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Not About Nightingales
This early full-length play put a young Tennessee Williams' passion for social justice in the spotlight. "Haunting, searing, unforgettable" ―London Herald In early 1998, sixty years after it was written, one of Tennessee Williams' first full-length plays, Not About Nightingales , was premiered by Britain's Royal National Theatre and was immediately hailed as "one of the most remarkable theatrical discoveries of the last quarter century ( London Evening Standard ). Brought to the attention of the director Trevor Nunn by the actress Vanessa Redgrave (who has contributed a Foreword to this edition), "this early work...changed our perception of a major writer and still packs a hefty political punch" ( London Independent ). Written in 1938 and based on an actual newspaper story, the play follows the events of a prison atrocity which shocked the convicts leading a hunger strike in a Pennsylvania prison were locked in a steam-heated cell and roasted to death. Williams later "I have never written anything since that could compete with it in violence and horror." Its sympathetic treatment of black and homosexual characters may have kept the play unproduced in its own time. But its flashes of lyricism and compelling dialogue presage the great plays Williams has yet to write. Not About Nightingales shows us the young playwright (for the first time using his signature "Tennessee") as a political writer, passionate about social injustice, and reflecting the plight of outcasts in Depression America. The stylistic influences of European Expressionism, radical American theatre of the 1930s, and popular film make it unique among the group of four early plays. Not About Nightingales has been edited by eminent Williams scholar Allean Hale, who has also provided an illuminating historical introduction.
196 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1998
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About the author
Tennessee Williams
757 books3,729 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 - 30 of 30 reviews
July 27, 2020
An Early Play by Tennessee Williams
There is a story worth knowing behind Tennessee Williams' early play, "Not About Nightingales". Williams began writing the play in 1938 while living in St. Louis. He completed the work in 1939 while in New Orleans. At this time, he began calling himself "Tennessee" rather than "Tom". In 1939, Williams submitted the play to the Group Theater in New York City which cursorily rejected it. From that time, until the late 1990s the play remained unpublished and forgotten.
The actress Vanessa Redgrave found Williams' reference to this early play in his introduction to "Orpheus Descending" which she was preparing to perform in a 1989 revival. Redgrave became curious and contacted the literary executor of Williams' estate, Maria St. Just, who was able to locate Williams' manuscript in collections of his papers at the University of Texas at Austin. Redgrave proceeded to champion the play. In 1998, "Not About Nightingales" was published with an introduction by Redgrave and given its world premier by the Royal National Theatre, London. The play then was produced at the Alley Theater, Houston before running at the Circle on the Square in New York City in 1999. The New York production received six Tony Award nominations, including Best Play, Best Actor (Redgrave's brother Corin Redgrave) and Best Director (Trevor Nunn)
The play is worthy of its rediscovery and of its accolades. It is a lengthy, ambitious three-act work with a large cast set in an unnamed Depression-era prison. The play tells of a group of convicts who go on a hunger strike to protest their inhumane treatment at the prison. The warden punishes the prisoners by putting them in a steamingly hot room filled with hissing radiators known in the institution as the "Klondike". Williams based his play on news stories of a similar event in a Pennsylvania prison. The play is unique among Williams' works in its tone of social commentary and protest.
The primary characters in the play include the cruel warden, Whalin, his new Secretary, Eva, and Butch, who serves as the leader of the convicts and the instigator of the hunger strike. But the main character is Jim who has been imprisoned for ten years and anticipating parole. After being brutalized by the warden early in his sentence, Jim has earned his trust and works in the warden's office. The remaining prisoners, of course, are suspicious of Jim. Williams put a great deal of himself into this early character. Jim writes in prison and aspires to be a writer upon his release. Although clearly a romantic, Jim's contemplated writing is "not about nightingales" but about the need for social change. Jim and Williams present the prison as a metaphor for the world outside the prison walls and the surrounding waters in which individuals are locked inside themselves and their own problems and are unable to take a clear view of life and love. At one point, as the inmates consider the hunger strike, Jim says to Butch:
"We've all got walls around ourselves, Butch, that we can't see through -- that's why we make so many mistakes about each other."
