The Night of the Iguana
Encyclopedia
The Night of the Iguana is a stageplay written by American
author Tennessee Williams
, based on his 1948 short story
. The play premiered on Broadway
in 1961. Two film adaptations have been made, including the Academy Award-winning 1964
film of the same name
.
, an ex-minister, Reverend T. Lawrence Shannon, has been locked out of his church after characterizing the Occidental image of God as a "senile delinquent", during one of his sermons. Shannon is not de-frocked, but institutionalized for a "nervous breakdown". Some time after his release, Rev. Shannon obtains employment as a tour guide for a second-rate travel agency. Shortly before the opening of the play, Shannon is accused of having committed statutory rape
of a sixteen-year old girl, named Charlotte Goodall, who is accompanying his current group of tourists.
As the curtain rises, Shannon is arriving with a group of women at a cheap hotel on the coast of Mexico that had been managed by his friends Fred and Maxine Faulk. The former has recently died, and Maxine Faulk has assumed sole responsibility for managing the establishment.
Struggling emotionally, Shannon tries to manage his tour party, who have turned against him for entering into sexual relations with the minor, and Maxine, who is interested in him for purely carnal reasons. Adding to this chaotic scenario, a spinster Hannah Jelkes appears with her moribund grandfather, Nonno, who, despite his failing, is composing his last poem. Jelkes, who scrapes by as traveling painter and sketch artist, is soon at Maxine's mercy. Shannon, who wields considerable influence over Maxine, offers Hannah Jelkes shelter for the night. The play's main axis is the development of the deeply human bond between Hannah Jelkes and Lawrence Shannon.
Like the iguana, captured and tied to a pole by the Mexicans in the play, Hannah and they have come to the end of their rope. This metaphor is intensified when Shannon tears at his golden cross on his neck, lacerating himself, as if to free himself from its constraints.
Minor characters in the play include: a) a group of German tourists whose Nazi marching songs paradoxically lighten the heavier themes of the play , but suggest the horrors of World War II , b) the Mexican "boys" Maxine employs to help run the hotel who ignore her laconic commands, and c) Judith Fellowes, the "butch" vocal teacher charged with Charlotte's care during the trip. Fellowes is one of William's few overtly lesbian characters.
as Maxine and Margaret Leighton as Hannah. Davis left the production after four months and was replaced by Shelley Winters
.
Davis' role was Maxine, a lusty life-force of a woman, with some good comic lines, who is offstage for a significant part of the play, while Hannah is on. Hannah is a role along the lines of Williams' greatest female characters, like Blanche DuBois
and Summer and Smoke
s Alma Winemuller, women possessed of extraordinarily refined sensibilities and grace. But for her intrinsic strength of character, Hannah is a departure for Williams. Hannah, a single woman in service to others, serves as an inspiration to Shannon for her inner strength, a strength denied the Blanche and Alma in their plays, although they share other similarities. The play featured Alan Webb
as the dying grandfather to whom Hannah is devoted, Louis Guss
, Bruce Glover
and James Farentino
. The production was directed by Frank Corsaro
(Bette Davis in her memoir Dark Victory, wrote that she banned Corsaro from rehearsals shortly before opening). The play was nominated for a Tony Award
for Best Play. Leighton, as Hannah, won the Tony Award
for Best Actress in a Play.
and starred Richard Burton
as Rev. Shannon, Ava Gardner
as Maxine and Deborah Kerr
as Hannah. It also featured Sue Lyon
, Cyril Delevanti
, Grayson Hall
(who received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her performance) and Barbara Joyce (later an acclaimed artist). The screenplay was written by Huston and Anthony Veiller
.
The film won the Academy Award for Best Costume Design (B&W), and in addition to Ms. Hall's nomination, was also nominated for Cinematography (by Gabriel Figueroa
) and for Art Direction. The film removed the Nazi tourist characters from the original stage version.
