Deze Amerikaanse toneelschrijver uit de 20e eeuw staat bekend om zijn diep psychologische drama's, die vaak kwetsbaarheid, wanhoop en de complexiteit van menselijke relaties onderzoeken. Zijn werk wordt gekenmerkt door poëtische taal en intense emotionele portretten van personages die strijden met hun innerlijke demonen en maatschappelijke druk. Williams legde meesterlijk de bitterzoete realiteiten van het leven vast, vaak gesitueerd in een nostalgisch Zuiden. Zijn toneelstukken zijn hoekstenen van het Amerikaanse theater geworden en blijven het publiek aanspreken door hun rauwe eerlijkheid en artistieke genialiteit.
The book features a series of insightful interviews with the renowned playwright known for his impactful works such as Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, A Streetcar Named Desire, and The Glass Menagerie. These conversations delve into his creative process, the themes of his plays, and his reflections on the theater's role in society. Readers gain a deeper understanding of his artistic vision and the personal experiences that shaped his iconic characters and narratives.
With detailed analysis of the text, discussions on themes, historical
backgrounds and author biographies, York Notes offers students the best
insight into the world of English Literature.
Recreates the milieux Williams knew and chronicled so movingly--from his gypsy youth in St. Louis and New Orleans to his days of celebrity in Hollywood and New York.
This anthology contains four of the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright's most brilliant works: Summer and Smoke, Orpheus Descending, Suddenly Last Summer and Period of Adjustment. "The innocent and the damned, the lonely and the frustrated, the hopeful and the hopeless . . . (Williams) brings them all into focus with an earthy, irreverently comic passion".--Newsweek.
"Collected here for the first time, these twelve plays embrace what Time magazine called "the four major concerns of Williams' dramatic imagination: loneliness, love, the violated heart and the valiancy of survival"--Back cover.
Two of Tennessee Williams's most revered dramas in a single paperback edition for the first time. Orpheus Descending is a love story, a plea for spiritual and artistic freedom, as well as a portrait of racism and intolerance. When charismatic drifter Valentine Xavier arrives in a Mississippi Delta town with his guitar and snakeskin jacket, he becomes a trigger for hatred and a magnet for three outcast storekeeper Lady Torrance, “lewd vagrant” Carol Cutrere, and religious visionary Vee Talbot. Suddenly Last Summer , described by its author as a “short morality play,” has become one of his most notorious works due in no small part to the film version starring Elizabeth Taylor, Katharine Hepburn, and Montgomery Clift that shocked audiences in 1959. A menacing tale of madness, jealousy, and denial,the horrors in Suddenly Last Summer build to a heart-stopping conclusion. With perceptive new introductions by playwright Martin Sherman ― he reframes Orpheus Descending in a political context and explores the psychology and sensationalism surrounding Suddenly Last Summer ― this volume also offers Williams’s related essay, “The Past, the Present, and the Perhaps,” and a chronology of the playwright’s life and works.
The second volume of Tennessee Williams' selected letters spans from 1946 to 1957, capturing a prolific period marked by the creation of iconic plays like A Streetcar Named Desire and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Williams navigates the challenges of fame, artistic expression, and censorship, particularly in his collaborations with Elia Kazan. The correspondence includes notable figures such as Carson McCullers and Gore Vidal, reflecting both his professional triumphs and personal struggles. Compiled by esteemed scholars, this volume offers meticulous annotations, enhancing its significance for students of Williams' work.
Set in Provincetown, Cape Cod, in 1940, Kip is a character on the verge of adulthood learning about love, his sexuality and the poetry that breathes within him. The play echoes Williams' own experiences during that pivotal summer when I was on the brink of growing up.
