Reading the 20th Century discussion

This is a thread to discuss anything connected to Tennessee Williams.

I only read A Streetcar Named Desire a few years ago and was blown away by it - I've never seen any of the famous films but Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is on iplayer so hoping to watch it over the weekend.

I love Williams' bombast and unashamed melodrama which he absolutely pulls off. I suspect I'm always missing something about geographical context and the associations that American theatre goers and readers bring to these plays but I still love the hothouse atmosphere he creates.

Oh yes, Williams is wonderful and often wonderfully over the top!

I've read A Streetcar Named Desire too, and it's his best I think. The film version from 1951 with Brando and Leigh is also a classic.

I have seen several of his plays performed, and I have read them. Honestly, they read so well that I enjoy reading almost as much as seeing them performed.

And there's some great film versions as well, but some of the films suffered due to the dictatorial film review boards and the Hays Code in 1950s America. They forced directors to edit out or omit scenes. Sometimes directors, who were generally much smarter than the people on the film review boards, found ways to sneak in connotations, but many times they were blocked.

If I recall correctly, the film version of Cat on the Hot Tin Roof is missing some then-scandalous connotations of homosexuality for that reason. By the time a Williams one-act play was filmed as Suddenly Last Summer (with Elizabeth Taylor, Montgomery Clift, and Katherine Hepburn) in 1959, the board's power had waned enough that those sorts of connotations were able to get past the sensors.

Have you read The Glass Menagerie? That's another one of his most frequently performed ones, and I do find it touching.

Greg wrote: "If I recall correctly, the film version of Cat on the Hot Tin Roof is missing some then-scandalous connotations of homosexuality for that reason."

Ha, only the heart of Brick just cut out! Still, plenty more scandal in that family. Sometimes Williams is just breathtakingly cruel in what he has people say.

I have only read Streetcar and Cat, but will definitely add Menagerie.

Ha, only the heart of Brick just cut out! Still, plenty more scandal in that family. Sometimes Williams is just breathtakingly cruel in what he has people say."

True!

Funnily enough, I had cats named after Maggie and Brick many years ago. Actually, Maggie was originally named for a character from a sci-fi book by disgraced author Marion Zimmer Bradley. But once we got the second cat and saw how they got along, we named our second cat Brick and recast them after Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

As well as the plays I can recommend his short story The Mysteries of the Joy Rio as a portrait of " fleeting and furtive practices in dark places " in nineteen fifties America .

Hester wrote: "As well as the plays I can recommend his short story The Mysteries of the Joy Rio as a portrait of " fleeting and furtive practices in dark places " in nineteen fifties America ."

Interesting Hester, I haven't read that one.

I have been wanting to tackle the one act plays, good or bad. 27 Wagons Full of Cotton and Other Plays has eight of them but there are other sources like LOA that have better editions of Williams' plays. But the only one I have read is This Property is Condemned which was made into a film by Sidney Pollack starring Natalie Wood and Robert Redford, a favorite adaptation of mine.

Greg wrote: "Funnily enough, I had cats named after Maggie and Brick many years ago."

Haha, love that! Cunning, sneaky, manipulative felines are just right for those names. I mean I love cats but they're so Machiavellian - they'd rule the world except they're too lazy - and why bother when they have humans totally in thrall and ready to do their bidding?!

I watched the film of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Maggie is right, those kids are monstrous!

I had no idea Paul Newman was so gorgeous... 😜

I listened to the play (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof). Apparently there were two versions of Act 3 - the original one, and then the one that was changed for the Broadway production. I liked the original better; it didn't spoonfeed you as much, left things a little more open-ended. Anyway, I really enjoyed it, and I think I'll listen to The Glass Menagerie and Streetcar this weekend. I've read Glass Menagerie and seen a production of Streetcar. I like listening to plays, though.

Roman- Paul Newman was considered a major heart throb in his younger days

Barbara wrote: "Roman- Paul Newman was considered a major heart throb in his younger days"

Oh yes, as was Brando in the film adaption of A Streetcar Named Desire, which blew my mind as I was used to his look in later years. Both of their heydays were well before I was born; so I had no idea until I saw the films.

Has anyone read The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone? I've been curious about that one. My experience of Williams has mostly been through reading and seeing the plays.

Greg wrote: "Barbara wrote: "Roman- Paul Newman was considered a major heart throb in his younger days"

Oh yes, as was Brando in the film adaption of A Streetcar Named Desire, which blew my mind"

Well, I can certainly see why. I also understood, for the first time, Elizabeth Taylor's screen charisma.

