“I’ve lost the capacity for being surprised, so completely lost it, that if I woke up in my bedroom late some night and saw that fantastic fish swimming right over my head, I wouldn’t be really surprised.” Quentin
Tennessee Williams creates his most intimate self-portrait through Quentin, the washed-up queer screenwriter, one of nine castoffs who gather at Monk’s seedy bar one foggy night in 1972, Southern California.
The doctor is drunk, Violet’s hysterical, Leona is leaving and the coast guard have put out a small craft warning. But will they be able to save the unborn baby?
A play about searching for the solace of companionship in all the wrong places and finding the truth behind foulmouthed faces.
Double-Pulitzer winning Williams’ last great play is a testament to the American writers enduring spirit. For this unique production, Arcola is reuniting the legendary 1970s Cottesloe Company under director Bill Bryden, including Jack Shepherd and Greg Hicks. Design by Hayden Griffin. Lighting by Johanna Town.
By TENNESSEE WILLIAMS
Directed by BILL BRYDEN
Presented by Arcola Theatre
Critic’s Choice – Time Out
‘all the pungency and poetry of the playwright’s best early work… the superb, incisive Sian Thomas and the extraordinary Meredith MacNeill… Hicks stills the house in his virtuoso delivery… a fine and revelatory Arcola revival, and Hayden Griffin’s design is perfect’ – WhatsOnStage.com
‘Hicks brilliantly registers jaded disillusionment… Leona, one of Williams’s tough-talking and foul-mouthed broads, is played up to the comic hilt by the hilarious Sian Thomas” Evening Standard
‘Williams’s fractured lives made vivid by… an impressive cast of heavyweight theatrical talent and experience. It’s impossible to remain unmoved.’-The Times
‘Sian Thomas’s wonderful, vulnerable performance there is something magnificent… a hard-boiled egg with a runny yolk. There is not a weak link, and MacNeill shines in an excellent ensemble cast.’ -The Guardian
‘Meredith Macneill’s outstanding, Sian Thomas is splendid.’–Reviewsgate
‘A remarkably strong cast directed with great sensitivity and delicacy by veteran director Bill Bryden. A play full of joy and a great deal of comedy.’-TheatreGuideLondon