Jim throws himself into the surrounding waters at the end of the play in a desperate bid for his freedom. Williams leaves it unclear whether he succeeds.
The play continues to be read and performed. I learned that the work had been performed in November, 2014 by the Department of Theatre Arts of Howard University in Washington, D.C. Unfortunately, this performance in my home town occurred about a month before I discovered the play. The play is available in the edition published by New Directions in 1998 and in the first volume of the Library of America's two volume compilation of the plays of Tennessee Williams. Williams' imagination, writing, and characterizations lift this moving early play beyond the categories of student work and stereotyped prison drama.
Robin Friedman
There is a story worth knowing behind Tennessee Williams' early play, "Not About Nightingales". Williams began writing the play in 1938 while living in St. Louis. He completed the work in 1939 while in New Orleans. At this time, he began calling himself "Tennessee" rather than "Tom". In 1939, Williams submitted the play to the Group Theater in New York City which cursorily rejected it. From that time, until the late 1990s the play remained unpublished and forgotten.
The actress Vanessa Redgrave found Williams' reference to this early play in his introduction to "Orpheus Descending" which she was preparing to perform in a 1989 revival. Redgrave became curious and contacted the literary executor of Williams' estate, Maria St. Just, who was able to locate Williams' manuscript in collections of his papers at the University of Texas at Austin. Redgrave proceeded to champion the play. In 1998, "Not About Nightingales" was published with an introduction by Redgrave and given its world premier by the Royal National Theatre, London. The play then was produced at the Alley Theater, Houston before running at the Circle on the Square in New York City in 1999. The New York production received six Tony Award nominations, including Best Play, Best Actor (Redgrave's brother Corin Redgrave) and Best Director (Trevor Nunn)
The play is worthy of its rediscovery and of its accolades. It is a lengthy, ambitious three-act work with a large cast set in an unnamed Depression-era prison. The play tells of a group of convicts who go on a hunger strike to protest their inhumane treatment at the prison. The warden punishes the prisoners by putting them in a steamingly hot room filled with hissing radiators known in the institution as the "Klondike". Williams based his play on news stories of a similar event in a Pennsylvania prison. The play is unique among Williams' works in its tone of social commentary and protest.
The primary characters in the play include the cruel warden, Whalin, his new Secretary, Eva, and Butch, who serves as the leader of the convicts and the instigator of the hunger strike. But the main character is Jim who has been imprisoned for ten years and anticipating parole. After being brutalized by the warden early in his sentence, Jim has earned his trust and works in the warden's office. The remaining prisoners, of course, are suspicious of Jim. Williams put a great deal of himself into this early character. Jim writes in prison and aspires to be a writer upon his release. Although clearly a romantic, Jim's contemplated writing is "not about nightingales" but about the need for social change. Jim and Williams present the prison as a metaphor for the world outside the prison walls and the surrounding waters in which individuals are locked inside themselves and their own problems and are unable to take a clear view of life and love. At one point, as the inmates consider the hunger strike, Jim says to Butch:
"We've all got walls around ourselves, Butch, that we can't see through -- that's why we make so many mistakes about each other."
Jim throws himself into the surrounding waters at the end of the play in a desperate bid for his freedom. Williams leaves it unclear whether he succeeds.
The play continues to be read and performed. I learned that the work had been performed in November, 2014 by the Department of Theatre Arts of Howard University in Washington, D.C. Unfortunately, this performance in my home town occurred about a month before I discovered the play. The play is available in the edition published by New Directions in 1998 and in the first volume of the Library of America's two volume compilation of the plays of Tennessee Williams. Williams' imagination, writing, and characterizations lift this moving early play beyond the categories of student work and stereotyped prison drama.
