Passion is the heart's blood of the theatre, and Williams is to the stage what a lion is to the jungle," so writes T. E. Kalem of playwright Tennessee Williams.
An acute summation of a man who acquainted audiences with themes ranging from alcoholism to rape, violence to prostitution and succeeded portray these concepts with accessible dialogue.
Williams also introduced the decadent and melodramatic atmosphere of the South to worldwide. Through his complex characters, particularly Southern women, he brought his part of his world to mainstream America.
By masterfully juxtaposing the dark elements of human nature with the etiquette and beauty of the South, Williams achieved a ranking as one of the greatest 20th century playwrights.
In order to be able to understand his work, one needs to look to the man himself. Indeed, many of Williams' plays were being played out before he written them.
Thomas Lanier Williams was born in 1911 in Columbus, Mississippi, to a shoe salesman father and a Southern belle mother.
From his earliest years, the people and experiences in his life would inspire his later work. His brash and overtly masculine father would become the model for Big Daddy in “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” and Stanley Kowalski in “A Streetcar Named Desire.”
Strains of his proper and status-obsessed mother are evident in characters such as Blanche DuBois in “A Streetcar Named Desire” but mostly Amanda Wingfield in “The Glass Menagerie.”
Williams had a younger brother Dakin, and his older sister Rose. Williams had a very close relationship with Rose, and her presence is strong in many characters, but none so visibly as Laura Wingfield (The Glass Menagerie). Rose unfortunately shared many tragic qualities with Laura, most significantly, a mental disintegration spurred on by an overpowering and controlling mother.
While the women in Williams' life contributed heavily to the composition of his female characters it was his homosexuality that became the subject of his “Memoirs.”
He muses on the dual meaning of many of Blanche DuBois' lines and the creation of a subtext to express sentiments about his sexuality. Throughout his life Williams’ struggle between his own sexual acceptance and a more conventional persona for that time.
His breakthrough production was “The Glass Menagerie” a play about control and submission. With his mother and sister as obvious models for Amanda and Laura, his dialogue was real and honest.
Throughout the 40’s and 50’s Williams enjoyed success with works such as "A Streetcar Named Desire,” “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" and “Night of the Iguana.”
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