|
|
|
Photo Tim McCarthy
The Tennessee Williams Festival had something for everyone including the vibrant young dancers from Bennington College. |
|
Photo Tim McCarthy
Playwright John Guare held a talk at Level. Guare (center) is shown here with TWF curator David Kaplan (left) and festival organizer Jerry Scally. |
|
‘Ghost Plays’ are a haunting tribute to Tennessee Williams
Banner Daily Update posted Sat. Oct. 6
By Susan Rand Brown
Banner Correspondent
“Ghost Plays.” Staged for the second annual Tennessee Williams Theater Festival here, the very words suggest Provincetown as a sea of memory, alive with stories of those who lived, loved and created here, to say nothing of the aromatic pea-soup fogs that conjure ghosts of their own.
And so, on the opening day of the Festival, dedicated, according to founder and curator David Kaplan, to the unfolding of Tennessee Williams’ reputation, especially in Provincetown where Williams’ presence beginning in 1940 left a mark on the town’s cultural history, we were treated to nine vignettes inspired by Williams’ late work, a bouquet of nine roses. The writers, cast, directors and production staff were what we call local, but in Provincetown local is shorthand for special: in the spirit of Williams, we were given moments of theatrical epiphanies that left an eerie afterglow.
While each piece was brief, none played like a workup for something longer. Rather, beginning with the delightfully bitchy “A Question for Mr. Williams,” what we tasted were more like sips of brandy, each distillation heady with flavor. It might have helped to know Williams’ work, but while insider information was not needed to experience new plays whose humor and humanity was inspired by Williams’ own, the resonance of Williams’ voice was everywhere present, and it was magical.
The question in “Question” was posed by a clueless reporter interviewing the eminent, elegant Williams – by his own admission dead, hence a ghost, yet magically alive to the oddness of the moment. What, the reporter queried with all the righteous indignation of the philistine, was the meaning of that word he used, that “portiere”? Williams sneers right back: a curtain my dear, and what could be wrong with adding a little French to your vocabulary?
Brian Fitzgerald was marvelous as the arch Williams, whose genteel sighs and Southern-inflected responses embodied the sensitive playwright responding by virtue of sheer verbal dexterity to the belittling he endured. Kudos to playwright Daniel Cleary for this knowing, richly felt work.
“Cowboy Nocturne,” written by Evan Guildford-Blake and directed by Beau Babineau, was also a standout, with Guy Wolf, New Provincetown Players producing artistic director, inhabiting the role of the cowboy who lost the love of his life to AIDS. (That we see this lost love on stage, evocatively played by Brian Carlson, and the woman who befriended them both, played with grace by Tia Scalcione, adds to the evocation of “ghosts.”)
“The Fragrant Phantom,” written by Candace Perry and directed by Charles Thibodeau, involved an inspired pairing of Zelda Fitzgerald (played with an inviting flair by Jan Bradbury) and Tennessee Williams (master of nuance Brian Fitzgerald, on stage for the second time, could make a career of interpreting Williams). Zelda Fitzgerald has arrived to correct the record about her own literary contribution. Fitzgerald, a writer and flamboyant personality ahead of her time, was, like Williams, misunderstood, censored, and institutionalized for “deviance.”
Set in the “afterlife,” the clever, funny dialogue holds hints of sadness for what might have been.
In using lighting to create a uniformly seamless transition, production manager and lighting designer Tessa K. Bry added her own clever twist.
One quibble, and a suggestion for next year’s edition of Williams-inspired ghost plays: introduce the writers and directors, many of whom must have been present. They too deserved audience accolades for this well-wrought production that left a melancholy haunt, and a rush of excitement for the state of theater on the Outer Cape.
This is a special report to the website only.
|
Barge purchase by Pier Corp.
Turtles benefit from toasty weather
Tides abutters lose challenge
Kline house to get DRI review
|
|
|
|
|
Oct 4th, 2007