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SHOW
NOTEBOOKS

6
Guide to
'A TRAM
NAMED DESIRE'
by T. Williams

Stefano Rosso

MUNICIPALITY OF
BERGAMO
Department of
Education
and the Spectacle
 SHOW NOTEBOOKS Guide to 'A Streetcar Named Desire' by
Series edited by Tennessee Williams
Riccardo Allorto and Benvenuto by Stefano Rosso
Cuminetti

INDEX

T Tennessee Williams in the history of American theatre

II A Streetcar Named Desire p. 9

- Broadway success p. 9
- Sources and intertextual references p. 10 p.
- Structure and Style 11 p.
- White and Stanley 13
- Blame p. 15
-Mitch p. 16

IIT The direction of Elia Kazan: from theatre to cinema p. 17

-The Play (1947) p. 17
-n mm (1951) p. 18 p.
PERFORMING ARTS DEPARTMENT
DONIZETTJ THEATRE IV Notes 23 p.

Councillor for Prof. Letterio Di Mauro V Chronology 27

Entertainment
VI Bibliography of Williams' works
Artistic Director M0 Riccardo (and film versions) p.37 p.41
Allorlo Consultant for the
VII Selective Bibliography of VJTJ
theatrical productions Prof. Benvenuto Cuminelti
page
Responsible for theatre-school relations Dr. Angela Cologni Critics Appendix: 45
A tram called desire scene by scene
Head of Cultural Services Dr. Giacomo Gavazzi
 I

Tennessee Williams
and the American
Theatre

(. ..) everything is in flux, Similar fates in some respects:

everything is in a process of both won the favour of the public
creation. The mon do is and critics as early as the late
incomplete, it is like an unfinished 1940s, ot hold a few more
poem. Perhaps the poem will successes in the following decade,
become a limerick or perhaps it and then were gradually
will become an epic poem. J\lfa abandonned by the general public
we all have the task of trying to and critics while continuing to
complete this poem, and to do so write with some regularity
requires understanding, patience (Wrniams until his death and Mìl
and tolerance amongst ourselves. ler, living, until the recent The Last
(Tennessee Williams, Yankee fUlly in 1992)3.
'Studs Terkel Talks wilh Miller and Williams arrived in
Tennessee Williams', 1961) 1 Broaclway at a historical moment,
the end of the Second World War,
Apart from a few when the public seemed to prefer
exceptions, studies on American the spectacularity and lightness of
NOTE theatre all revolve around three certain musicals rather than the
main names: fi:ugcne O'Neill psycho-logical prolixity of
I would like to thank Teri Reynolcls, Franco Moretti and Roberta (1888-1955), considered the first O'Neill's dramas. Nevertheless,
Servalli who provided me with some bibliographical materials, Arturo great playwright, the almost they conquer the audience with
fnverniei of "Lab 80" in Bergamo for his advice on the filmography absolute master of the 'quality' works that are strongly moral and
from Williams' works, Enzo Fois of USIS (Uniled States lnfòrmation stage from the mid-1920s to the political: Miller in more explicit
Servict') in Milan, who fulfilled all my requests despite the library's Second World War, followed at a and immediately decodable terms,
closure. Special thanks to Isa and Olga Ragusa for their generous distance by Arthur Miller (1915-) Williams in a less direct but
hospitality in New York during the preparation of this guide, and to and Tennessee Williarns (1911- perhaps more innovative way.
Chiara Bietoletti, Alessandra Marzola, Mario Bensì, Mario Corona, 1985), the two playwrights who Both seem to take their cue from
Benvenuto Cuminetli and Roberta Servalli for their valuable advice. dominated the stage between the great tradition
1945 and the 1960s.
holy2. Costorn, despite their di
versity, they are united by a
5

