by Tennesee Williams

Directed by Yaga Brady

Sept 17,18,19,23,24,25,26,30; Oct 1,2,3 2010

Set against the lush and steamy background of sub-tropical Mexico, this is the story of a conflicted defrocked minister and the women who fight for his body and soul. Reduced to working as a two-bit tour guide, besieged by inner demons, the man struggles to hang on to his dignity. A tale of lust, love, and redemption, told by the great American playmaster.

We open our eighty-second season with one of the most gripping and thought-provoking plays in American literature, Tennessee Williams’ The Night of the Iguana.  This classic tale of lust, love, and redemption set against the lush and steamy background of sub-tropical Mexico, relates the trials of a conflicted ex-minister, and the women who fight for his body and soul.  The entire action takes place over the course of a single night in September of 1940, within the confines of a hilltop hotel – which has seen better days - located on Mexico’s Pacific coast.  This setting is the backdrop for a collection of visitors, the first of whom, Reverend T. Lawrence Shannon, ex-clergyman, now reduced to a two-bit tour guide through exotic locales, literally crashes in, all of his inner demons and emotional turmoil in tow.  Thus the free-for-all commences.
Tennessee Williams (1911 – 1983) was already the acknowledged master of American playcraft when he wrote this piece.  Opening on Broadway in December of 1961, The Night of the Iguana earned its author his fourth New York Drama Critics Award.   Featuring Bette Davis (later Shelly Winters) as Maxine Faulk, Margaret Leighton as Hannah Jelkes, and Patrick O’Neal as Shannon, it ran for 316 performances at the Royale Theatre, and received the Tony Award nomination for Best Play of 1962.  The play enjoyed no less than a half-dozen revivals in New York City and London over the ensuing five decades, the acclaimed London production in 2006 featuring Woody Harrelson as Shannon.  Contemporary reviewers hailed the play as “... the most fruitful and versatile exercise by our best living playwright.” [The New York Journal-American] and “... Tennessee Williams at the top of his form.” [The New York Times].