Director Cosmin Chivu cracks open a pair of the legendary playwright’s later works.
By Brandon Voss
"I fully believe that he was about 30 to 40 years ahead of his audience,” says director Cosmin Chivu of Tennessee Williams and his critically derided later work. “He was trying to speak about problems in society that he was experiencing, but, unfortunately, I don’t think the audience was ready for that. People were expecting another Glass Menagerie, another Streetcar Named Desire. But he had changed the way he was delivering his message.”
A regular interpreter of Williams’ work, the Romanian-born director thinks audiences are finally ready to process Tennessee Williams 1982, his evening of two rare Williams one-acts; both were completed in 1982, the year before the playwright’s death. The double feature, which begins February 14 at Walkerspace, includes the world premiere of the as-yet-unpublished A Recluse and His Guest, in which a mysterious woman moves in with a male shut-in, and the New York premiere of The Remarkable Rooming-House of Mme. Le Monde, in which a paralyzed man, tormented by his landlady, must swing around from hooks on the ceiling.
“These pieces appear to have nothing in common, because the worlds and characters are completely different,” Chivu says. “One takes place in a small village during the cold winter in Eastern Europe, and the other takes place in an attic in London. But both pieces allow us to look into Williams’ soul at the end of his life. He saw himself as many of these characters are — victimized, immobilized, powerless. That ties the plays together in an interesting way.”
What makes Chivu uniquely qualified to bring the playwright’s rarer works to life? “Trust me, I ask myself that question all the time,” says the gay director, who notably helmed the 2013 New York revival of Williams’ The Mutilated starring Penny Arcade and Mink Stole. “I treat these plays as new work. This is not theater history — these are relevant, vibrant, shocking stories. I try to approach them with a fresh eye, and I’m not trying to pay respect to something of the past. That helps me crack the stories open.”
Next, February 2016.