p�--
!j!;f,,;,1

-
 American realism, a tradition
that tries hard to prove its
originality with respect to
European culture, but at the
same time is strongly fascinated
by authors and movements that
arose in the old continent
between the end of the 19th
century and the first decades of
the new century (lbsen,
Strindberg, expressionism, etc.).
Both linked their first great
successes t o the same director,
Elia Kazan, and the same set
designer, Joe Mielziner.
Miller and Williams establish
They also echo the exchange
between theatre and cinema
that started in the 1930s, not
only because many of their
works became famous films
and they both wrote
screenplays, but also because
their theatre took up narrative
and visual techniques typical of
cinema in various ways. And
yet, despite so many common
elements - to which a mutual
esteem and interest should be
added4 - they are
immediately recognisable both
by their themes and by their
different writing styles. As the
English critic Ken neth Tynan
has argued, "Miller's plays are
harsh, 'patristic', athletic, and
mostly about men. Williams'
are gentle, 'matristic', languid,
and mostly about women'5. In
other
terms, the works of Miller sem-
6
The novels can be traced back recognised that his theatre, not only 'verbal' language that
to a male script not only because unlike Millerian theatre, which would later characterise
men occupy the centre of the is essentially anchored in the important innovative groups
action, but because they word, attempts to go a little (e.g. some of those mentioned in
manifest a propensity for a further, in search of that lin- footnote Z).
synthetic and rationalising point
of view. Although their structure
is generally well ar ticulated, as
in the case of Death of a
Salesman, The Crucible or The
Mi sfits, they suffer from
schematism and didacticism.
Williams' plays tend, in most
cases6 , to stage profoundly
contradictory female figures,
attempting to alter the point of
view of an unstable subjectivity
with that of the objectifying gaze
of the world (spectators and
other characters).
More than half of Williams'
works have never made it to the
general public; apart from The
Glass Menagerie (1944), A
Streetcar Named Desire (1947)
and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
(1955), which are the most
frequently performed, even the
lesser-known ones denote an
innovative charge that the critics
have not been able to discern.
Although their author is not
regarded as an avant-garde com
after the Second World War, it Tennessee Williams in Key West (Florida) in 1972.
goes at least
P2- P2- 7
 lI
A tram called desire
We are all civilised people;
this means that deep down we are
all savages who nevertheless
make use of certain habits of
civilised behaviour.
(Tennessee Williams,
Preface to Sweet Bird
of Youth, 1959)
Broadway success
Audiences and critics
generally agree that A Streetcar
Named Desire is the best tea
theatre text written by
Williams7. The success was
evident right from the first
staging, directed by Elia Kazan
l II tram che si chiama desiderio directed by Elio De Capitani, 1993-94. From left: at the Barrymore Theatre in
\l111-i1111�ela i\lelato (Bianche), Akksandar CvjetkoviC' (Stnnley), Ester Galazzi (Stella). New York on 3 December 1947,
Folo by Tommaso Lepera. although there was no lack of
negative reactions, even among
reviewers, especially due to the
explicit nature of the issues that
were held to be scabrous and
sensationalist. The audience
was substantially enthusiastic
and the success was repeated
for 855 performances. Jessica
Tancly (White) was already a
well-known actress, while the
young Mar-
8 �
foir:�
lon Brando (Stanley), fresh out
of the Actors' Studio, achieved
fame thanks to this work.
Designer Joe Mielziner, New
York's top-rated director, saw
his fame grow even further and
the following year he would
again work with Kazan on
Miller's Death of a Salesman, the
other great post-war American
drama.
In 1949, Tram was staged in
London, directed by Laurence
Olivier, again with sets by
Mielziner, Vivien Lei gh in the
role of Bianche (a part she
would keep in Kazan's film
alongside Brando and Kim
Hunter), Bonar Collea no in that
of Stanley. Since then, Williams'
text has been regularly
performed in the United States
and elsewhere, and beyond the
results of individual
productions, it has not ceased to
attract audiences. In 1951, a film
version was released, directed
by Kazan, which, although in
censored form, allowed the
1ìmn to reach an audience.
g
far wider than the tea trale. In
1952, a ballet was made with
choreography by Vale rie Bettis
and music by Alex North. In
1984, a television version
directed by John Erman was
made, with Ann Margret as
Bianche, Beverly D'Angelo as
Stella and Treat Williams as
Stanley. In Italy, Tram was soon
appreciated thanks to Luchino
Vi sconti's staging (1949), with
Rina Morelli, Vittorio Gassman,
Marcello Ma stroianni and Vivi
Gioi.
Sources and intertextual
references
Critics have generally
counted Strindberg's La
Signorina Giulia (1888) and
Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard
(1904) among the literary
sources for Tram. As already
mentioned, Wil liams was
profoundly influenced by the
Strindberg drama, but in Tram,
the antagonism between the
sexes is not linked to the miso
gyny that transpires in so many
of the Swedish playwright's
works. The parallels with The
Cherry Orchard are closer: both
plays begin with the arrival of a
female character with a morally
'questionable' past and end with
her defeat; both are about the
inability of a social class and an
entire cultural system to adapt
to the new situation.
10
change in a bourgeois-
utilitarian sense. There are
symbolic references in this
regard that have not failed to
stimulate critics: for example,
the name of the protagonist,
Bianche DuBois, could be a
reference to the white trees,
Chekhov's cherry blossom trees.
There are also those who have
pointed out that the problem of
the deca dent aspect of
American culture in the South
and in particular of a female
character character
characterised by a combination
of low pragmatic spirit and deep
sensitivity was already well
present in The Little Foxes (Pic
cole volpi, 1939), a well-known
drama by Lillian Hellman that
Williams could not have been
unfamiliar with8.
Other sources generally cite
the critics concern authors
much loved by Williams: e.g.
D.H. Lawrence - in spite of
striking differences especially in
aspects concerning the view of
sexuality 9- Ibsen, Garda Lorca,
etc.
Very relevant is the role of
the American poet Hart Crane
(1899-1932), whose verses
from 'T he Broken Tower'
(1932) appear explicitly in the
opening of the play. Also in the
closing, expressing the wish to
be 'buried at sea sewn into a
nice clean sack, lowered under
the summer sun ... "Bianche
provides a precise description
P2-
of Crane's fate, a fate that
Williams himself would have
liked to emulate (his wishes
were not respected). But
perhaps Crane is present, more
than in these explicit references,
in Williams' own writing, and in
particular in his accentuated
tendency towards lyricism10,
Other obvious intertextual
references include the myth of
Orpheus (the Tram's
environment conceived as a hell
of insensitive characters), which
is recurrent in the work.
ra of Williams11 and the
painters' style.
co of Van Gogh, to whose 'Café
de nuit' (Night Café, 1888)
explicit reference is made in the
dida scalia that introduces the
third scene.
Much has been written about
biographical factors. Among the
main ones are the not
unconflicted homosexuality
experienced by Williams
himself, the psychic instabi lity
of his sister Rose who had to be
admitted to an asylum12 , the
great affection for the city of
New Orleans, etc., and the great
affection for the city of New
Orleans.
Structure and Style
BLANCHE: They told me to
take a tram called Desire, and
then another one called
Cemetery, and then to go six
blocks and get off at the...
Elysian Fields! (Scene/)
en:
The narrative structure of the
Tram, marked by the arrival
and departure of Bianche, has
been: sometimes criticised for
being too fragmentary.
However, the eleven scenes that
make up the text seem to be well
paced with two main
possibilities for division into
acts: one after scene four and
one after scene six (directors
generally opt for a single
interruption after scene six).
The rhythm is subdued by the
passing of the seasons: late
spring (scenes 1-4), late summer
(scenes 5 and 6), early autumn
(scenes 7-11). More interesting
is the almost simultaneous
overlapping of two narrative
points of view: a fairly objective
one, comparable to that of the
external narrator of a novel, and
a strongly subjective one, that of
Bianche. The audience is able to
distinguish between them
mainly through the use of music,
which haunts the protagnist in
moments of crisis, and of light,
which is skilfully manipulated
by Mielziner13.
This interest of Williams in a
moderate proliferation of
viewpoints depends on
by his idea of a theatre that
must not hide the artificiality of
representation. In the
production notes for The Glass
Mena gerie he was very explicit
on this point: "Uexpressionism
and all other theatrical
techniques
11
 unconventional have only one
valid aim, and that is to come
closer to the truth. When a
playwright expresses himself with
an unconventional technique, it
does not mean [...] that he tries to
escape his responsibility to deal
with reality or to interpret
experience, but rather that he tries
(or should try) to find a more
intimate adherence, a more
penetrating and vivid expression
of things as they are. The veristic
or naturalistic realist drama, with
its real fridge and its authentic ice
cubes, with its characters
speaking exactly as their audience
speaks, corresponds to academic
landscape painting and has the
same value as a photographic
reproduction. By now everyone
knows that photography in art has
no meaning; that ve rity or life or
reality is an organic thing that the
poetic imagination can only
represent or suggest, in its
essence, through a those already mentioned, one
metamorphosis, changing it into
other forms from those that were
present in the appa rence' 14.
In the Tram, and in its other
tests.i
in even greater misi.Ira (see e.g.
Camino Real, 1953), Williams
attempted t o escape what he felt
was the op pressure of realism,
princi pally through elements of
12
derivation expressionist
and through a
marked use of symbols.
Expressionism, already dear to
O'Neill and early Miller,
manifests itself here as a kind of
'realism of the psyche'. As already
mentioned above, the viewer
realises, thanks to the unrealistic
use of music and light, but also to
an accentuated gesturality, that
some of the movements of the
protagonist's acting
must be
detached from the still
substantially realistic continuum
of the narration and perceives
White's feelings and sensations
inaccessible to the other
characters (e.g. the cat's meow,
the clanking of the train, the polka
and the gunshot that recall her
husband's suicide). A similar anti-
realist function
ca has the great qu antity of
symbolic ele ments:15 in addition to
thinks of the path traced by the
names that open the play, 'Desire',
'Cirnite ro' and 'Elysian Fields',
or the obsessive purifying baths of
Bianche, the paper lantern that
dims the light of the lampa dine
and is cruelly torn away first by
Mitch and then by Stanley, the
colours of Bianche's clothes
(white, red and cele ste), the
honky-tonk music that signals the
presence of Stan ley, the ringing
of bells in the final scene, etc. The
spectator's attention is shifted
from the
jt{�
J
total picture of the stage to an
object loaded with meanings on
which the gaze is induced to
focus; in fact, for Wil liams,
"symbols are nothing other than
the natural language of drama",
they provoke a kind of short
circuit and communicate in their
stylised character "more directly,
more simply and better than
words
cannot do'. 16
White and Stanley
EUNICE: I have always said
that men instead of hearts have
a rind three ta's thick, but this
surpasses them all. You always
reveal yourselves for the pigs
you are. (Scene XI)
She feels excessively lost in a
social environment that is
different from her own; she is
narcissistic, nitpicky and tends to
be paranoid (she is terrified of
growing old), too concerned with
pleasing her brother-in-law. At
the same time, she retains a
residue of haughtiness towards
those who are socially inferior,
which may at first be irritating for
the spectator, particularly the
American spectator, who is
always concerned with
overcoming social divisions, at
least formally.
-n',:� ,uj/J:
Yifi
In the first scene, Stanley is
presented as a robu sto young man
of Polish origin17 , somewhat
uncouth but not altogether
unpleasant. In fact, in Williams'
dida scales, the negativity of the
male protagonist immediately
emerges quite clearly. Indeed, we
read: 'An animalistic joy of
