Orpheus Descending is a play by
Tennessee WilliamsTennessee Williams , né Thomas Lanier Williams, was an American playwright who received many of the top theatrical awards for his works of drama...
. It was first presented on
BroadwayBroadway Theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, is the theatre associated with the 40 large professional theaters with 500 seats or more located in the Theatre District, New York in Manhattan, New York City...
in 1957 where it enjoyed a brief run with only modest success. The play is basically a rewrite of an earlier play by Williams called
Battle of Angels, which was written in 1940 but had been poorly received.
When the play appeared in 1957, Williams wrote, "[o]n the surface it was and still is the tale of a wild-spirited boy who wanders into a conventional community of the South and creates the commotion of a fox in a chicken coop.
Orpheus Descending is a play by
Tennessee WilliamsTennessee Williams , né Thomas Lanier Williams, was an American playwright who received many of the top theatrical awards for his works of drama...
. It was first presented on
BroadwayBroadway Theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, is the theatre associated with the 40 large professional theaters with 500 seats or more located in the Theatre District, New York in Manhattan, New York City...
in 1957 where it enjoyed a brief run with only modest success. The play is basically a rewrite of an earlier play by Williams called
Battle of Angels, which was written in 1940 but had been poorly received.
When the play appeared in 1957, Williams wrote, "[o]n the surface it was and still is the tale of a wild-spirited boy who wanders into a conventional community of the South and creates the commotion of a fox in a chicken coop. But beneath that now familiar surface it is a play about unanswered questions that haunt the hearts of people and the difference between continuing to ask them...and the acceptance of prescribed answers that are not answers at all."
The play is a modern retelling of the ancient Greek
OrpheusOrpheus is an important figure from Greek mythology, the inspiration for subsequent Orphic cults, much of the literature, poetry and drama of ancient Greece and Rome and, due to his association with singing and the lyre, much dramatic Western classical music.Orpheus was called by Pindar "the...
legend and deals, in the most elemental fashion, with the power of passion, art, and imagination to redeem and revitalize life, giving it new meaning. The story is set in a dry goods store in a small southern town marked, in the play, by conformity, sexual frustration, narrowness, and
racismRacism is the belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race. In the case of institutional racism, certain racial groups may be denied rights or benefits, or get preferential treatment...
. Into this scene steps Val, a young man with a guitar, a snakeskin jacket, a questionable past, and undeniable animal-erotic energy and appeal. He gets a job in the dry goods store run by a middle-aged woman named Lady, whose elderly husband is dying. Lady has a past and passions of her own. She finds herself attracted to Val and to the possibility of new life he seems to offer. It is a tempting antidote to her loveless marriage and boring, small-town life. The play describes the awakening of passion, love, and life -- as well as its tragic consequences for Val and Lady.
The play deals with passion, its repression and its attempted recovery. On another level, it is also about trying to live bravely and honestly in a fallen world. The play is replete with lush, poetic dialogue and imagery. On the stage, the opening sections seem somewhat lacking in dramatic movement, but the play picks up power as the characters are developed and it moves to its
climaxThe climax or turning point of a narrative work is its point of highest tension or drama or when the action starts in which the solution is given.
. Val, representing Orpheus, represents the forces of energy and
erosEros , in Greek mythology, was the primordial god of lust, beauty, love, and intercourse; he was also worshipped as a fertility deity. His Roman counterpart was Cupid, "desire", also known as Amor, "love". In some myths, he was the son of the deities Aphrodite and Ares, but according to Plato's...
, which, buried as they are in compromise and everyday mundanity, have the tragic power to create life anew.
In 1959, a screen adaptation under the title
The Fugitive KindThe Fugitive Kind is a 1959 American drama film directed by Sidney Lumet. The screenplay by Meade Roberts and Tennessee Williams was based on the latter's 1957 play Orpheus Descending, itself a revision of his unproduced 1939 work Battle of Angels....
was directed by
Sidney LumetSidney Lumet is an American film director, with over 50 films to his name, including 12 Angry Men , Serpico , Dog Day Afternoon , Network and The Verdict , all of which, except for Serpico , earned him Academy Award nominations for Best Director.According to The Encyclopedia of Hollywood,...
.
A more faithful version starring Vanessa Redgrave was made in 1990. This was a film adaptation of the Peter Hall stage production.