Not about Nightingales

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Not about Nightingales is a play by Tennessee Williams that was written in 1938 for the Group Theatre in New York City but was rejected and remained unproduced until 1998.[1] The play is a 18-character socially-minded drama set in "a dynamite-proof, escape-proof" U.S. island prison that follows the conflict between prison convicts, guards, and a sadistic warden named Boss Whalen. Not about Nightingales may have been rejected by the Group Theatre because of economic reasons (it had a large cast and a "complex physical design") or thematic ones (the play had homosexual undertones; Williams biographer Lyle Leverich wrote that "nightingale" was the playwright's "private code word for sexual liaison or desire.")[2][3]

No further attempts were made to produce the play until 1989, when actress Vanessa Redgrave, while preparing for a role in an 1989 revival of the playwright's Orpheus Descending, read an introduction to that play in which Williams "spoke admiringly of [Nightingales] and 'the violence and horror' that it exposed."[1] She said later that she became "determined to find it" and contacted Williams' then-literary executor, Maria St. Just, who "was able to unearth the manuscript."[1] In the mid-nineties, Redgrave brought it to the Royal National Theater in London, where Trevor Nunn agreed to direct the play after making some minor revisions. His production of the play opened on March 5, 1998 with Vanessa's brother Corin in the role of Boss Whalen. It was critically well-received and transferred to Broadway the next year. The production opened at the Circle in the Square Theatre on February 25, 1999 and was nominated for six Tony Awards, including Best Play.

[edit] Awards and nominations

Tony Awards

Drama Desk Awards

  • Outstanding Play
  • Outstanding Actor in a Play (Finbar Lynch, Corin Redgrave)
  • Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play (James Black)
  • Outstanding Director of a Play (Trevor Nunn) WINNER
  • Outstanding Set Design of a Play (Richard Hoover) WINNER
  • Outstanding Lighting Design (Chris Parry) WINNER
  • Outstanding Sound Design (Christopher Shutt) WINNER
  • Outstanding Music in a Play (Steven Edis)

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c Wolf, Matt. "ARTS ABROAD: Finding Out How Tennessee Williams Got That Way", The New York Times, 1998-04-21. Retrieved on 2008-03-22. 
  2. ^ Gussow, Mel. "First Production for an Early Williams Play", The New York Times, 1997-06-11. Retrieved on 2008-03-22. 
  3. ^ Leverich, Lyle (1995). Tom: The Unknown Tennessee Williams. New York: Crown. ISBN 0-393-31663-7.  p. 404.

[edit] External links

v • d • e
Plays by Tennessee Williams
Apprentice plays
Candles to the Sun (1936) • Spring Storm (1937) • Fugitive Kind (1937) • Not about Nightingales (1938) • Battle of Angels (1940) • You Touched Me (1945) • Stairs to the Roof (1947)
Major plays
Later plays
The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore (1963) • The Seven Descents of Myrtle (1968) • In the Bar of a Tokyo Hotel (1969) • Will Mr. Merriweather Return from Memphis? (1969) • Small Craft Warnings (1972) • The Two-Character Play (1973) • The Red Devil Battery Sign (1975) • This Is (An Entertainment) (1976) • Vieux Carré (1977) • Creve Coeur (1979) • Clothes for a Summer Hotel (1980) • The Notebook of Trigorin (1980) • Something Cloudy, Something Clear (1981) • A House Not Meant to Stand (1982)
Other