A SAMUEL FRENCH, LTD. TITLE

Vieux Carré

Full-Length Play, Drama  /  5w, 5m

"…the murmurings of genius…an authentic voice of the twentieth-century theatre." — The New York Times

  • Cast Size
    Cast Size
    5w, 5m
  • SubGenre
    Subgenre
    Period
  • Suggested Use
    • Monologues
    • Scene work
    • Competition or audition material
  • Audience
    Target Audience
    Adult

Details

Summary
The place is a rooming house in the French Quarter of New Orleans, the time the late Thirties. As narrated by The Writer, a young man recently arrived from St. Louis, the action is concerned with interlocking lives of the various residents: a tubercular, homosexual painter; a doomed young girl and her coarse lover; two aging "ladies" living in near poverty; and the eccentric irrepressible landlady, who veers from cruelty to sentiment in her treatment of her charges. Filled with evocative memories, and sharply etched portraits of its singular characters, the play centers first on The Writer, and his seduction by The Painter; and then probes into the fateful love of the young girl for her stud—she dying of leukemia, and he torn between his debt to her and his urge to escape the consequences of her condition. It is a play of echoes and remembrances, a series of engrossing scenes, sometimes brutally candid sometimes delicately poetic, which are woven together into a rich and revealing tapestry, glinting with theatricality and throbbing with the feel of life.
History

Vieux Carre premiered at the Nottingham Playhouse in Nottingham, UK in May 1978 under the direction of Keith Hack.

MRS. WIRE
NURSIE
THE WRITER
JANE
NIGHTINGALE
MARY MAUDE
MISS CARRIE
TYE
PHOTOGRAPHER
SKY

  • Time Period 1930s
  • Features Period Costumes

Media

REVIEWS

"Filled with poetic insights and engrossing character studies, this haunting memory play, as produced on Broadway, marked a return by the author to the style and substance of his early masterpieces...Vieux Carré ranks with his finest, and surely his most candid works...a late new flowering of the author's genius." — New York Daily News

"Williams has always been frightfully honest, speaking from the heart with the unmistakable voice of an artist. We are lucky indeed to have so magnificent a poet in our midst." — New York Post

"…the murmurings of genius…an authentic voice of the twentieth-century theatre." — The New York Times

ON BREAKING CHARACTER

10 Tennessee Williams Plays to Perform
by Cathy Thomas
June 5, 2019


Licensing & Materials

  • Minimum Fee: £70 per performance plus VAT when applicable.
    This title may have restrictions in place for London based productions. Please submit a licence request to confirm specific availability.

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Authors

Tennessee Williams

Tennessee Williams (1911-1983) explored passion with daring honesty and forged a poetic theatre of raw psychological insight that shattered conventional proprieties and transformed the American stage. The autobiographical The Glass Menagerie brought what Mr. Williams called “ ...
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