Robin Friedman
September 23, 2019
The brutality and cruelty of prisons. Striking staging. One dimensional characters.
July 13, 2021
A very early and thematically atypical play by Tennessee Williams which went unperformed for 50 years, unfortunately. While clearly written by someone young and predictable on certain levels, it is compelling and intense and entertaining.
March 31, 2016
Me encanto, lo debore en unas pocas horas, atrapante al extremo. Super recomendable.
September 10, 2022
En "No sobre ruiseñores" Tennessee Williams trae una representación fiel, impactante y humana de la realidad interna de la mini-sociedad que representa una cárcel, que es, en esta obra, un mundo con sus propias reglas que mucho difieren de las de afuera.
"Drao", de donde viene "drama", es "acción"; y "agón", vinculada íntimamente al teatro, es "lucha". Varias luchas se concretan dentro de la cárcel, simbólicamente ubicada en una isla: el agón entre la humanidad que aún reside fuera y la deshumanización que reina dentro, el agón entre el Jefe de la prisión, y el líder de los presos, su contrincante análogo, el agón entre este último y el soplón, y otras contiendas menores.
Hay reclusos temidos, reclusos locos, reclusos queridos, porque la cárcel es refracción del mundo, es una imagen sí desviada de él (porque allí el hambre, el dolor, la violencia, la hipocresía, el cinismo y el soborno no son la excepción sino la regla), pero que nace de él al fin; el "upside down", diríamos ahora, con el recuerdo reciente de ST.
Tennessee aprovecha este espacio carcelario ideal (es una prisión cualquiera, ninguna concretamente) para colocar bajo la luz una realidad que tiene muchas aristas, y es por esto que diversas subtramas apenas sugeridas a veces van colándose como filtraciones de cañerías rotas, y a través de sus leves gotas herrumbradas, jamás pródigas, el lector o espectador prueba un poco de aquello que solo lo deja con sed. El pasado de la Reina, un hombre "delicado" que así se hace llamar en la cárcel de hombres y de quien ningún recluso se burla, el marinero, que después de recorrer el mundo acabó enloquecido por la tortura, el negro, que destacaba por su bondad y que tenía más hijos hambrientos que ninguno, Jim, el "canario" cantor de chismes, el fiel soplón del director que durante diez años aguantó el odio hacia este hombre y el desprecio de sus compañeros, lo que derivó en problemas nerviosos, o Eva, la muchacha que casi se prostituye por el hambre a que la había empujado la Gran Depresión antes de que consiguiera el empleo de administrativa de la cárcel.
Tennessee muestra algo de la humanidad de estos humanos, pero poco. Lo que prima allí es la supervivencia. Y de ella nace la resistencia, donde el jefe de los presos liderará una rebelión, él que siempre gustó de compararse con fascistas de la época: así como España [sic] tenía su Mussolini, las celdas lo tenían a él.
________________________
Es, en fin, una obra de lectura ágil, de sentimientos fuertes, que presenta la superficie de humanidades complejas, y que muestra, si queremos, la "suciedad" de la realidad de las sociedades que hemos construido. La tensión y el empuje en extremo de distintos aspectos de la condición humana solo podrá llevar a la ruptura, la explosión y la muerte.
"Drao", de donde viene "drama", es "acción"; y "agón", vinculada íntimamente al teatro, es "lucha". Varias luchas se concretan dentro de la cárcel, simbólicamente ubicada en una isla: el agón entre la humanidad que aún reside fuera y la deshumanización que reina dentro, el agón entre el Jefe de la prisión, y el líder de los presos, su contrincante análogo, el agón entre este último y el soplón, y otras contiendas menores.
Hay reclusos temidos, reclusos locos, reclusos queridos, porque la cárcel es refracción del mundo, es una imagen sí desviada de él (porque allí el hambre, el dolor, la violencia, la hipocresía, el cinismo y el soborno no son la excepción sino la regla), pero que nace de él al fin; el "upside down", diríamos ahora, con el recuerdo reciente de ST.