existence is implicit in his every
movement and attitude. From the
first vi rility the centre of his life
has been the pleasure of women,
to be given and received, not with
de bole indulgence and
dependence, but with t h e
strength and pride of a well
feathered male bird among
hens... He evaluates women at a
glance, classifies them sexually,
with cru de images flashing in his
mind and determining the type
of a smile to give them "1 8. I
Critics have generally
recognised in Stanley certain
pleasant characteristics (a warm
sensuality apparently devoid of
hypocrisy, a childlike
sentimentality, etc.) which are
soon overshadowed by those
which are markedly more
negative. In essence, the aim has
generally been to see a gradual
reversal of the public's
sympathies as the play unfolds,
as Williams himself had
suggested: initially a modest
favouring of Stanley and then,
from scene three, an increasingly
more negative one.
13
 moved sympathy for Blanche's
fate. It should also be
emphasised that the cult status
of Marlon Brando in the
collective imagination makes a
reading of Stanley apart from
Kazan's film very difficult.
support the party 'faithfully')19.
After the third scene (but an
anticipation is already to be
found in the second, when
Stanley ransacks Blanche's trunk
and assaults her with the
'Napoleonian code' speech), the
story becomes increasingly
melodramatic: while Blanche's
neurosis is progressively
countenanced, Stanley's cruelty,
insensitivity and (macho)
violence explode without
restraint. However - and herein
lies one of the great ambiguities
of 1}-am - no definitive moral
judgement ever emerges. As
much as Williams himself has
always manifested his fondness
for Bianche ('I am Blanche
DuBois', wrote Flaubertianly),
the female protagonist is
certainly not a stereotype of
positivity; similarly, Stanley's
flaws can be read as an
unconscious identification with
what the
14
American society of the time
proposed as a 'male point of
view'20.
It has rightly been written
that Blanche represents a
decadent South (her parents and
relatives lost all their property
thanks to their 'epi-cor
fornications', among other
things), incapable, almost one
hundred years after the Civil
War, of reforming itself and
leaving behind a model of social
life that, although less vulgar
than the bourgeois-capitalist
one, was still based on the
aberration of slavery. Williams
does not fail, both here and in
other texts, to denounce the
weaknesses and faults of his
beloved land, but he makes it
clear that a productive cultural
and social revolution has little
chance of coming to fruition
when the old ideas clash with the
crudest utilitarianism and the
total lack of 'poetry'.
The social and geographical
origin of the protagonists is,
however, only one of the reasons
for their conflict on which the
story is based. More relevant
seems to be the opposition
between man and woman, or
rather the clash of power between
the representatives of the two
sexes, taken here in non-
Strinsburg terms: the clash
between a male value system
(rationality, factuality,
practicality, camaraderie between
men and women) and a male value
system (the "male" and "female").
ii-
their total superiority), and an
alternative system of values (e.g.
irrationality, inconclusiveness,
cult of unrealism, geniality,
compassion) represented by
Blanche and partially reflected
in certain aspects of Eunice and
Stella's behaviour. Blanche is a
prominently contradictory
subject, qua
culturally 'androgynous'21 , as it
mixes values of the
old 'chivalrous' and macho code
of the South with the impulse to
oppose family prevarication and
subjugation. But this ambiguous
character of hers is crushed
when what appeared to be a
neurosis linked to the
traumatising discovery of her
husband's homosexuality
transforms - coinciding with
Mitch's abandonment and the
violence she suffers - into a
seemingly irreversible psychosis
(the outcome of which, however,
the text does not seem to provide
a definitive answer).
Blame
Blanche's behaviour seems to
be mainly dictated by her deep
col pa complex over the death of
her young husband. The woman
shows that she has not adapted
(and continues not to adapt) to
the prevailing co-determination
that imposes respect for a
precise boundary
ii-
between male and female sex
when she tells of her attraction to
Allan: "There was something
different about that guy, a
nervousness, a gentleness and a
tenderness that was not at all
manly, even though he was not
effeminate to look at... as well...
there was something... He had
come to me for help." (TI'am,
se.VI, p.132). After finding out 'in
the worst of a l l possible ways'
about her husband's conflicting
homosexuality, Bian, who had
initially 'pretended nothing had
happened', could not contain a
careless and ominous
exclamation: 'I know everything! I
know everything! You disgust
me...'" (p.133). (p. 133). But this
fatal phrase does not derive from
a deep-rooted pre-judgement, but
from a sincere distress at a
phenomenon then considered
pathological (and liable to
prosecution), which, among other
things, induced Williams himself
for a long time to disclose his
homoerotic interests to the general
public22. In speaking of her
husband, Blanche never calls him
a 'pervert': this is the word which,
not by chance, Stella uses (se.VII,
138), who is much more careful to
recognise t h e cultural frontier
between 'masculine' and
'feminine'. In this perspective, the
sense of guilt goes far beyond the
actual responsibility of the
protagonist.
Stanley, for his part, is not
15
absolutely able to understand
and forgive Bianche's
'lawlessness' in the mo ral field
because, in his view, there is no
such thing as 'lawlessness': the
respectable woman must be a
succubus of the man, she can
experience a 'rich' and warm
sexuality (perhaps even a bit
;malesque), but only within the
marriage. And yet, at the very
moment when he condemns his
sister-in-law's immorality
without appeal, he commits one
of the most despicable acts of
violence without feeling any
sense of guilt, as if, from his
perspective, stu pro was a male
right. But it is precisely Stanley's
aberrational character that
seems to impede his total
condemnation and that makes
the ending problematic: his total
insensitivity, his absolute
adherence to a stereotype of
male superiority, so as to make
it possible to hypothesise a 'disu
rt1an' unconsciousness.
Mitch
Mitch seems the right person
to mitigate the protagonist's
neurosis. His sen sibility has
been exerted by living with his
infer mum, but the death of the
young 'friend' who gave him the
cigarette case has such a
symbolic value for him that
16
provoke Bianche's compassion.
Although a slave to certain
clichés (described with a certain
comedy, such as his own
physical robustness in relation
to a woman's weakness), Mitch
at least partially breaks the
'masculine bonding', the
camaraderie between men that
leads to exclusion from the
world of women.
women: from bowling, from
poker, from flying jokes. He
manages to leave the gambling
table to talk to Bianche or to
return to his sick mother's
home, provoking the wrath of
Stanley - the one who
most controls the respect of the
spheres - who shouts at him:
'Go back home', and then:
'That's right, we'll give you a
bottle' (Tram, section III, 91).
However, faced with the
revelation of Bian's 'diversity',
he too, like Stanley, reacts by
adapting to the dominant male
point of view: he is willing to
marry her but would like to use
her for his own sexual pleasure
(and perhaps to humiliate her),
albeit with less determination
than his friend. In this sense,
Mitch is, as emerges in the final
scene, paradoxically more guilty
than Stanley, as he is endowed
with a moral conscience, and
thus able to feel a sense of guilt
that he cannot mask25.
;2-
III
The direction of Elia
Kazan: from theatre to
cinema
The play (1947)
In 1947, shortly after he had
finished writing A Streetcar
Named Desire, Williams told
his agent that he wanted Elia
Kazan to stage it. It was not easy
to convince the director to
accept, but once he had started,
the collaboration continued
over the years. After Tram
Kazan brought Camino Real
(1953), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
(1955) and The Sweet Wings of
Youth (1956) to the stage; he
also made two films, one based
on Tram (1951) and the other,
Baby Doll (1956), written by
Williams specifically as a film
script.
The set design was the task of
:. prestigious Joe Mielziner, while
the eccentric Lucinda Ballard
was the costume designer of
choice. Among the actors,
Jessica Tandy was preferred to
the too-sunny film star Margaret
Sullivan, while a fledgling
Marlon Brando won everyone
over, including Williams.
Indeed, the young age
;2-
of the actor (he was twenty-
three as opposed to the 28-30
years of Stanley's character)
particularly appealed to the
playwright as it helped to make
the male protagonist less
responsible and negative.
The author and director
worked fruitfully for three
weeks, retouching about a
hundred lines and captions in a
non-substantial manner: 'The
most significant differences (...)
concern the directions for the
message, Bianche's dialogue, the
music, Bianche's scene with the
paperboy and Stella and
Stanley's characters'24.
Kazan, whose tendency to
moralise texts is well known,
was persuaded by an explicit
letter from Williams to respect
the play's ambiguity: "(...) There
are no 'good guys' or 'bad guys'
(...) their behaviour is motivated
more by mutual understanding
than by cruelty. (...) It is a
tragedy that sets itself the
classical goal of provoking a
catharsis of pity and terror, and,
to achieve this,;Blanche to the
17
end he must earn the com
prehension and compassion of
the public. This without ne
cessarily making Stanley an evil
villain. It is a co sa
(misunderstanding) and not a
person (Stanley) who will
ultimately destroy it'25.
On a stylistic level, Kazan's
imprint is clearly recognisable in
the accentuation of the realistic-
naturalistic perspective he
favoured, to the detriment of
the expressionist perspective
partially proposed by Williams.
If in the original text it seems
that the clash takes place mainly
between or within psychic
subjects, as in the case of
Bianche's dis sociation or the
contradictory character of Stella
and Mitch, in the tea trale show
the environment seems to have,
n aturalistically, a more
important role.
On a scenic level, the main
change lies in the
A gauze curtain, similar to the
one Mielziner had already used
in Zoo of Glass, was replaced by
an ingenious and complicated
lighting system (it seems that
there were more than sixty light
changes in the show). Gauze and
canvas walls were consel-vated,
but only in front of the
backdrop, in order to create a
certain depth of field. The
curtains were replaced by half-
dark or musical interludes.
Even the music differs-
18
In particular, the polka (which
obsessively marks Bianche's
incipient psychic crisis linked to
the memory of her husband's
suicide and which contrasts
with the objectifying character
of jazz) was played earlier and
more frequently than in the
original theatre, contributing to
highlighting the instability of
the protagonist right from the
introductory scenes and lightly
simplifying the interpretation of
the initial ones.
The Film (1951)
As already noted, Williams'
popularity as a playwright also
derives from the fact that almost
all of his major texts are d
ivented as films fa mosi26. In
addition to the two already
mentioned directors cli Kazan,
mention must at least be made
of Irving Rapper (Zoo of Glass,
1950), Daniel Mann (The Rose
Tattoo, 1955), Richard Brooks
(The Cat on the Roof, 1958, and
The Sweet Wings of Youth, 1962),
Joseph Mankiewicz (Suddenly
Last Summer, 1959), Sidney Lu
met (The Fugitive Kind, 1960, in
Italian "Pelle di serpente", and
Last of the Mobile Hotshots,
1970, in Italian "La poiana voi.a
on the roof'), John Huston (The
Night of the Iguana, 1 964), Sidney
Pol-
! J�
tlff
lack (This girl belongs to
everyone, 1 966), etc., a list to
which some te levisive versions
should be added.
This almost 'automatic'
transfer from the stage to the
film set is due to the very nature
of most of the aforementioned
texts, which generally have a
strong emotional hold on the
audience and a narrative
development in pictures that
can easily be translated into
sequences. Wil liams, on the
other hand, who had some
experience as a writer having
worked in Hollywood in 1943,
always devoted himself with
great enthusiasm and
meticulousness to writing film
scripts (nine of which bear his
signature).
Kazan's film based on A
Streetcar Named Desire is of
great interest not only for its
cinematic qualities, but also
because it allows us to
understand at least a little of the
characteristics of the 1947 play,
of which we obviously do not
have a recording. In fact, the
director recounts that, after
much deliberation, he decided
to 'faithfully' recreate the text
