Penny Arcade is a performing artist and writer who began to work with Andy Warhol when she was released from reform school. She has worked in New York theater for over 40 years and has become well-known for her opposition to "gentrification" in New York City. Based in Baltimore, Mink Stole has gained fame through her roles in all the films of John Walters and has also made a career as a singer and writer. "The Mutilated" provided one of the few traditional theater roles for both Mink Stole and Penny Arcade.. By all accounts, their performances shined. With their gaudy, larger-than-life characters, they were perfect fits for Williams' strange play. The New York Times, which had panned the play in 1966 as a "boozy delusion", gave a highly favorable review to the 2013 revival. In 2014, the Drama League nominated "The Mutilated" for the award of best revival of a Broadway or off-Broadway play, the only off-Broadway production to be so honored.
"The Mutilated" is a short, dark, extreme comedy set on Christmas Eve in the 1930s in seedy sections of New Orleans. The play tells the story of the off-again, on-again friendship of two lonely, vulnerable women. Celeste, 50 is a bosomy, aggressive prostitute and shoplifter, whose spirit Williams describes as "unconquerable". She has been released from prison on Christmas Eve and she tries to ingratiate herself with her former friend, Trinket. Both Trinket and Celeste have lived in a seedy rooming house, but Trinket resides there by choice, as she has both education and a large income from her father's oil wells. Trinket has had a breast removed and feels inadequate and alone, with no male companions and only Celeste as a friend. In their better days, Trinket has treated Celeste to meals and movies in exchange for company. But the two had a falling-out when Celeste has tried to blackmail Trinket by exposing her secret "mutilation". When Celeste tries to renew the friendship on Christmas Eve, Trinket rebuffs her strongly. The two separately wander the streets and bars of New Orleans and both ultimately find themselves trying to pick-up the same pair of drunken sailors. On Christmas day, the two women reconcile and share an ersatz religious experience.
In his New York Times review of November 13, 2013, Charles Isherwood described Celeste and Trinket and the in-character performances of Penny Arcade and Mink Stole.
"Dressed in a flashy floral dress that suggests a sausage casing in a pattern by Arcimboldo, with her marcelled red hair beginning to come un-marcelled, Celeste sneaks around after Trinket like a mangy cat on the trail of a mouse. Although she maliciously threatens to broadcast her secret to the world and throws a cranky tantrum when all her efforts seem to be going nowhere, Celeste nevertheless possesses a big-hearted humanity that makes her impossible to dislike. Her appetites are what keep her going (“As long as you have longings, satisfaction is possible,” she philosophizes), and Penny Arcade’s big, bold performance radiates a lusty hunger that perfectly captures the character’s essence.
Mink Stole is equally fine as the more genteel Trinket. Keeping her arm curled upward reflexively, to camouflage what she sees as the glaring fact of her “mutilation,” Trinket treads gingerly through the seamy French Quarter streets, trailing an air of apology. Her frightened eyes search like floodlights for an answering compassion, but when, in desperation for company, she picks up a sailor, Trinket’s fluttery attempts at drawing him out bring only humiliation. The actress invests this embattled, fragile woman with a moving dignity."
Tennessee Williams' late plays generally were spurned, but they seem to be undergoing a revival. Even John Lahr's new biography of Williams "Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh" (2014) has little to say about "The Mutilated" in spite of its new-found success. The play, however, is included in the second volume of the Library of America's compilation of Williams' plays and is thus easily accessible. I was glad to read the play and to learn of its recent revival in New York with Mink Stole and Penny Arcade.
Robin Friedman
January 11, 2016
This play starts off grandiose, progresses from irrelevant to didactic through arbitrary, and inserts a good measure of the embarrassing, tone-deaf, patronising and bewildering along the way. It finishes up with creepy religiosity during the final set piece, which is as blatant an example of deus ex machina as you could wish to see. It's interesting to think about how the play would have come over on stage. Unintentionally hilarious, probably.
June 7, 2016
Didn't do much for me.
July 27, 2019
Whether this work was intended to be comical or not, I found it to be hilarious. I loved the characters of trinket and Celeste and, as always, Williams writing was superb
August 26, 2020
No me gustó pero no la odié. Sin duda Tennesse ha escrito cosas mucho mejores.
October 20, 2023
This one act sheds light on the deepest feelings of shame and reliance. The best character is Bernie and he barley does anything.
September 11, 2024
"I think the strange, the crazed, the queer
Will have their holiday this year
And for a while, A little while
There will be pity for the wild."
Will have their holiday this year
And for a while, A little while
There will be pity for the wild."
September 2, 2025
Pretty decent one.
June 21, 2023
Update: The end falls into place after some thought.
First notes:
A very odd, out of nowhere, seemingly "I don't want to write anymore" ending was bothersome to me. I think this play is about how people use others to heal from physical mutilations. Or something. A weak southern goth, imo.
First notes:
A very odd, out of nowhere, seemingly "I don't want to write anymore" ending was bothersome to me. I think this play is about how people use others to heal from physical mutilations. Or something. A weak southern goth, imo.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews