Reviews

Camino Real by Tennessee Williams

lolabrown's review

adventurous challenging funny fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

happeningalmond's review

medium-paced

3.0

duffypratt's review

2.0

Desolation Row is one of my favorite songs by Dylan. It's filled with cool allusions to Casanova, Cinderella, Romeo, T.S. Eliot, etc... Having read this, it makes me wonder whether Dylan was aware of this play, or if they just tapped into the same vibe. The difference is that the piled on allusions are quaint in a five minute song, and there's always the music (including the brilliant guitar obligato on the original track, or the wonderful leads by Jerry Garcia on the Grateful Dead's many covers). In a play lasting over two hours, and especially READING the play, and so not having any of the visual embellishment (which I imagine could work well and in a manner similar to the musical embellishment to Dylan's lyrics), the heavy allusions tended to fall a little flat. Thus, I like the idea of Don Quixote dreaming about Kilroy, the Baron de Charlus, Casanova, Lord Byron, et. al. But even over this admittedly short haul, I found it a bit tiresome.

Having said that, I can imagine this being quite fun in production. But I doubt I'll ever get a chance to find out. It's definitely not the kind of thing I see coming to Houston any time soon.

Here are a couple of Desolation Row links, if you are interested.

The Original

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9T0zNfO8t0

Grateful Dead

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeqZl6OgOUA

parttimerarebookdealer's review

dark emotional medium-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Grief, and Torture