staged on Broadway four years
earlier, as emerges from the
dialogue in which omissions and
additions are not very
numerous.
From a cinematic point of
view-
�
Razan tried to avoid the static
nature of an excessively
theatrical camera shot, with
sharp camera movements and
changes of angle inside the
Kowalskis' flat. The cinema, on
the other hand, with the
possibility of close-ups,
emphasised the expressive
aspects of the text, as can be
seen in the well-known scene in
which Mit ch brutally brings the
lamp close to Bianche's face to
read her age and the 'traces' of
her past. Kazan also recounts
that in order to make the
protagonist's claustrophobia
more perceptible, he limited
himself to progressively
narrowing the shooting space.
The actors did not present
any particular unknowns:
almost all of them had played in
the 1947 show and even Vivien
Leigh (1913-1967), who had
played the role of Bianche in the
London production of 1 949
directed by Laurence Oli vier,
had only some initial difficulties
working under a new director.
There was no shortage of
problems, however, but they
were all of an extrinsic nature.
Williams, who may have
foreseen them, paid particular
attention to making the script
more suitable for the general
public, mindful of the
scandalised reactions to the
play's première; however, this
was not sufficient. In fact, those
were
19
the dark years of amerian
cinema. The Motion Picture Asso
ciatiòn of America, in charge of
scrutinising the morality of the
cole27 skins, requested that two
crucial points be cut: the
reference to Allan's
homosexuality and the rape
scene. With great bitterness,
aware once again of the fact that
America did not seem ready to
deal with an issue that
concerned him so closely,
Williams rewrote the account of
Blanche's marital drama by
making the motivation more
vague (the impression was given
that Allan had been impotent).
Instead, he decided to oppose
the cutting of the rape scene and
wrote directly to Joseph Breen,
the head of the censorship
board: 'The Streetcar is an
extremely moral drama, in the
deepest and truest sense of the
word (... ) The rape of Blanche
by Stanley is a central and
integral truth; without it, the
drama loses its meaning,
n a m e l y the violation of the
tender, the sensitive, the
delicate by
part of the wild and bruised
forces of modern society'28.
Breen proposed a compromise:
the rape scene could be kept,
toning it down slightly, but the
ending had to be changed so
that Stanley was punished. In
other pa
role was essential to suggest a
moralistic interpretation.
20
Willi.ams and Kazan When it looked as if the was also heard by those who
reluctantly agreed to this changes had served their were not strictly Catholic. At this
juncture: that is why the purpose, a new problem arose: point, the producers imposed
problematic but sensual final the Catholic League for Decency twelve more small cuts, totalling
rapprochement between declared that it would rate the about four minutes, all aimed at
Stanley and Stella, with the film as 'C' (To be condemned). diminishing the sensuality of the
husband finding his wife's There was a box-office problem Kowalski couple and the
'blouse opening' with one hand, here: the League was the body ambiguity of Stella's character,
was replaced by a shot of Stella, that judged the morality of texts as well as suggesting a
with the child in her arms, for Catholics, but as there were premeditation in Stanley's
climbing the stairs to Eunice's no organisations of this type at violent act, absent from the text.
apartment, exclaiming 'We're the time.
not going back there. Not this
time. We won't go back there
again. Never again, we won't go
back there again "29,
The result is evidently to
create a distinction between
'good' and 'bad', trivialising the
text and losing sight of some of
the author's objectives.
However, it should be noted that
the original ver sion did lend
itself to hinting that, despite the
apparent sensuality of the
couple, their relationship would
later be profoundly changed by
the events linked to Blanche's
fate; reciprocally, the film's
conclusion allows us to think
that, as has already happened in
the third scene, Stella will
sooner or later descend the
stairs to rejoin Stanley. The rape
sequence was preceded and
followed by a questionable
phallic simbo lism that Kazan
himself
qualified as banal in one of Vivien Leigh (White) getting off the tram called Desire in the film by Elia Kazan.
clarification a few years later.
ii- ii- 21
 IV
Notes
1 The quote is taken from a radio
interview (W}'MT-FM in Chicago) by
Studs Terkel that appeared in Albert
J.Dev lin (ed.), Conversations with Ten
nessee T17i lliams, Jackson and London:
Uni versity Press ofMississippi, 1986,
p.90.
z On American theatre before
World War II, I refer to my Guide to
"The Descent from Mount Morgan"
(Quaderni dello Spettacolo n.2,
Stagione di prosa 1992- 1993,
Bergamo, Teatro Donizetti, pp.5-
8). With regard to the period after
1945, theatre historians also generally
mention William Inge, Edward Albee
and the more recent Sam She pard
and David Mamet. The more 'open-
minded' scholars also devote some
space to the so-called 'Off-Broadway'
such as performance theatre (Living
Theatre, Open Theatre and
Performance Group), the 'theatre of
images' (Robert Wilson, Richard
Foreman and Lee Breuer), and
Vincent Van Gogh, Le cqfé de nuit, 1888, New Haven, Yale University Art Gallery (ap .J-
'committed' tea tro (San Francisco
peared in scene 3). Mime Troupe, Bread and Puppet,
Teatro Cam pesino, American Indian
theatre, African American theatre, gay
� theatre, women's theatre, etc.). See
C.W.E. Bigsby, A Criticai Introduction
to Twentieth-Cen tury Drama, voi. 3,
London and New York: Cambridge
University Press, 1985.
5 In 1991, he wrote Tlze Ride
Down Mount Morgan, which had its
national premiere in Bergamo in
22 li- January.
li-
4 It should be remembered that
Williams wrote to the State
Department in 1956 to protest the
decision to deprive Miller of his passport
on political grounds. Miller wrote of
Williams: 'If not al tro because he
emerged at a time when
homosexuality was something
unconfessed in a public figure,
Williams could only belong to a
minority culture and had to
understand for himself what a threat
the majority might represent if
turned against him [...] Of course I
have never considered him an
isolated aesthete as many thought him
to be. There is a radical politics of the
soul just as there is a politics of the
ballot box or the picket line. If he was
not an activist, it was not for lack of
desire to be just, nor was he
convinced that a theatre deeply
involved in society and politics [ ...] was
unaesthetic or external to his
interests'. Cited in W.G. Bigsby,
Nlodem American Drama, New York:
Cambridge Universily Press, 1992,
p. 37.
5 Quoted without source in Ruby
Cohn, 'The Theatre of the Twentieth
Century', in Emory Elliott, History of the
Literary Civilisation of the United
States, translated by R.C. Cerrone et
al. tri, Turin: Utet, 1990, p.964.
6 A conspicuous exception is
Summer and Smoke (Summer and
Smoke, 1947) where the ambiguity of
the Tram gives way to abstract
juxtapositions.
25
 7 This is also Wil liams' opinion: 'I
think I wrote my best play early on
[...] It was A Streetcar Named Desire,'
in Don Ross, 'Williams on a Hot Tin
RooF' (1958), in Albert J. Devlin (ed.),
Conversa tions with Tennessee
Williams, cit. p.52.
8 See Charlotte Goodman, 'The Fox's
Cub: Llllian Hellman, Arthur Miller, and
Tennessee Williams', in June Schlueter
(ed.), Modern American Drama: The
Fe,nale Canon, Farleigh Dickinson
University Press, 1990, pp. 130-42.
9 For Williams, sexuality revolves
around the notions of guilt and loss. It
is worth mentioning that in 1942 Wil
liams had collaborated on the
dramatization of 'You Touched Me', a
Lawrence play that was staged the
following year, and that in 1951 he
published / Rise in Flame, Cried the
Phoenix, a short play about Lawrence.
10 On Crane's role as Williams'
'precur sore' and thus as his object of
'anxiety of influence', Harold Bloom
particularly insists in 'In troduction'
in Id. (ed.), Tennessee Williams's A
Streetcar Named Desire, New York:
Chelsea House, 1988, pp.1-6.
11 See for example Orpheus Descen
ding (The Descent of Orpheus, 1957)
and other works where Orpheus
appears albeit less explicitly (Camino
Real, Battle ofAngels, etc.).
12 The psychic instability of
generally female protagoni s t s is
also taken up in other works by
Williams. For instance, in Suddenly
Last Summer (1958), Catherine recalls
undergoing lobotomy surgery, a fate
that the author's sister actually
underwent in 1937, and Clothes
24,
Jor a Summer Hotel focuses on the
figure of Zelda, the wife of the writer-
king Francis Scott Fitzgerald, in this
drama described as being in an
asylum.
13 Joe Mielziner would rework the
technical innovations introduced in
Tram's production already the
f o l l o w i n g year, in Miller's Death
of a Salesman, in the well-known
flashbacks and 'hallucinations' of
Willy Loman.
14 Tennessee Williams, "Notes for
the Direction" of The Glass Zoo
(1945), in Id., Teatro, trad. it. by G.
Guerrieri, Turin: Einaudi, 1963 (1953),
p.65 (translation slightly modified).
15 "Realism" here refers to a 19th
century trend from which the
American theatre (but especially the
novel) is trying to break away in this
era, and not to a controversial meta-
historical ca tegory.
16 Tennessee Williams, Where I Li
ve: Selected Essays, New York: New Di
rections, 1978, p.66.
17 On the not central but rather
articulated question of the relations
between the various ethnic groups
(the Pole, the lady of French ori gine,
the black woman, the Mexican flower
seller of the dead, etc.) see Lyon! Kelly,
'The White Goddess, Eth nicity, and
the Politics of Desire', in Phi lip C. Kolin
(ed.), Cor,fronting Ten nessee
Williams'sA StreetcarNamed Desi re,
Westport (CT): Greenwood Press,
1993, pp.121-32.
18 This quotation and the
following ones are taken from Masolino
d'Amico's translation specially made for
Elio de Capitani's staging (that was
staged in Bergamo): T. Williams, Un
tram che si chiama desiderio, Geno va:
Teatro di Genova-Marietti, 1994,
�
p.75, italics mine. From now on I shall
refer to this translation by simply
indicating Tram in brackets, followed
by scene and page number.
As Elio De Capitani has argued,
captions already represent an
interpretation of the text and tend to
� "debase the very idea of staging", as they
are linked, unlike the opera, "to the
time in which it is conceived" ("Nel franto
mondo , il rito", Conversazione con Elio
De Capitani, edited by Aldo Viganò, cit.
in
T. Williams, Tram, cit., p.202).
19 See Roger Boxill, Tennessee Wìl
liams, New York: Macmillan, 1987, p. 90.
20 It should be emphasised that
Stanley, as a World War II veteran,
was one of a group of men who
returned home full of hope that they
would be able to find a satisfying job,
which did not happen.
21 Williams himself seems to
suggest this interpretation. See,
a m o n g others, his collection of
poems m e a n i n g f u l l y entitled
Androgyne, Mon Amour, NewYork:
New Directions, 1977.
22 It should be remembered that allo
ra America was very strict in the area
of sexual li berty and, contrary to
popular belief, continues to be so
today, especially in some states. It
should also be added that the Kin sey
Report, published in 1948, revealed a
..!)
startling fact: 57 per cent of males at
that time had had a sexual experience
with a woman.
,,
homosexual 'complete'. On the relations
. between homosexuality and writing in
Wil liams see Georges-Michel Sarotte,
Gomme un jrère, comme un amant, Pa
ris: F1ammarion, 1976 (tr. Engl. Like a
Brother, Like a Lover, Garden City (NY):
Doubleday, 1978, pp.107-20 and
passim). Williams himself addressed this
question explicitly in his autobiography
(T. Williams, Memoirs, ibid., 1975).
25 Mitch's attitude is com plicated
by the Oedipal bond with his mother.
Here, as in numerous other works by
Williams, the in fluence of
psychoanalytic theories clearly
emerges.
24 Brenda Murphy, Tennessee Wìl
liams & Elia Kazan, Cambridge and
New York: Cambridge University
Press, 1992, partial Italian translation
by G. Manganelli, "Kazan, Williams,
'Desiderio'", in Ten nessee Williams,
Un tram che si chiama desiderio, cit. ,
p.38.
25 Jvi, p.40.
26 A fairly extensive list of films
based on Williams' works is provided
in the bibliography of the author's
works.
27 Founded in 1922 and animated
by Republican Senator Will H. Hays,
the association prompted Hollywood
to adopt a self-censorship code (Pro
duction code) that remained in force
until 1966 and was particularly
repressive in the 1950s.
28 G. D. Phillips, 'A Streetcar Named
Desire: Play and Film', in Philip C. Ko
lin (ed.), Conj'ronting Tennessee
Williams 's A Streetcar Named Desire,
cit., p. 230.
29 A Streetcar Named Desire,
Script One, edited by George P.
Garrett, New York: Meredith
Corporation, 1971, p. 4,84.
 V

