Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

The Profitable World of Tennessee Williams

1958; University of Toronto Press; Volume: 1; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.3138/md.1.3.172

1712-5286

Signi Falk,

Cultural Studies and Interdisciplinary Research

Tennessee Williams has been called "an artist to the fingertips," "a master of sensitive characterization," a writer with "hypnotic qualities," of "exquisite tastes," and "the foremost new playwright to have appeared on the American scene in a decade." And yet, the fact that many critics after having ridiculed a particular play unmercifully, have given the highest praise to the acting and the production, raises the question whether the quality of the playwright's work has not been obscured by brilliant productions. A partial list of performers is impressive: the late Laurette Taylor as Amanda in The Glass M el1agerie and in the film version, the late Gertrude Lawrence; Kim Hunter, Marlon Brando, and Jessica Tandy in A Streetcar Named Desire; Margaret Phillips and Tod Andrews in Summer and Smoke; Maurine Stapleton in The Rose Tattoo; Barbara Bel Geddes and Burl Ives in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. And above all, a dramatist, most of whose work has been interpreted by so distinguished a director as Elia Kazan, must indeed call himself fortunate.