Tennessee aprovecha este espacio carcelario ideal (es una prisión cualquiera, ninguna concretamente) para colocar bajo la luz una realidad que tiene muchas aristas, y es por esto que diversas subtramas apenas sugeridas a veces van colándose como filtraciones de cañerías rotas, y a través de sus leves gotas herrumbradas, jamás pródigas, el lector o espectador prueba un poco de aquello que solo lo deja con sed. El pasado de la Reina, un hombre "delicado" que así se hace llamar en la cárcel de hombres y de quien ningún recluso se burla, el marinero, que después de recorrer el mundo acabó enloquecido por la tortura, el negro, que destacaba por su bondad y que tenía más hijos hambrientos que ninguno, Jim, el "canario" cantor de chismes, el fiel soplón del director que durante diez años aguantó el odio hacia este hombre y el desprecio de sus compañeros, lo que derivó en problemas nerviosos, o Eva, la muchacha que casi se prostituye por el hambre a que la había empujado la Gran Depresión antes de que consiguiera el empleo de administrativa de la cárcel.
Tennessee muestra algo de la humanidad de estos humanos, pero poco. Lo que prima allí es la supervivencia. Y de ella nace la resistencia, donde el jefe de los presos liderará una rebelión, él que siempre gustó de compararse con fascistas de la época: así como España [sic] tenía su Mussolini, las celdas lo tenían a él.
________________________
Es, en fin, una obra de lectura ágil, de sentimientos fuertes, que presenta la superficie de humanidades complejas, y que muestra, si queremos, la "suciedad" de la realidad de las sociedades que hemos construido. La tensión y el empuje en extremo de distintos aspectos de la condición humana solo podrá llevar a la ruptura, la explosión y la muerte.
November 15, 2017
For some really shitty reason I haven't read a Williams script in over two years.
So picking up this one felt like going home.
This is one of his earliest plays (the first he signed as Tennessee) and you can tell he was just starting to find his voice. The first act is angry, raw, and visceral - really exciting stuff. As much as I enjoyed the play, it definitely falters in the second and third acts where it leaves the world created in act one and takes an almost melodramatic tone. The beginnings of the poetry of Tennessee's dialogue can be witnessed here, although in this early script it feels underdeveloped - a mere stepping stone in what is to come.
The character's are archetypes and are even named as such, but almost all of them have enough charm and distinction to separate them from a stereotype. Sympathetic and strong portrayals of black and queer characters were delightful, especially considering that the script was written in 1938. Unfortunately, what is normally the highlight of a Williams script was his biggest downfall here, female characters. There were only two and both were mere props for the powerful male characters around them.
Despite this script's flaws it was very indicative of what was to come and would be a blast to stage.
So picking up this one felt like going home.
This is one of his earliest plays (the first he signed as Tennessee) and you can tell he was just starting to find his voice. The first act is angry, raw, and visceral - really exciting stuff. As much as I enjoyed the play, it definitely falters in the second and third acts where it leaves the world created in act one and takes an almost melodramatic tone. The beginnings of the poetry of Tennessee's dialogue can be witnessed here, although in this early script it feels underdeveloped - a mere stepping stone in what is to come.
The character's are archetypes and are even named as such, but almost all of them have enough charm and distinction to separate them from a stereotype. Sympathetic and strong portrayals of black and queer characters were delightful, especially considering that the script was written in 1938. Unfortunately, what is normally the highlight of a Williams script was his biggest downfall here, female characters. There were only two and both were mere props for the powerful male characters around them.
Despite this script's flaws it was very indicative of what was to come and would be a blast to stage.