Chronolog
y

"

1911 Thomas Lanier Williams At this time, the father

was born in Columbus in
Mis sissippi on 26 March
to Edwina Dakin Williams
and Cornelius Coffin
(formerly a director of a
telephone company and
now sales manager of a
shoe company). The
geniuses, married in 1907,
had separated for a short
time in 1909. After the
reconciliation, their first
daughter, Rose, was born.
1915 The Williams family
moved to Nashville,
Tennessee and the
1915 in Clarksdale in
TI10mas Hart Benton, Poker Night, 1948, private collection, St. Louis westernmost Mississip.
began calling Tom by the
derogatory nickname of
'Miss Nancy'.
1919 Brother Walter Da kin is
born.
1920 He began his friendship
with the young Hazel
Kramer.
1925 Tom was enrolled in high
school (Junior High
School).
1924-1926 He wrote a ghost
story and some poems for
school newspapers. In
begins his love affair with
Hazel Kra mer.

!-,
1916 Tom suffers from 1927 Enters University City
diphtheria, which is High School. Wins third
followed by a kidney prize ($5) in a competition
., complication: he is organised by a magazine in
paralysed in his legs for which he is asked to
about two years. answer the question "Can a
good wife be a friend?". He
1918 The Williams moved to St. also wins a; prize
Louis, Missouri, away from
their grandparents. A
27
26 �
� ;
 for a review of the film
Stella Dallas.
1928 'The Ven geance of
Nitocris', his first short
story, is published. He
attended a Broadway
show for the first time.
With his maternal
grandfather, he goes on a
trip to Europe, during
which he has a nervous
breakdown.
1929 He enrolled at the
University of Missouri at
Columbia. He received an
award for his play Beauty
is the Word.
1950 In the summer he works
as a magazine salesman.
She platonically falls in
love with a boy.
1951 After his poor school
results, his father forced
him to work as a clerk. He
continues to write at night.
He voted for Norman
Thomas, the socialist
candidate for president. He
enrolled in the University
of Missouri School of
Journalism.
1952-'1954 He was forced by
his father to abandon his
studies and resumed work.
His short story 'Stella for
Star' (Stella as stel-
28
la) wins a competition for
amateurs. He works in a
shoe factory.
1935 Stricken by what he calls a
car diaco attack he goes to
convalesce with his
grandparents in Memphis
where he writes Cairo!
Shan gai! Bombay!, a
one-act play that was
staged by a company of
local amateurs. En tra at
Washington Uni versity in
St. Louis and conti nues to
write plays for the
Mummers' company,
which in the
1956 he staged another of his
plays, Candles in the Sun.
His short story '27 Wagons
Full of Cotton' was
published.
1957 The Mummers staged his
The Fugitive Kind. He
transferred to the
University of Iowa, where
he took drama courses
from E.P. Conkle and E.C.
Mabie. It was around this
time that he apparently
had his only ethereal
experience. His sister Rose
underwent a lobotomy.
1958 He obtained a diploma in
Ingle se from the
University of Iowa. Moved
to Chicago and then to
New Orleans.
jf:
1959 He goes to live in the
French Quarter where he
apparently has his first
homosexual experience.
He meets the widow of
D.H. Lawrence. By now,
under the pseudonym
Tennessee Williams, he
" publishes the short story
\ 'The Field of
Children'; he is awarded
Blue
(three years after his date
of birth) a $100 prize for a
collection of one-acts
entitled American Blues,
and $1,000 by the Rock
feller Foundation. As a
result of these successes,
he entrusted himself to
literary agent Audrey
Wood.
1940 He attended the tea tro
seminar held by John
Gassner at the New School
in New York, where the
students staged his one-act
play The Long Goodbye.
He was exo rted from
military service. In
December, the Theatre
Guild in Boston put on his
Battle of Angels, which
was very badly received by
t
f
1941
the public and almost
immediately
performances.
stopped
Lives in Key West
(Florida), St. Louis and
New Orleans. Starts
writing the rac-
jf:
account 'Portrait of a Girl
in Glass', which later
became The Glass
Menagerie.
1942 In New York, then in
Georgia and Jacksonville,
he held a variety of jobs
such as 'lift attendant' and
cinema ma keeper. The
students of the New School
staged This Property is Con
demned while Wil liams
collaborated on the dram
matisation of D.H.
Lawrence's short story
'You Touched Me'.
1945 He gets a six-month
contract as a scriptwriter
for MGM (a text for Lana
Tumer and an intended
side The Gentleman Caller
[The Gentleman Caller]
developing 'Portrait of a
Girl in Glass'). You Tou
ched Me is staged in Cle
veland.
1944 He wrote the short story
'Flames'. Receives a pre
mio of $1,000 from the
Ameri can Academy of Arts
and Letters. The Glass
Menage rie is successfully
staged in Chicago and in
the
29
1945 in New York (561
performances). Wins the
New York Drama Crilics'
Circle Award, and the
Donaldson and Sidney
Howard Memorial Awards.
Assigns half the royalties to
his mother. Undergoes a
fourth and unnecessary
operation for a cataract in
his left eye. Begins writing A
Streetcar Named Desire.
1946 He published 27 Wagons
Full of Cotton and Other
Plays. He begins his
cohabitation with Pancho
Ro drigues y Gonzales and
his friendship with the
writer Carson McCullers.
He began writing Summer
and Smoke and Camino
Real.
1947 Meet Frank Merlo. Sum
mer and Smoke is staged in
Dallas. A Streetcar Named De
sire is staged on Broadway on
3 December, directed by
Elia Kazan: it won the
Pulitzer Prize for Drama, as
well as the New York Drama
Critics' Cir cle Award and
the Do naldson Prize. It
remained uninterruptedly
on stage for two years for a
total of 855 performances.
1948 Parents separate. Com pie
a trip to Italy. He meets
Gore Vidal and Truman
30
Capote. Frank Merlo moves flames, cried the phoenix) ghe. The cine matographic
in with him (the relationship
l a short drama about D.H. version of The Rose Tat too
will last fourteen years). He Lawrence. He wrote a pri with Anna Magnani is
arranges for Rose to be
transferred to a pri vate l ma version of the short
story 'Three Players of a
released (re gia by Daniel
Mann). He wrote the
clinic. Summer
Smoke, directed by Margo
Jones, is staged
Broadway and repeated a
hundred times. One Arm
and
on
and Other Stories, his first
l Sum mer Game'. The film A
Streetcar Named De sire
is released, again directed
by Kazan, who in
1952 wins the New York Film's
screenplay for Baby Doll
which, directed by Kazan,
was released in cinemas in
1956 unleashing the fury of
censorship. Sweet Bird of
collection of short stories, is Critics' Award. He rewrites Youth is staged in Miami. A
published. Ca mino Real. He is invited first collection of poems, In
to join the National Insti the Winter of Cities, is
1949 The Rose Tattoo begins in tute of Arts and Letters. published. He writes to the
Key West. In Lon dra State Department to
Streetcar was staged, 1953 Kazan staged, without protest the withdrawal of
directed by Laurence success, Camino Real. Arthur Miller's passport.
Olivier and in Italy by Williams began work on Cat His relationship with Frank
Luchino Visconti. on a Hot Tin Roof. In Merlo begins to
Houston, he directed deteriorate. He increases
1950 The roman zo The Roman Donald Windham's The his dependence on drugs in
Spring oj Mrs. Stone is Starless Air. order to be able to write.
published. The film based
on The Glass Menagerie 1954 He published Hard Candy: 1957 He takes his mentally ill
by Irving Rapper is released. A Book oj Stories. mother to Key West where
At the end of the year, The he writes Orpheus Descen
Rose Tattoo is staged in 1955 Maternal grandfather dies. ding (The Descent of
Chicago and in Italy, Cat on a Hot Tin Rooj, Orpheus) which is staged on
Summer and Smoke directed by Kazan, is staged Broadway, directed by
directed by Gior- gio in New York. It is a success: Harold Clurman. His father
Strehler, and at the it wins awards from the
beginning of the l, New York Critics' Circle,
the Donaldson and the Pu
dies. Williams begins
psychoanalytic therapy with
1951 in New York (directed by Da- I litzer; it is repeated 694
Dr. Kubie.
. niel Mann). He received
the Tony Award for Best I times. Williams incessantly
wanders around Europe
1958 Garden Di,strict (composed of
Sornething Unspoken and
Play. I Rise in Flame, Cried able to write and Sud denly Last Summer) goes
the Phoenix was published. increasingly addicted to
dro-
PI- PI-
31
 staged in an 'off Broadway'
theatre, directed cli
Herbert Machlz. The film
ver sion cli Cat on a Hot Tin
Roof is released (directed
cli Richard Brooks).
1959 Sweet Bird of Youth is
performed in New York
(directed by Kazan) as pu
re I Rise in Flame, Cried
the Phoenix. He goes to
Cuba where he meets
Hemingway and Fidel
Castro. The one-act version
of The Night of the Iguana
is performed at the Spo
leto Festival, directed by
Frank Corsa ro. The film
version of Suddenly Last
Summer was released,
directed by Jo seph
Mankiewicz.
1960 Wil liams' only play,
Period ojAdjustment,
directed by George Roy
Hill, is staged in New York.
The Fugi tive Kind (snake
skin), based on Orpheus
Descending, directed by
Sidney Lumet, is released
in cinemas.
1961.By the end of the year
The Night of 'the Iguana'
was a great success on
Broadway and in the
1962 Williams again wins the
New York Cri-
52
tics' Circle. He is invited to
join the American
Academy of Arts and Let
ters. The Milk Train Doesn't
Stop Here Anymore was
staged at the Festival cli
Spoleto. The film versions
of Sweet Bird oj Youth
(directed by Richard
Brooks) and Period
ojAdjustment (directed by
George Roy Hill) were
released.
1963 The Milk Train Doesn't
Stop Here Anymore is
staged on Broadway in a
modified ver sion. His
partner Frank Merlo dies
of cancer: a period of deep
depression begins for Wil
liams, which he calls the
'Stoned Age'. He goes to
Mexico to attend the
filming of The Night of the
Iguana by John Huston.
1964 The film The Night Qf was
released
the iguana.
1965 Brandeis University
presented Williams with
the Crea tive Arts Award.
He goes to live in New York
with William Glavin.
1966 Slapstick Tragedy including
�
The Mutilated [The
Mutilated] and Gniidiges
Friiulein [Gentle Miss]) is
staged on Broadway. Drug
addiction grows. The film
This Property is Con
demned is released,
directed by Sid ney Pollack
(Italian title: Questa
ragazza è di tutti).
1967 The Knigh tly Quest: A
Novella and Four Short
Stories (La ri cerca
cavalleresca. A novella and
four short stories,
translated into Italian as
'Un ospite indiscreto'). The
first version of The Two
Character Play was
performed in London.
1968 The Seven De scents of Myrt
le (The Seven Whores of
Myrtle), directed by José
Quintero, is staged in
Philadelphia and New
York. The film Boom! is
released, based on The Milk
Train Doe sn 't Stop Here
Anymore, directed by
Joseph Losey.
1969 In Key West he was
baptised according to the
Catholic rite. After a period
of illness, he seems to
attempt suicide with a large
quantity of sleeping pills.
He received an honorary
doctorate from the
University of Missouri at
Columbia and the Gold
Medal for Drama from the
Na-
�
tional Institute of Arts and
Letters. In the Bar oj a
Tokyo Hotel was staged on
Broadway. He was
admitted to the psychiatric
ward of Barnes Hospital in
St. Louis for three months.
1970 Dragon Country: A Book
oj Plays is published in
bookshops.
1971 After a quarrel with
Audrey Wood, he chooses
Bill Barnes as his agent.
Out Cry (Clamour), a
modified version of The
Two-Character Play, is
staged in Chicago. The
publishing house New
Directions began to publish
The Theatre of Ten nessee
Williams (a collection of all
the plays, now in its ninth
volume). Williams openly
speaks out against the
Vietnam War during a
mani fication.
1972 Small Grafi Warnings,
previously titled
Confessional, was staged
off-Broadway under the
direction of Richard Alt
man, in which Williams
himself played for a few
performances. He was on
the jury of the Venice Film
Festival.
55
1973 He was awarded the
Centennial Medal of the
Cathedral St. John the Di
vine. An interview with
him appears in Playboy. A
television film based on
The Glass Menagerie,
directed by Antony Harvey,
is released.
1974 The Latter Days of a Cele
brated Soubrette (The
Last Days of a Notorious
Soubrette, modified
version of Gniidiges
Friiulein) is staged 'off-
Broadway' without
success. The short story
collection Eight Mortal
Ladies Possessed is
published.
1975 A new version of The
Seven Descents ofMyrt le
was produced in Princeton
under the title J(ingdom
ofEarth. The Red Devil
Battery Sign is staged in
Boston under the direction
of Edwin Sherin and is a
flop; it will be modified and
staged again over the next
two years. Wil liams is
honoured by the Na tional
Arts Club with a me dal for
literary merit. The second
novel is published,
. Moi,se and the World ofRea
, son (Moise and the World
of Reason) and the
autobiography Memoirs
(Memoirs), which
unabashedly recounts his
homosexual experience.
54
1976 Thi,s i,s (An
Entertainment) was staged
in San Francisco and The
Demolition Downtown
was produced in London.
Summer and Smoke
returns to the stage mo
dificated under the title
The Ec centricities ofA
Nightingale. PBS airs the
documentary Ten nessee
Williams' South. Let ters
to Donald Wìndham 1
940-1 965 (Letters to Do
nald Windham) is
published. He is presi dent
of the jury of the Cannes
Festi val. Becomes a life
member of the Ame rican
Academy of Arts and
Letters.
1977 Vieux Carré, directed by
Keith Hack, is staged on
Broadway. Androgyne,
Mon Amour (Androgyne,
my love), the second
collected collection of
poems, is published.
1978 Tiger Tail, a tea tral
version of Baby Doll, was
unsuccessfully staged in
Atlanta. Greve Coeur (sic,
later changed to A Lovely
Sundayfor Gre ve Coeur) is
performed in Charle ston
(directed by Keith Hack). It
is published Where I
� �
Live: Selected Essays.
Mitch Douglas becomes
Williams' new agent.
I
1979 Kirche, Kutchen, und Kin
der is staged. Williams is
received with great
honours by President
Carter at the Kennedy
l Center.
1980 Clothes for a Summer
Hotel is staged in New
York, subtitled 'ghost
drama', directed by José
Quintero. The Tennessee
Williams Performing Arts
Center in Key West opens
with Wìll Mr. Merriwether
Return jrom Memphi,s?
(Will Mr. Merriwether return
from Memphis?). His
mother dies. Williams
receives the Medal of Li
berty from President
Carter. He accepts the
position of Distin guished
Writer-in-Residen ce at the
University of British
Columbia in Vancou ver.
J
1981 Something Cloudy, So
mething Clear was
staged in New York while
A House Not Meant to
Stand
resist) is performed in
Chicago. He and Harold
Pinter won the prestigious
Cornrnon Wealth Prize
($11,000).
1982 Received a doctorate from
Harvard University.
1983 He died on 24 or 25
February, probably from
blowing the top off a
medicine bottle. He is
buried in St. Louis,
although he left
instructions to be buried at
sea as Hart Grane.
1984 Stopped Rocking and
Other Screen plays were
published.
1985 Tennessee Wil liams: The
Collected Stories was
published with an
introduction by Gore Vidal.
1986 Ten by Tennessee, two
evenings of one-acts, is
staged in New York.
Conversations with
Tennessee Williams is
published.
1987 The second remake of the
film based on The Glass
Menagerie, directed by
Paul Newman, was
released.
55
 VI

