FIVE BY TENN

From: "will stackman" profwlll@yahoo.com

Subject: Quicktake-”Five By Tenn"

Date: Sun, Jan 29, 5:56 PM

Quicktake on FIVE BY TENN

    Speakeasy’s latest production, “Five By Tenn” is more than just a collection of some of the Pulitzer Prize winning playwright’s lesser writing. The order and structure of the piece suggests Tennessee Williams’ life and works. Beginning with a 1948 piece, “These Are the Stairs You Got to Watch”, a large cast one act which could have functioned as the first act of a longer play, there’s a focus on a dreamy young man, a poet lost in the rough and material world. Eric Rubbe, who was last seen here in “Jacques Brel...” fills this reoccurring role. The part is much expanded in an even earlier work, “Summer at the Lake,” which foreshadows themes central to Williams’ best known work, “The Glass Menagerie.” In this one act, the poet’s mother is played to perfection by Trinity stalwart, Anne Scurria, who just finished the rerun of “Ruby Sunrise” at the Public in NY. Another veteran actress. Mary Klug, is her put-upon maid, and the voice of doom. The second scene from “Vieux Carre”(1977) is next, based on an autobiographical short story. It chronicles the poet’s coming out enabled by an older jaded artist, played by Will McGarrahan as only he can.

     The center of the collection is a short two scene play “And Tell Sad Stories of the Death of Queens”. An intermission occurs between the scenes. Allyn Burrows plays Candy Darling, a transvestite trying to have a relationship with Karl, a straight rough sailor willing to put up with her “friendship”--and nothing else-- for cash. Christopher Brophy, seen as the villain last spring in “Take Me Out,” who plays an equally frustrated fellow in the first piece is the object of Candy’s attention. Burrows carries off his role with the same panache that made his King John brilliant for Shakespeare & Co. this summer, and his Kent unique in “King Lear” for ASP this fall. The rest of the second half is an Absurdist piece “I Can’t Imagine Tomorrow”--originally written for television-- followed by “Mr. Paradise,” a coda of sorts. In these two short plays, William Young, seen last fall at BPT in "Red Elm", who might by the author in his decline, is first confronted by a younger self, again played by Rubbe, and then by starry-eyed college student, played by Ellen Adair, who appears in the first playlet as a promiscuous teenager. The quality of the acting by all and sundry brings out the best in the material.

    Scott Edmiston has directed the show fluidly on a two-level unit set by Janie E. Howland, which suggests the Vieux Carre, Williams’ spiritual home. Gail Astrid Buckley costumed the ensemble with her usual sure touch and sense of place. Karen Perlow's lighting provides a range of atmospheres, with musical touches by Dewey Dellay completing the show. This sampler of Williams’ work from his earliest up through his later less successful years suggests that more producing companies should delve into the treasure trove of his writing.

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"Five by Tenn" by Tennessee Williams, Jan. 27 - Feb. 25

Speakeasy Stage Co. in Roberts Studio at Calderwood Pavilion

BCA, 527 Tremont / (617) 933 -8600

Speakeasy Stage