May 11, 2017
This play would almost seem like a cliche due to the prison genre archetypes that exist within it - the evil warden, the con with a heart of gold, the prissy queen, the young kid who you just know prison will kill. The setting is basically Alcatraz, although it is not named, a prison on an island where the sea surrounding it will come into play. It was written nearly 80 years ago, but in its proper context probably would have been seen as brutal and shocking. It still is - and like all Williams' plays it is infused with a melancholy empathy that remains with the reader long after they finish it.
December 5, 2023
The unabashed cruelty of Act Three's Klondike scenes will never cease to astound me. The visuals jump right out of the page, which is far more than a testament to Williams's stylistic prowess, but an even more indicative reflection of how deeply this play can cut. While, yes there are some underdeveloped character moments (though I'd argue the subtlety by which Eva falls in love with Jim is recurrent and hidden beneath the language itself, highlighted through performance), and the style bounces around a little bit, it's fascinating to view this work in the context of the rest of Tennessee Williams's writing.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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May 27, 2024Really enjoyed this play - an interesting response to the specific social circumstances of Williams’ time while holding nuggets and insight that is still intensely relevant today. While it is definitely a little on the nose and predictable, I was enthralled by the language (especially the language) and compassion of the play. Williams explores the humanity and experiences of all different people even in 1938!
Specifically interested in the history behind this play - the reasons it was written, the way it was forgotten, and the miracle of its rediscovery (thank you Vanessa Redgrave). Want to see this performed bad.
Specifically interested in the history behind this play - the reasons it was written, the way it was forgotten, and the miracle of its rediscovery (thank you Vanessa Redgrave). Want to see this performed bad.
November 14, 2018
Entertaining, very sincerely angry, but way too on-the-nose.
October 18, 2019
powerful and timely. too bad it was lost for 60 years.
December 28, 2019
Really excellent early play.
August 4, 2020
I’ve enjoyed it a lot! Not as much as Spring Storms, but it really makes you traps your within the confines of prison, the limitless potential we all have shattered into a designated limit.
February 4, 2023
i want to make out w tennessee williams
this play is so johnny cash, very sexy prison industrial complex critique
this play is so johnny cash, very sexy prison industrial complex critique
November 16, 2023
Underrated play
May 25, 2025
A great introduction to Tennessee Williams!
July 3, 2025
Might be the first tennessee williams that i have read with even the slightest indication of a happy ending.
April 9, 2015
Apparently the first play Williams wrote signed as "Tennessee" over the more prosaic "Tom".
Written as an angry student it seems, a sociological play of the 1930s, more than the psychological studies that he becomes famous for. Prisoners are there out of circumstance and fate, and prison staff are psychopaths are the gist. Sledgehammer stuff, based on a true story of hunger strike prisoners ending in punishment in a hellish poorly ventilated hot room where four prisoners were literally cooked alive. A shocking case, needing to be to shock 1930s depression era America I am sure.
I enjoyed it, and it must pack a tremendous dramatic punch. The sex and violence is there, and you get the visceral thrill of it being amplified by its being set within the stilted language and presumed censorious literary times. But light and shade, beyond the specific stage directions, it has little.
This is no great work, the characters are all pastiches from "Canary", "Butch", "Queenie", need I say more. The warden, hypocritical preachers, weak kneed secretary, all of it. Introductions and Williams acolytes can tell me the black character is "well drawn for its time", but he talks country, prays to God for his little kids, and gives massages to ostracized prisoners, and dies, the staple of a million 1930s Hollywood prison dramas. He all but calls the other prisoners boss. Queenie must be homosexual we presume, he worries about his nails and complains.
Forgotten plays are sometimes forgotten for a reason. If Tennessee loved it, he would have brought it out himself, discoveries after death usually disappoint. Maybe a bit harsh, I am sure the fashion for sociological 1930s depression works diminished, especially in the post HUAC hearings sniffing Communism in this sort of work.