Bibliography of Williams' works

Theatre

Complete Works: The Theatre of Tennessee Williams, New York:

New Directions, 1971-1992, 8 volumes.
Individual works in alphabetical order (data refer to first
publication):
American Blues, New York: Dramatists Play Service, 1948;
Camino Real, Norfolk (CT): New Directions, 1953;
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, New York: New Directions, 1955;
Clothesfor a Summer Hotel, ibid. 1983;
Dragon Country: A Book ofPlays, ibid. 1969;
The Eccentricities of a Nightingale, New York: Dramatists Play Ser-
vice, 1977;
The Glass Menagerie, New York: New Directions, 1945;
The Gniidiges Friiulein, New York: Dramatists Play Service, 1967;
In the Bar ofa Tokyo Hotel, ibid. 1969;
Kingdom ofEarth (The Seven Descents of Myrtle), New York: New
Directions, 1968;
A Lovely Sundayfor Greve Coeur, ibid. 1980;
The Milk Train Doesn 't Stop Here Anymore, ibid. 1964;
The Mutilated, New York: Dramatists Play Service, 1967;
The Night of the Iguana, New York: New Directions, 1962;
Orpheus Descending, with Battle ofAngels, ibid. 1958;
Out Cry, ibid. 1970;
Period ojAdjustment, ibid. 1960;
The Red Devil Battery Sign, ibid. 1988;
Marlon Brando (Stanley Kowalski) in the film directed by The Rose Tattoo, ibid. 1951;
Small Crajt Warnings, ibid. 1972;
Kazan.
A Streetcar Named Desire, ibid. 1947;
Suddenly Last Summer, ibid. 1948;

36 � - 37
Swnmer and Smoke, ibid. 1948;
Sweet Bird of Youth, ibid. 1959;
27 Wagons Full of Gatton and Other One Act Pla.rs, Norfolk (CT):
New Directions, 1945;
Vieux Carré, New York: New Directions, 1 979;
You Touched Me, New York: S. French, 1947.
Screenplays
Bab.r Doll, New York: New Directions, 1956;
Stopped Rocking and Other Screenpla.rs, ibid. 1984.
Narrative
Eight Mortai Ladies Possessed: A Book oj Stories, New York: New
Directions, 1974;
Hard Cand.r: A Book ojStories, ivi, 1954;
Knightl.r Quest: A Novella and Four Short Stories, ibid., 1 966;
Moise and the World of Reason, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1975;
OneArm, and Other Stories, New York: New Directions, 1948;
The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone, ibid. 1950;
Tennessee Williams: The Collected Stories, ivi, 1985.
Poetry
Androg.rne, Mon Amour: Poems, New York: New Directions, 1944;
In the Winter ofCities, Norfolk (CT): New Directions, 1956.
Autobiography
Memoirs, Garden City (NY): Doubleday, 1975.
Essays
f/Vhere I Live: Selected Essa.rs, (edited by C.R. Day and B. Woods),
New York: New Directions, 1 978.
Interviews
DEVLIN, Albert J. ( ed.), Conversations with Tennessee /JVil
liams, Jackson and London: UP of Mississippi, 1 986.
�
38 j}�
Letters
Tennessee William's Letters to Donald Windham 1 940-65, (ed. D.
Windham), New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1977.
Italian translations (in cases of reprints, the date of first publication
is given in brackets)
Collected:
Theatre (Contains: La camera buia, Ritratto di Madonna, La lunga
permanenza interrotta ovvero Una cena poco soddisfacente, Proi
bito, Lo zoo di vetro, Un tram che si chiama desiderio, Estate efu
mo, La gatta sul tetto che scotta, Bab.r Doll, La calata di Orfeo), tr.
G. Guerrieri, Turin: Einaudi, (1955), 1982;
Tutti i racconti, tr. G. Beltrami Gadola and N. Finzi, ivi, 1966.
Individual works:
Auto-da-fé, tr. M. Roli, 'Il Dramma', 65 (1948);
The 'blues', tr. G. Guerrieri (1952), Turin: Einaudi, 1965;
'Caterpillars', tr. by Luigi Schenoni in R. Shepard and J. Thomas
(eds.), Narratori di poche parole, Parma: Guanda, 1990;
Una donna chiamata Moise, Milan: Garzanti, 1976;
Summer and smoke, lr. G. Guerrieri, Milan: La Fiaccola, 1951;
La gatta sul tetto che scotta, tr. G. Guerrieri, 'Sipario', 144 (1958);
The Love Letter of Lord B.rron, tr. G. Cane, 'Il Dramma', 85 (1949);
The Night of the Iguana, tr. B. Fonzi (1965), Turin: Einaudi, 1979;
Mrs. Stone's Roman Spring, tr. B. Tasso (1954), Mila no: Garzanti,
1962;
Un ospite indiscreto, tr. L. Bianciardi, Milan: Rizzali, 1 970;
Reborn in flames cried the phoenix, tr. L. Candoni, 'Sipario', 158
(1957);
Greetings from Berta, tr. G. Cane, 'Il Dramma', 77 (1949);
Un tram che si chiama desiderio, tr. G. Guerrieri, Turin: Einaudi,
, 1975; tr. M. D'Amico, Genoa: Marietti (Collana del Teatro di Ge
nova, no. 77), 1994;
27 cotton wagons, tr. G. Cane, 'Il Dramma', 67-68-69 (1948);
Lo zoo di vetro, tr. A. Segre, Milan: Garzanti, 1948; lr. G. Guerrieri,
Turin: Einaudi, 1987 (1955).
�
!}#{ 39
 Films based on Williams' works (in chronological order) VII
The Glass Menagerie, 1950, directed by Jrvin Rapper, with Jane
Wyman, Kirk Douglas and Arthur Kennedy; Selective Bibliography of Critics
A Streetcar Named Desire, 1951, directed by Elia Kazan, starring
Vivien Lei gh (Blanche), Marlon Brando (Stanley), Kim Hunter
(Stella), Karl Malden (Mitch), Rudy Bond (Steve), Nick Dennis
(Pablo), Peg Hillias (Eunice), Wright King (season ticket boy),
Richard Garrick (doctor), Anne Dere (nurse), Edna Tho mas
(Mexican woman);
The Rose Tattoo, 1955, directed by Daniel Manu, with Anna Bibliographies:
Magnani and Burt Lancaster;
Baby Doll, 1956, directed by Elia Kazan, with Karl Malden, Carroll McCANN, J.S., The Criticai Reputation of Tennessee Williams: A Reje
Baker, Eli Wallach and Mildred Dunnock; rence Guide, Boston: Hall, 1983;
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, 1958, directed by Richard Brooks, with GUNN, Drewey Wayne, Tennessee Williams: A Bibliography, Metu chen
Elizabeth (NJ): Scarecrow P, (1980), 1991 (updated ed.);
Taylor, Paul Newman and Burl Ives;
Suddenly Last Summer, 1959, directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, MURRAY, T.D., Evolving Texts: The Writing oj Tennessee Williams,
starring Elizabeth Taylor, Katherine Hepburn and Montgomery Newark: University of Delaware Lib., 1988.
Clift;
The Pugitive Kind, 1960, directed by Sidney Lumet, starring Marlon
Brando, Anna Magnani and Joanne Woodward; Biographies:
Swnmer and Smoke, 1961, directed by Peter Glenville, with Laurence
Harvey and Geraldine Page; RADER, D., Tennessee: Cry oj the Heart, Garden City (NY): Double day,
The Roman Spring oj Mrs. Stone, 1961, directed by José Quintero, 1985;
with Vivien Leigh and Warren Beatty; SPOTO, D., The Kindness oj Strangers: The Life oj Tennessee Wil
Sweet Bird oj Youth, 1962, directed by Richard Brooks, with Paul liams, Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1985;
New man and Geraldine Page;
Period oj Adjustment, 1962, directed by George Roy Hill, with WILLIAMS, D. and MEAD, S., Tennessee Williams: An Intimate Bio
Tony Francidsa, Jane Fonda and Jim Hutton; graphy, New York: Arbor House, 1983;
Night oj the Iguana, 1964, directed by John Huston, with Richard Bur
ton, Ava Gardner and Deborah Kerr;
Tlzis Property is Condemned, 1966, directed by Sidney Pollack, with Studies and collections of essays:
Na talie Wood, Robert Redford and Charles Bronson;
Boom!, 1 968, directed by Joseph Losey, with Elizabeth Taylor and BIGSBY, C.W.E., A Criticai Introduction to 20th-Century American
Richard Burton; Drama 2: Williams/Miller/Albee, Cambridge: Cambridge Univer
Last Q/' the Mobile ifotshots, 1970, directed by Sidney Lumet, with sity Press, 1984;
James Coburn and Lynn Redgrave. BOXILL, Roger, Tennessee Williams, New York: Macmillan, 1987;
FALK, Signi Lenea, Tennessee Williams, New York: Twayne, (1961)
Complete data on the films are provided in G.D. PHILLIPS, The Pilms 1 978 (revised ed.);
oj Tennessee Williams, London: Associated University Press,
1980.
P�
f{ 41
.
40 fol:"�'
HIRSCH, A Portrait of the Artist: The Pla,rs of Tennessee Williams,
Port Washington (NY): Kennikat P, 1979;
JACKSON, E.M., The Broken World of Tennessee PVilliams, Madison:
University of Wisconsin Press, 1966;
LEAVITT, R. , The World of Tennessee Williams (with an intr. by T.
Williams), New York: Putnam, 1978;
MURPHY, B., Tennessee Williams and Elia Kazan: A Collaboration in
the Theatre, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992;
NELSON, B., Tennessee Williams: The Man and His Work, New York:
Obolensky, 1961 ;
PAGAN, N., Rethinking Literary Biograph,r: A Postmodernist Approa
ch to Tennessee Williams, London and Toronto: Associated
Univer sity Press, 1993;
SAVRAN, D., Communists, Cowbo,rs & Queers: The Politics of Mascu
linit.r in the Work of Arthur Miller and Tennessee T-Villiams, Uni
versity of Minnesota Press, 1992;
STANTON, S. S. (ed.), Tennessee Williams: A Collection of Criti ca!
Essa,rs, Englewood Cliffs (NJ): Prentice-Hall, 1977;
THARPE, J. (ed.), Tennessee Williams: A 1hbute, Jackson: Uni
versity Press of Mississippi, 1977;
THOMPSON, J.J., Tennessee Williams's Pla,rs: Memory, M,rth,
and éSymbol, New York: Peter Lang, 1987;
VANNATTA, D., Tennessee Williams: A Stud.r of Short Fiction,
Lon don: Macmillan, 1 988.
KOLIN, P.C. (ed. cli), Confronting Tennessee Williams 's A Street
Car Named Desire: Essays in Culture! Pluralism, Westport
(CT), Grcemvood Press, 1993;
MILLER, .J.Y. (ed. cli) , Twentieth Century fnterpretations of A
Streetcm- Named Desire, Englewood Cliffs (N.J): Prentice-Hall,
1971 ;
For Italian contributions up to 1974 see the Repertorio bibliografi
co della letteratura americana in Italia, edited by B.
Tedeschini Lalli, Rome, Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura 1966, (vols.
I-Il: 1945-54), 1969 (vol.III: 1955-59), 1982 (vol.IV: 1960-64),
Rome:
Centre for American Studies, 1993 (voi.V: 1965-74). See also M.T.
GTULIANI, 'Tennessee Williams' in I contemporanei. Novecento
Americano, edited by E. Zolla, voi.Il , Rome: Lucarini, 1983.
Finally, Roberta Servalli's fine dissertation 'Ten nessee Williams and
Elia Kazan. A Streetcar Named Desire and Bab,r Doll',
University of Bergamo, March 1994.

Essays on A Streetcar Named Desire:

ADLER, T.P., A Streetcar Named Desire: The Moth & the Lantern, Bo
ston: Twayne, 1 990;
BLOOM, H. (ed.), Tennessee Williams 's A Streetcar Named De sire,
New York: Chelsea House, 1 987;
HURRELL, J.D. (ed.), Two Modem American Tragedies: Re views
and Criticism of "Death of a Salesman" and ''.!l Streetcar
Named Desire'', New York: Scribner's, 1961 ;
Vi.vien Leigh, Tennessee Williams and director Elia Kazan on the set of the film.

42 P-.
-�. Pt:� 43
 VIII

Appendix:
"A Streetcar Named Desire" scene
by scene

Scene l. New Orleans, a he tells them that all of Belle Re

working-class neighbourhood
between the railroad and the
river, an early May twilight.
Stanley - Kowalski, a young man
of twenty-eight or thirty, in
overalls, walks past his house with
his partner Mitch. He informs his
wife Stella (twenty-five) that they
are going bowling. Stella happily
follows him shortly afterwards.
During their absence, Stel la's
sister Bianche DuBois, a between the two sisters and, when
literature teacher in Lau rei,
Mississippi, arrives. She is
shocked to discover that the
neighbourhood where her sister
lives is decidedly modest,
especially in comparison to the
aristocratic environment in which
the DuBoises grew up. Also
appearing on the scene are
Eunice, who lives upstairs, and a
black woman whose no me is
made. Stella, warned of her
Vivien Leigh (Bianche) and Karl Malden (Mitch) in the fihn directed by
Kazan. sister's arrival, returns home to
greet her. The meeting is
affectionate, but Bianche cannot
avoid expressing her astonishment
at her sister's living conditions.
During the conversation
ve's fine family property in
Mississippi has gone for duta.
Stanley returns home, unaware
of his sister-in-law's arrival, and
encounters Bianche who is
visibly astonished at his
roughness.
Scene Il. Six o'clock in the
evening do po: Stanley begins to
manifest irritation at the harmony
he learns of the loss of Belle Reve,
becomes suspicious and
aggressive with his sister-in-law.
Men tre Bianche is in the
bathroom Stanley opens his trunk,
despite Stella's opposition, and
finds clothes and jewellery he
believes to be of great value. In a
face-to-face conversation with
Bianche and while trying to obtain
the documents certifying the loss
of the property, he finds some
poems by Bianche's long-dead
husband in his hand. The sister-in-
law is visibly upset by this intrusion
into her sad memories, but reacts
and manages to provide some
explanations.

