In Bed With Tenn set for the Promenade Playhouse

Jun 14, 2011
In Bed With Tenn

In 1980 President Carter presented Tennessee Williams with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest award the government can give to a civilian. As Carter gave the award, he said, "Tennessee Williams has shaped the history of American drama. From passionate tragedy to lyrical comedy, his masterpieces dramatize the eternal conflict of body and soul, youth and death, love and despair. Through the unity of reality and poetry Tennessee Williams shows that the truly heroic in life or art is human compassion."

Now, thirty years later the Promenade Players pay homage to the man whose works are still stimulating and challenging audiences all over the world. The mission of the Promenade Players is "to produce work that is challenging, thought provoking and entertaining." In Bed with Tenn fulfills that mission.

The six short plays are:

Talk to me like the Rain and Let Me Listen
Two outsiders can connect only in bed.

Hello from Bertha
A prostitute, stricken with "acquired" diseases, suffers schizoid delusions while grasping on to the memory of an idolized lover from her past.

The Lady of Larkspur Lotion
A "drunkard" and a "degenerate" find solace and compassion in each other's fantasies.

Green Eyes
Written as America's unrest when the war in Vietnam reached a fever pitch, Green Eyes graphically reveals the effects of war through the sexual fantasies of a newlywed couple honeymooning in New Orleans.

The Big Game
Set in the men's ward of a city hospital, the play raises the question of what really is the big game.

The Pronoun "I"
A whimsical fantasy involving a "Mad Queen" and a narcissistic "boy toy."

These short pieces are "something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue," Rain, Bertha, and Larkspur were published in 1945. They are "something old." Big Game was published in 2005, Green Eyes and Pronoun "I", in 2008, and are something new. Tennessee Williams borrowed from himself, writing and re-writing plays, giving them new titles as he saw fit. As for the "blue"...Williams gained notoriety from his works that broke social taboos. This production includes a bit of that.

All of the short plays have the bed as an essential component and the production has created the character of Tennessee to link the various pieces with some wry commentary and conflicting theories about his death in 1983.

In Bed With Tenn runs from July 8th thru July 23rd Friday and Saturday nights at 8pm. The show is approximately 120 minutes with an intermission. Tickets: $20.00 - All performances $5.00 discount for Seniors and Students.