Saturday, December 11, 2021

Play review - "Night of the Iguana" by Tennessee Williams (1961)

 Williams' last Broadway hit, I think... a fun look at various types hanging around a small hotel in a Mexican coastal town. There's the earthy Maxine who shags her beach boys and has just lost her husband but isn't too sad about it; Shannon, a defrocked priest on the verge of a nervous breakdown (a fantastic part, one of Williams' best male roles... Richard Burton was made to play this); Hannah, a spinster artist with her granddad who may be Shannon's one true love.

Williams doesn't seem that interested in the character of Charlotte, the 16 year old Shannon has banged, or her guardian Judith - these feel like they need a subplot. I enjoyed the Nazis and the colour. Oh and Hannah's story involving a horny middle aged Australian salesman in Singapore.

It doesn't build to a big melodramatic finale but it does have those interesting characters, a great sense of time and place.

I read a very good edition which included essays on the play, including one by Williams who explained his inspiration (a 1940 holiday where he befriended another writer) and the original story story (no Maxine or Shannon in it, but Hannah and "two writers").

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