Which reminds me, the newest biography of James Baldwin, Baldwin: A Love Story, suggests he may have had an affair or fling with young Marlon Brando when they were both starting out as writer and actor. Baldwin had fine taste!

Roman Clodia wrote: "Greg wrote: "Barbara wrote: "Roman- Paul Newman was considered a major heart throb in his younger days"

Oh yes, as was Brando in the film adaption of A Streetcar Named Desire, which b..."

I watched it for her rather than McQueen! She's also really good in the film version of Suddenly Last Summer which is a really fascinating, surprisingly fertile piece.

She was mesmerising - and I loved the white party frock she wears for most of this. How can someone have such a teeny tiny waist though? - every time she tightened her belt I got distracted in case she fainted!

Roman Clodia wrote: "She was mesmerising - and I loved the white party frock she wears for most of this. How can someone have such a teeny tiny waist though? - every time she tightened her belt I got distracted in case..."

I noticed that too! Suddenly Last Summer really interested me because it seems, the film at least, to be picking up on the colonialist/exploitative aspect of then-contemporary gay culture given that this was a time when wealthy gay men routinely holidayed in places like Morocco where they paid for sex with very young boys. Something that comes up here in relation to Joe Orton, Kenneth Williams etc It's also an interesting critique of mental health procedures as a form of social control particularly when used on women who refuse to tow the line.

Alwynne wrote: "She's also really good in the film version of Suddenly Last Summer which is a really fascinating, surprisingly fertile piece."

I thought so too Alwynne. Very interesting, especially for 1959.

Greg wrote: "Alwynne wrote: "She's also really good in the film version of Suddenly Last Summer which is a really fascinating, surprisingly fertile piece."

I thought so too Alwynne. Very interesting, especiall..."

Absolutely, much of what it's critiquing was more-or-less taken for granted/overlooked at the time. Like you I've seen a few of his plays performed too and think he's a really powerful writer and an astute social/cultural commentator. It also pairs well with Carson McCullers's work.

Oh that sounds good, especially the mental health/social control aspect.

Roman Clodia wrote: "Oh that sounds good, especially the mental health/social control aspect."

Definitely up your alley. It revolves around a psychiatrist assessing a young woman's candidacy for lobotomy based on the notion that she's a deluded fantasist because of what she's said about the actions of a wealthy relative.

Oh yes! Added it to both my American classics and 'madness' shelves.

Alwynne wrote: "Greg wrote: "Alwynne wrote:
"Absolutely, much of what it's critiquing was more-or-less taken for granted/overlooked at the time. Like you I've seen a few of his plays performed too and think he's a really powerful writer and an astute social/cultural commentator. It also pairs well with Carson McCullers's work.."

Yes to pairing Williams with Carson McCullers. Is Reflections in a Golden Eye on your list, RC? Both the film and book were great, I thought.

Alwynne wrote: "Roman Clodia wrote: "Oh that sounds good, especially the mental health/social control aspect."

Definitely up your alley. It revolves around a psychiatrist assessing a young woman's candidacy for l..."

Williams' own sister was subjected to a lobotomy in 1943 and spent the rest of her years (d. 1996) in an institution.

G wrote: "Williams' own sister was subjected to a lobotomy in 1943 and spent the rest of her years (d. 1996) in an institution."

That's horrifying G! I had never heard about that before.

Kathleen wrote: "Is Reflections in a Golden Eye on your list, RC?"

It is!

G wrote: "Williams' own sister was subjected to a lobotomy in 1943 and spent the rest of her years (d. 1996) in an institution."

That's horrific!

Greg wrote: "G wrote: "Williams' own sister was subjected to a lobotomy in 1943 and spent the rest of her years (d. 1996) in an institution."

That's horrifying G! I had never heard about that before."

She's the inspiration for the character Laura in The Glass Menagerie. This is a play I find absolutely gutting. It hits very, very close to home for me. I'm having a hard time getting through this listen of the LATW version of the play. In the past I've read it, which allowed a bit more emotional distance to be maintained.

Interestingly enough, my husband just got a copy of Strand Magazine with the full text of a 1938 radio play written by Tennessee Williams from the archives. It's called "The Strangers," and the blurb calls it "a haunting supernatural drama set in a storm-lashed house on the New England coast, filled with flickering candlelight, unseen presences, and the psychological tension that would later define Williams’s greatest works."

I'll read it over the weekend. I don't expect it to be at the level of his best work, but I'm curious nevertheless. The description sounds fun.

https://strandmag.com/product/the-str....

Ha, serendipity!