Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Not About Nightingales

1999; Johns Hopkins University Press; Volume: 51; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/tj.1999.0045

1086-332X

C. J. Gianakaris,

Cultural Studies and Interdisciplinary Research

Reviewed by: Not About Nightingales C. J. Gianakaris Not About Nightingales. By Tennessee Williams. Co-production of Moving Theatre, London, in association with Alley Theatre, Houston. Royal National Theatre, Cottesloe Theatre, London. 5 March 1998. Click for larger view View full resolution Figure 1. (From L to R) Alex Giannini as Joe, James Black as Butch O’Fallon, Mark Dexter as Swifty, and Members of the Company in the Royal National Theatre’s production of Not About Nightingales. An unknown and forgotten apprentice piece by Tennessee Williams received a high-profile world première 5 March 1998 at the Cottesloe in London’s Royal National Theatre. Not About Nightingales, directed by Trevor Nunn, the new Artistic Director of the National Theatre, proved compelling. Vanessa Redgrave was instrumental in bringing the play to production. In an agreement between Redgrave’s Moving Theatre company and Houston’s Alley Theatre, the world première was scheduled for London, using a hybrid cast from each company. One significant revelation of the production was a virile quality in Williams’s early writing that emphasized social rather than psychological conflict. A student at the University of Iowa in 1938 when the script was written, Williams took inspiration from events in a widely publicized prison uprising [End Page 216] in Pennsylvania where several hundred prisoners rioted to protest the food. Twenty-five ringleaders refused to capitulate and were confined to a small building—50 feet long, 12 feet wide, and eight feet high—known as the Klondike. There, according to news accounts, banks of steam radiators were stoked to over 140 degrees. After the riot, the nation was horrified that bodies of four prisoners were found scalded to death in the Klondike. To dramatize his version of the story, Williams followed the agit-prop idiom prevalent in the 1930s, while the production included a dose of film noir and several Brechtian touches, such as projected thematic legends flashed on the wall preceding each scene. Williams’s central plot fictionalized events leading to horrific killings that mirrored the Pennsylvania riots. Early scenes depicted the inmates’ growing frustrations over physical abuses and unpalatable food. Battle lines were drawn with prisoners, led by hardened criminal Butch O’Fallon (James Black), pitted against the warden, Boss Whalen (Corin Redgrave). Their standoff and the resulting atrocities in the Klondike (Williams retained the name) comprised the core story. An unevenly developed secondary plot concerned a love affair between the warden’s secretary, Eva Crane (Sherri Parker Lee), and a prison aide named Canary Jim (Finbar Lynch). The two story lines meshed when Whalen threatened to have Jim killed unless Eva gave in to his sexual advances. Instead, Eva and Jim finessed the cell keys in time to rescue the fugitives locked in the Klondike, and Jim led them to the warden’s office where they beat Whalen to death. His involvement in the warden’s death forced Jim to flee the state troopers called in to take command. After kissing Eva farewell, he dove from an outside window into the surrounding river below—presumably to his death. Williams’s effectively developed characters were given life by the joint cast. Corin Redgrave left an indelible imprint as Boss Whalen, typically lounging at his desk with drink in hand, cigar propped in his mouth. Redgrave portrayed the warden as an insensitive and venal lout accustomed to having his way, but not an outright Machiavellian forfeiting audience empathy. Houston actor James Black gave Butch O’Fallon saucy bravura to convey Williams’s intentions that he be a champion of the downtrodden, yet also a bully and brute. American actress Sherri Parker Lee brought as much believability to the role of Eva as could be expected, given her burdensome dialogue and excessive sentimentality. Hers was perhaps the least persuasive role in the play. Britisher Finbar Lynch lent Canary Jim vitality and empathy, forging a complex character transcending the traditional good-hearted convict. Jim’s dialogue often seemed to reflect Williams’s personal stance on life and the arts. Yet, production values were key to the great success of the première. Set designer Richard Hoover utilized the Cottesloe’s intimate dimensions to create an aura of suffocating...