Written as an angry student it seems, a sociological play of the 1930s, more than the psychological studies that he becomes famous for. Prisoners are there out of circumstance and fate, and prison staff are psychopaths are the gist. Sledgehammer stuff, based on a true story of hunger strike prisoners ending in punishment in a hellish poorly ventilated hot room where four prisoners were literally cooked alive. A shocking case, needing to be to shock 1930s depression era America I am sure.
I enjoyed it, and it must pack a tremendous dramatic punch. The sex and violence is there, and you get the visceral thrill of it being amplified by its being set within the stilted language and presumed censorious literary times. But light and shade, beyond the specific stage directions, it has little.
This is no great work, the characters are all pastiches from "Canary", "Butch", "Queenie", need I say more. The warden, hypocritical preachers, weak kneed secretary, all of it. Introductions and Williams acolytes can tell me the black character is "well drawn for its time", but he talks country, prays to God for his little kids, and gives massages to ostracized prisoners, and dies, the staple of a million 1930s Hollywood prison dramas. He all but calls the other prisoners boss. Queenie must be homosexual we presume, he worries about his nails and complains.
Forgotten plays are sometimes forgotten for a reason. If Tennessee loved it, he would have brought it out himself, discoveries after death usually disappoint. Maybe a bit harsh, I am sure the fashion for sociological 1930s depression works diminished, especially in the post HUAC hearings sniffing Communism in this sort of work.
February 13, 2008
Really engaging play. I love Tennessee Williams and will read any play that he writes. My only gripe with the play is that I've seen so many priso movies and read so many prison stories at this point that all of the characters seem so damn familiar. Like the ass warden (when is a warden not an ass - well, I guess Oz would be a good example), there's the queeny cellmate (but I guess all prisons DO have that), the hard ass con who actually has a gold of heart (reminded me of the main supporting characte in Cool Hand Luke), and, well, the main character wasn't really a stereotype for jail movies, at the time at least. Now yu could see the main character in his reprising role as the guy Tim Robbins played in Shawshank. Beside this point I felt that the play was definitely moving and had an emotional punch that couldn't be ignore. I really hope they revive this for Broadway, or off Broadway, so I could see it played out live. It would definitely be interesting to watch.
December 11, 2015
A funny thing is happening to me. I'm becoming a Tennessee Williams nerd...if that is even a thing. I'm going to read all of his plays now. This play is about an American prison in the 30's. The inmates go on hunger strike to protest bad conditions which has devastating results on everyone. Yes, it's another story about standing up for something but I'm completely amazed at Tennessee William's ability to create so many multi-layered interesting characters. He also finds a way to make the circumstances they are in GIANT so that it would be terribly captivating to see live. I would love to see this play.
January 23, 2015
Not About Nightingales is a play about a prison run by a really evil warden; this sets it up to be an exploration of the treatment of the prison in order to tell who is the real criminal in the situation. I really enjoyed this play much more than the last Williams play I read because this play is so starkly fascinating. It is sad and mad and ecstatic all at one time... I think that's the best I can do with descriptions.
Also, this was Mr. Williams' first play to bear the name "Tennessee"! How about that!
Also, this was Mr. Williams' first play to bear the name "Tennessee"! How about that!
April 3, 2015
I recommend reading the introduction before reading this play. An intense story about the injustices of the prison system right after the Great Depression. Some scenes certainly reflect on today's world where prisons are for punishment and not for rehabilitation.
May 11, 2007
Tennessee Williams had a huge role in shaping who I am, and this book made me see God.
May 12, 2009
I love him. I could just keep reading Williams forever for the language.
June 20, 2010
Hard to understand how this could be overlooked for so long. Great play anyways.
August 16, 2011
A powerful play based on a true story and with a message against prison brutality. One of Tennessee Williams's first plays, but it wasn't performed until 1998.
January 22, 2012
slightly melodramatic, but overall, a great play
January 29, 2016
Abused Depression era prisoners have had enough! Great play!
February 12, 2016
Reading challenge 2016
#play
6/50
#play
6/50
November 7, 2016
One of the best plays I've read & seen.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews