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caookie's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
darbyshirew's review against another edition
4.0
Someone, help! Every Tennessee play I read replaces the others as favorites and I'm only halfway through the semester!
magnetgrrl's review against another edition
A collection of 13 one-act plays, including some of Williams' most famous, such as "The Last of my Solid Gold Watches" and the titular "27 Wagons Full of Cotton"
"Talk to Me Like the Rain and Let Me Listen" is a favorite as well, but I especially like "The Purification"
Tennessee Williams is fantastic and his plays are just as engaging to read as to see performed, which definitely cannot be said of all playwrights.
The collection has an introduction by Williams' that is a short essay on his views about contemporary grass roots thater in America; he seems to be espousing that a sort of careless creative freedom is more necessary in socially potent art than high production values.
"Talk to Me Like the Rain and Let Me Listen" is a favorite as well, but I especially like "The Purification"
Tennessee Williams is fantastic and his plays are just as engaging to read as to see performed, which definitely cannot be said of all playwrights.
The collection has an introduction by Williams' that is a short essay on his views about contemporary grass roots thater in America; he seems to be espousing that a sort of careless creative freedom is more necessary in socially potent art than high production values.
duffypratt's review against another edition
2.0
Think of all the oddly placed Shakespeare adaptations -- Richard III in a 1930s Fascist state: Romeo and Juliet in a modern day South Beach, or on NY's upper west side; The Tempest in space (Forbidden Planet); Macbeth in feudal Japan (Throne of Blood). And that doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of odd off-Broadway productions where the director had an "idea." Many of these are truly awful, but for some reason it's tremendously easy to imagine Shakespeare in other places and at other times.
Which gets me to Tennessee Williams. I tend to like him. But reading these one act plays, for some reason it struck me how bound they seem to be to the American South in the blues/jazz era. That's how particular his work seems to me. When I think of his plays, I feel sweat. I see beads of water rolling down the outside of a glass with some sickly sweet liquor in it. Everything is both languid and intense. His characters tend to cry out for more shade.
The plays here are one acts. They came across to me as sketches, usually character sketches. And there's nothing wrong with that. There were at least three, and maybe more, takes on Blanche Dubois, refracted in different ways. For the most part, these plays seemed more like character reveals than truly dramatic. I may have been missing something, and might think differently about them if I saw them performed. But I didn't see all that much in the way of motion or momentum in the majority of them. And the characters, for the most part, seemed to me like revamps of characters I had already seen in his other plays. Thus, reading them didn't do all that much for me. But then again, reading really is a bad way to get introduced to plays. The sad thing is that there is basically little, or no, opportunity to see any of these things performed. That I would probably like.
Which gets me to Tennessee Williams. I tend to like him. But reading these one act plays, for some reason it struck me how bound they seem to be to the American South in the blues/jazz era. That's how particular his work seems to me. When I think of his plays, I feel sweat. I see beads of water rolling down the outside of a glass with some sickly sweet liquor in it. Everything is both languid and intense. His characters tend to cry out for more shade.
The plays here are one acts. They came across to me as sketches, usually character sketches. And there's nothing wrong with that. There were at least three, and maybe more, takes on Blanche Dubois, refracted in different ways. For the most part, these plays seemed more like character reveals than truly dramatic. I may have been missing something, and might think differently about them if I saw them performed. But I didn't see all that much in the way of motion or momentum in the majority of them. And the characters, for the most part, seemed to me like revamps of characters I had already seen in his other plays. Thus, reading them didn't do all that much for me. But then again, reading really is a bad way to get introduced to plays. The sad thing is that there is basically little, or no, opportunity to see any of these things performed. That I would probably like.
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