Orpheus Descending and Suddenly Last Summer (New Directions Books)

I had never read Orpheus Descending until this, and I had been in a production of Suddenly Last Summer more than a few years ago.The former work was weird, and trippy for its original time period, but not boring. And SLS is classic Williams.Both are worth a read to see how the creative mind can hit or miss, and ultimately challenge and thrill his audience.

Was as described

You will be intoxicated with this narrative

Both ORPHEUS DESCENDING and SUDDENLY LAST SUMMER could be considered thoroughly implausible in terms of plot. One play encompasses a love-story, the theme of divine intervention, Southern passions and violence; the other has a psychiatrist ostensibly caring for his patient yet giving her a truth-drug, and a narrative of cannibalism. As with all Williams' work, however, the true genius lies in the way these stories are told. Set in a small Southern town, ORPHEUS DESCENDING lays bare the racism penetrating all levels of society - that not only extends to an inbuilt prejudice against African Americans, but taints all those who are seen to 'support' the cause of civil rights. In this brutal, often elemental world, the love-story of store-owner Lady and drifter Val stands out like a beacon - although their love will never prosper, at least they reveal some depth of feeling denied to the majority of other characters. Vee Talbott tries to compensate for the violence of her society by retaining a faith in God, but she is brutally treated by her sheriff husband. The only way to negotiate this kind of world is to trust in oneself; but even then the past might catch up with people, as Lady discovers to her cost when she finds out what happened to her father in the dim and distant past. SUDDENLY LAST SUMMER is a brave text for its time in its open discussion of homosexuality, even though it's perhaps hard to believe that Sebastian's aunt would willingly procure prostitutes for her son without being aware of his sexual orientation. Set in a world where any sexual perversion is regarded as a "disease," and therefore curable through psychological or other operations, Williams' play creates a brutal world lurking beneath the veneer of surface politeness; Catharine Holly is considered "mad" for telling the truth about Sebastian's violent death, while no one, it seems, can accept the truth that Sebastian died as he had lived; he had lived as a sexual predator of young boys, and died by being torn to pieces by the same predators.

ORPHEUS DESCENDING and SUDDENLY LAST SUMMER are two of Williams’ darkest and most extreme works.BATTLE OF ANGELS was among Williams’ first works, a notable failure first performed in 1940. Williams subsequently re-wrote the play. Retitled ORPHEUS DESCENDING, directed by Harold Clurman, and starring Maureen Stapleton and Cliff Robertson, the play opened in 1957. Although it had admirers, it too failed, closing after about sixty performances. It was later filmed in 1960 as THE FUGITIVE KIND starring Anna Magnani, Marlon Brando, and Joanne Woodward and directed by Sidney Lumet. Again the piece had its admirers, but again it proved a commercial failure.Set in an unspecified locality somewhere between New Orleans and Memphis, ORPHEUS DESCENDING is performed in three acts and requires ten men and nine women. The set is an elaborate single unit, depicting the main floor or a small town store with a view into a side room and a staircase that leads to a second floor apartment. The story itself is vaguely based on a Greek myth, but the parallels with the play are rather obscure and the relationship between myth and play are more poetic than actual. Val is a young man escaping a life spent in New Orleans dives of dubious reputation, and the play suggests he may have been a prostitute. He stumbles into a job at a small town store owned by Jabe Torrance, a particularly nasty man who is suffering a nasty death. Jabe’s wife, Lady, is indifferent but dutiful—until she discovers that Jabe was responsible for her father’s murder many years ago, and a series of coincidences prompt her to an act of revenge against Jabe that destroys almost everyone involved.SUDDENLY LAST SUMMER was originally produced off-Broadway on a double bill with the short play “Something Unspoken,” the two performed under the overall title of THE GARDEN DISTRICT. After a successful run as an “experimental drama,” the play was filmed in 1959 starring Elizabeth Taylor, Montgomery Cliff, and Katherine Hepburn and directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Although direct references to homosexuality were cut from the play, it was widely condemned, most notably by the Catholic Legion of Decency, and critics were outraged by the script. The wide disapproval of the play actually fed the box office, and the film was very popular.SUDDENLY LAST SUMMER requires five women, two men, and a single set that is a distorted abstraction of a tropical garden at a wealthy New Orleans home. It is performed without intermission and requires approximately ninety minutes. Most of the play consists of two extremely long and powerful monologues.The play tells the story of a young woman, Catherine, who has had a major nervous breakdown and is now held in a luxurious asylum paid for by her aunt Violent—not out of love for Catherine but in an effort to silence Catherine’s stories about a vacation she took with Violet’s son, Sebastian—a vacation during which Sebastian died in a mysterious way. Violet has arranged for Catherine to meet with Dr. Cukrowicz, who performs lobotomies, in the hope that he can be pressured into performing one on Catherine. During their meeting, Cukrowicz gives Catherine a “truth serum,” and she describes a Freudian horror show that implies an somewhat incestuous relationship between Violet and Sebastian, portrays Sebastian as a rapacious homosexual, and describes his horrific death in explicit terms.Plays are intended to be seen, not read, but most Williams scripts read extremely well, and these two are no exception. Strongly recommended.GFT, Amazon Reviewer

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I love Tennessee Williams as a writer - who doesn't love him as a writer ? His way with words and heavy themes about identity can resonate with nearly anybody. Suddenly Last Summer details a rich, gay man being cannibalized as a symbol for how hiding Williams' own homosexuality ate at him alive, while Orpheus Descending details an affair between young excitement and old traditions, exploring the ideas of what happens when two opposing ideologies meet. Out of all of his plays, these two are the ones that stick out in one's mind - I highly recommend picking it up if you're invested in thought provoking work, it's more than worth the price.