44
Yfì:� � 45
about the family's financial
collapse. Stanley, although Stella
had asked him not to, informs
them that his wife is pregnant.
The two sisters go out for the
evening while their poker
buddies arrive.
Scene III Entitled 'Poker
Night', it begins with Stanley,
Steve (Eunice's husband), Mitch
and Pablo intent on playing.
Mitch expresses a desire to
return home because his mother
is ill. When the women return to
the house, Mitch, the only man
who seems to have any sense,
strikes up a conversation with
Blanche. Stanley, drunk and
irritated by the interruptions,
throws the ra dio that Blanche
had lit out of the window. Stella
intervenes and is beaten by her
husband. The two sisters flee to
Eunice's house upstairs. The
poker buddies leave while Stan
ley cries out his wife's name.
After a few hesitations Stella
answers the call and goes
downstairs to her husband who
comes to her in tears. They re-
enter the house. Blanche,
stunned by the quick
reconciliation, stops outside to
chat.
with Mitch.
Scene IV. The next morning
Bianche scolds Stella for being
too submissive to her brutal
husband; her sister downplays
the situation.
46
tion, she defends her husband
and lets it be known that she
loves him deeply. Blanche talks
about her ex-spouse, Shep
Huntleigh, with whom she
would like to get back in touch
in order to solve her own
financial distress, as well as
what she sees as her sister's
dramatic marital life. While
Stanley listens unseen, Blanche
allows herself to give a heavy
rant against the brutality and
coarseness of the man. At the
end Stanley enters pretending to
have just arrived and not having
heard the con- versation. Stella
embraces him warmly, while
Blanche looks shocked.
Scene V. It is now summer.
Bian, in the presence of Stella,
rereads the letter written to
Shep Huntlei gh. Upstairs Eunice
and Steve quarrel furiously over
a matter of infidelity. When
Stanley returns, the tense
confrontation with Bianche
begins again. Stanley asks her if
she knows tm unsavoury hotel
in Laurei where a certain Shaw
so stiene he has seen her.
Blanche denies it but is visibly
shaken. When the two sisters
are left alone, Blanche recounts
that she had been living in a
morally questionable manner
during her last period and
implies that her behaviour was a
consequence of the loneliness in
which she found herself after
her death.
� �
of her young husband and
family. She repeatedly declares
that she cannot accept the
departure of youth. While
Blanche is alone in the house a
young man arrives who is trying
to sell magazine subscriptions.
With him Blanche behaves
seductively; she kisses him but
then dismisses him gently.
Mitch arrives with a bouquet of
roses.
Scene VI. Two o'clock on the
same night. Stanley and Stella
are outside when Bianche and
Mitch return from their
disappointing evening together.
The woman tries to revive the
evening. Mitch finds himself
talking a little awkwardly about
his robu sto physique. Blanche
tells him about her strained
relationship with Stanley: Mitch
asks her how old he is, claiming
that the curiosity c o m e s
from his ailing mother who
hopes to see him married before
she dies. Without giving an
answer, Blanche tells the painful
story of her marriage to a
sixteen-year-old boy while still
very young: deeply in love, she
only realised after the wedding
that her sensitive husband was
more interested in men than in
women. After this traumatic
discovery, Blanche impulsively
expressed her disgust and the
boy reacted by committing
suicide. The story ends with
Mitch
and Bianche exchanging some
tenderness.
Scene VII A late afternoon in
mid-September: it is Bianche's
birthday dinner and she is
glimpsed immersed in the bath.
Stanley tells Stella that he has
found out from several sources
that his sister is considered an
immovable girl in Laurei.
Expelled from a hotel, she was
also fired from the school where
she taught because she had
seduced a minor. Stella tries to
justify Bian che by telling of the
trauma le gated to her husband's
death 'per vertito'. Stanley says
that he has also informed Mitch
that he will not be attending the
birthday dinner as a
consequence, and says that he
has bought a bus ticket for
Laurel with the date of the
following Tuesday. Bianche
comes out of the bathroom and
senses the tense atmosphere
between the spouses.
Scene VIII Three quarters of
an hour later. The gloomy com
plem ent dinner is over and
Mitch's seat is vacant. The con
versation languishes. Stella
reminds her husband of his poor
table manners. Stanley throws
his plate on the floor. Bianche
tries unsuccessfully to talk to
Mitch on the phone. Stella lights
the candles on the cake and her
husband hands the
47
sister-in-law the birthday
present: the ticket to Laurei.
Bian who, distraught, runs to
the bathroom. The couple have a
violent argument that soon ends
because the girl, by now on the
verge of giving birth, feels ill;
Stan ley accompanies her to the
hospital.
Scene IX. The same evening, a
little later. Bianche, alone in the
house, drinks disconsolately.
Mitch arrives, dressed shabbily
and usually unkindly. Anxious
Bian offers him a drink, but the
man declares that he cannot
accept anything that is Stanley's
property. He adds that he has
never seen Bianche in broad
daylight and brutally puts a lamp
to her face. He tells her that
Stanley has informed him about
his immoral past and that two
other people testify to this effect.
Bianche does not deny the
accusations, but tries to cite
loneliness and his drama as
justification. Outside the house a
blind Mexican woman is seen
selling flowers for the dead.
Mitch attempts a violent
approach, but to Bianche's do
manda he replies that he no
longer wants to marry her. Bian
forcefully rejects him.
Scene X The same night, a
few hours later. Bianche, alone
in the house, is now drunk and
speaks from
alone. Stanley enters and
announces that he has returned
home because the
48
baby was born only the next zione, she passes by the poker The doctor comes in and gently
morning. A little frightened players' table and exits, but as persuades her to follow him.
Bianche says that after the she does not recognise the man After his sister-in-law leaves,
couple left, a telegram arrived and woman waiting for her (a Stanley approaches his tearful
from an admiring king inviting psychiatrist and a nurse) in the wife, whispers affectionate
her to a cruise in the Caribbean. diet. The nurse tries to words and puts his hand into
She adds that later Mitch overcome her resistance, but in- the opening of her blouse.
showed up and she threw him
out, refusing to forgive him even
when he reappeared with a
bouquet of flowers. Stanley does
not believe her and brutally
accuses her of being fanciful and
false. Bian who, terrified, rushes
to the phone to seek help, but in
vain. Stanley, wearing red
pyjamas, comes menacingly
towards her, snatches a broken
bottle from her hand and takes
her to bed.
Scene Xl A few weeks later.
Stella is making valiances for
Bianche who is in the bathroom.
The four men from the poker
night are once again around the
kitchen table in a cli ma of great
tension. Eunice, in whose house
is the Kowalskis' newborn son,
appears to cheer Stella up and
tries to encourage her friend by
saying that she was right not to
believe her sister's rape story.
Bianche comes out of the
bathroom: she is convinced that
Shep Huntleigh is coming to get
der it for a holiday in the country
�,.,
gna. When the bell rings, the Tennessee Williams with his mother in Key West shortly after being discharged from
Bianche, after some hesitation t h e psychiatric hospital in late 1 969.
� �-
�
YiJ.: Y ,tli?J, 49
 SHOW NOTEBOOKS

already; 1 published

Guide to Ionesco's "VICTIMS OF DUTY" by

Sergio Torresani

Guide to 'A CHORUS LINE' by M. Hamlish, E. Kleban, M. Bennett,

J. Kirkwood, N. Dante
by Umberto Zanoletti

Guide to Ruzante's DIALOGUES by

Beatrice Gelmi Sacchiero

Franca Franchi's guide to

Molière's 'UAVARO'

Guide to "CYRANO DE BERGERAC" by E. Rostand

by Mimma Forlani

READING THE DRAMATIC TEXT: THE PLAY AS TEXT

by Gianfranco Damiano

Guide to "MOTHER COURAGE" by B.

Brecht by Petra Moll

Guide to A. Miller's 'THE DESCENT FROM MOUNT

MoRGAN' by Stefano Rosso

Guide to W. Shakespeare's 'THE TEMPEST'

by Rossana Bonadei

Guide to "LE MASSERE" by C. Goldoni

by Matilde Dillon Wanlw

Mariangela Melato (White) in the show directed by Elio De Capilani. Photos b y THE BERGAMASQUE IN COMEDY
Tommaso Lepera. by Adriano Freri

50 j[�
J � 51
 ;I
!. BUMTTINI AND BUMTTJNAI IN THE TMDJZIONE BERGAMASCA
,. by Remo Melloni
1/!.-
1
),
CONTRIBUTIONS TO KNOWLEDGE OF THE WORKS

1 l
POLIUTO, BETLY, THE BELL, IMELDA DE' LAMBERTAZZI
by William Ashbrook, Roger Parker, Francesco Bellotto,
:1
1
Ilaria Narici, Giancarlo Landini, Alessandro Mormile

OPERA LIBRETTOS
POLIUTO, BETLY, THE BELL, IM ELDA DE' LAMBERTAZZI

TRIBUTE TO BINDO MISSIROLI

edited by Ermanno Comuzio and Andreina Moretti

THE 'MUSICAL' SCRIPT OF CARLO GOLDONI:

OPEM LIBRETTOS AND COMEDIES,
by Riccardo Allorto, Benvenuto Cuminetti, Sergio Signorelli.

A guide to Gogol''s 'UISPECTOR GENERAL', by

Rosanna Casari.

Guide to 'TUTTO PER BENE' by L. Pirandello,

by Benvenuto Cuminetti.

Guide to A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM

by W. Shakespeare, by
Rossana Bonadei.
1i-
Guide to "NAPOLI MILIONARIA !" by E. De
Filippo, by Andrea Bisicchia.

Guide to 'A TRAM WHICH IS CALLED DESIRE' by T. Williams,

by Stefano

Rosso. In

preparation:

Guide to 'ARLECCHINO DIETRO LA MASCHEM',

by Alessandra Mignatti.

52 