Three doses of tragicomic drama: An Evening with Tennessee Williams

Most theater offers more than pure escapism; it at least partially reflects our reality. An Evening with Tennessee Williams is no exception.

While it transports us far away, to scenes of human drama in mid-20th-century southern and mid-western USA, the portrayal of patterns of conflict, manipulation, and denial in these three short plays does resonate with current affairs. One might argue indeed that all conflict stems from specific common roots, as a midrash on the Cain and Abel story famously indicates. The line from the middle play (Auto-Da-Fé) “You mean this whole town should be razed?” – due to pervading evil – certainly rings loudly in our ears today.

Tennessee Williams (1911-1983) was a highly influential American playwright who explored themes of human frailty and resilience. You’ll recognize such titles as The Glass Menagerie (1944), A Streetcar Named Desire (1947), and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955). His plays are still produced worldwide, and New Orleans hosts an annual five-day literary festival named for him.

The current show is by Rhinoceros Productions, under artistic director Miriam Metzinger and director Jacob Lunon. As a young acting student 50 years ago, Lunon was part of the crew in New York City that produced the same three short plays – that Williams came to see, even though he had written them about 30 years earlier (see insert for that fascinating story). The current production similarly juxtaposes the iconic playwright’s three one-act plays for an evening of intense and compelling drama, lightened by comedy that is never far from tragedy.

THESE PLAYS hit the ground running. We join the action not in the build-up but as it is already boiling toward an eruptive confrontation. The fine team of veteran actors effectively carry these human upheavals from page to stage, making us believe that we are sitting right there with them – not an entirely comfortable feeling, in light of what is going on.

In the first offering, The Lady of Larkspur Lotion (1941), a tenant (played by the hilarious Miriam Metzinger) is late on her rent and lost in fantasy. She distracts her clamorous landlady (an energetic Andrea Katz) with hyperbole about cockroaches, and finds an ally in a poignant yet ridiculous poetic writer with designs on her (the versatile Yehoshua Looks). The eponymous but unexplained “Larkspur Lotion” sat on the table the entire time; Williams’ original audience apparently knew what it was for, but you might want to look it up.

The middle play, Auto-Da-Fé (1941) is the most intense of the trio. Andrea Katz (gamely playing her second devout Christian this year) is Mrs. Duvenet, a New Orleans matron desperately trying to maintain decorum in the face of the histrionic behavior of her son, Eloi (Simon Stout, in an impressive return to acting after a long hiatus), caused by his accidental discovery of a lewd photograph. The unsettling denouement provokes thought about Williams’ message, especially with the play’s triggering title for Jews (it is Portuguese for an “act of faith,” which during the Spanish Inquisition meant the burning of a heretic; thousands of Jews lost their lives in this way).

Finally, in Hello from Bertha (1946), a prostitute (Metzinger again, now complete with a bird’s nest of hair) lies slowly dying, to the chagrin of the once sympathetic brothel madame Goldie (Sarit Brown, stunning in a beige dress) who is now impatient to have the bedroom back, for business. Another lady of ill repute, Lena (Sorah Grotsky, who seizes our attention from the get-go), finds herself caught in the madness. Death has come knocking, and Bertha has her own unique way of answering the door.

Note: This production does not stint on decibels – you will hear the dialogue well even from the back row. Also, some actors appear in nightclothes and the like, so inviting your 18-year-old son currently learning in a black-hat yeshiva is probably not the best idea.

An Evening with Tennessee Williams features excellent acting and choreography, and brings to Jerusalem the timeless allure of classic American theater. Williams believed in transcending reality through fantasy. If you concur, then come immerse yourself for a night in his plays.

Meeting Tennessee

‘It was 1974,” director Jacob Lunon reminisced. “I was a young acting student, an apprentice under the tutelage of Ms. Stella Adler, who did not allow her full-time students to audition until her two-year program was completed.”

But he got the opportunity to work with a director in The Village named Bob Stocking, who was producing these three one-acts by Tennessee Williams. “I became the lighting tech, stage manager, and whatever else needed to be done – usher, etc. 

“Tennessee came to the third, fifth, and sixth performances,” the director fondly recalled. “After he saw the first performance, he was elated – and the cast and crew (myself included) got his critique over a bottle of cheap scotch.

It was the best hangover I ever had.” They sat and talked until three in the morning.

“After the next two performances, he shared his tears and intimacy. He told me that I was born for something special, just by the fact that I was the first African American to be able to attend the acting school of Stella Adler, whom he had the greatest respect for, as she and her husband, Herold Clurman, were the ones who he said created Off Broadway for his works to be known,” Lunon said.

“I remember asking him to never stop writing. Little did I know that his personal life was in shambles at the time,” he lamented.

“Looking back nearly 50 years, this is one of my most cherished memories as a young actor.”

What: “An Evening with Tennessee Williams,” three one-act plays

Who: Rhinoceros Productions; director Jacob Lunon; artistic director Miriam Metzinger

Where: Khan Theater

When: Through June 13

Why: Resonant themes, compelling drama, and mirthful moments