There was a 2000 Serbo-Croatian film version that was directed by Janusz Kica.
opened on and closed on after performances. The show was directed by Joseph Hardy
, scenery and lighting H. R. Poindexter
, costumes by Noel Taylor
, production stage manager Randall Brooks, and stage manager James Bernadi.
The opening night cast featured Richard Chamberlain
(Rev. Shannon), Gary Tacon (Pedro), William Paulson (Pancho), Ben Van Vacter (Wolfgang), Jennifer Savidge (Hilda), John Rose (Herr Fahrenkopf), Amelia Laurenson (Frau Fahrenkopf), Matt Bennett (Hank), Barbara Caruso (Judith Fellows), Allison Argo (Charlotte Goodall), William Roerick (Nonno), Benjamin Stewart (Jake Latta), Dorothy McGuire
(Hannah), and Sylvia Miles
(Maxine).
as Hannah.
In 1996, a Broadway revival was directed by Robert Falls
featuring William Petersen
as Rev. Shannon, Marsha Mason
as Maxine and Cherry Jones
as Hannah. This was based on a 1994 production staged by the Goodman Theatre
in Chicago.
In London, a 1992 production at the Royal National Theatre
featured performances by Alfred Molina
as Rev. Shannon and Eileen Atkins
as Hannah. This production was directed by Richard Eyre
.
A critically acclaimed 2005 London production at Lyric Theatre
starred Woody Harrelson
as Rev. Shannon, Clare Higgins as Maxine and Jenny Seagrove
as Hannah. This production was directed by Anthony Page.
from her 2007 album, Shine
. It is a thematic and lyrical adaptation of the Tennessee Williams play.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
author Tennessee Williams
Tennessee Williams
Thomas Lanier "Tennessee" Williams III was an American writer who worked principally as a playwright in the American theater. He also wrote short stories, novels, poetry, essays, screenplays and a volume of memoirs...
, based on his 1948 short story
Short story
A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...
. The play premiered on Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
in 1961. Two film adaptations have been made, including the Academy Award-winning 1964
1964 in film
The year 1964 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* January 29 - The film Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb is released....
film of the same name
The Night of the Iguana (film)
The Night of the Iguana is a 1964 film based on the 1961 play The Night of the Iguana by Tennessee Williams. Directed by John Huston, it starred Richard Burton, Ava Gardner, and Deborah Kerr. It won the 1964 Academy Award for Best Costume Design, and was nominated for the Academy Awards for Best...
.
Plot
In 1940s MexicoMexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
, an ex-minister, Reverend T. Lawrence Shannon, has been locked out of his church after characterizing the Occidental image of God as a "senile delinquent", during one of his sermons. Shannon is not de-frocked, but institutionalized for a "nervous breakdown". Some time after his release, Rev. Shannon obtains employment as a tour guide for a second-rate travel agency. Shortly before the opening of the play, Shannon is accused of having committed statutory rape
Statutory rape
The phrase statutory rape is a term used in some legal jurisdictions to describe sexual activities where one participant is below the age required to legally consent to the behavior...
of a sixteen-year old girl, named Charlotte Goodall, who is accompanying his current group of tourists.
As the curtain rises, Shannon is arriving with a group of women at a cheap hotel on the coast of Mexico that had been managed by his friends Fred and Maxine Faulk. The former has recently died, and Maxine Faulk has assumed sole responsibility for managing the establishment.
Struggling emotionally, Shannon tries to manage his tour party, who have turned against him for entering into sexual relations with the minor, and Maxine, who is interested in him for purely carnal reasons. Adding to this chaotic scenario, a spinster Hannah Jelkes appears with her moribund grandfather, Nonno, who, despite his failing, is composing his last poem. Jelkes, who scrapes by as traveling painter and sketch artist, is soon at Maxine's mercy. Shannon, who wields considerable influence over Maxine, offers Hannah Jelkes shelter for the night. The play's main axis is the development of the deeply human bond between Hannah Jelkes and Lawrence Shannon.
Like the iguana, captured and tied to a pole by the Mexicans in the play, Hannah and they have come to the end of their rope. This metaphor is intensified when Shannon tears at his golden cross on his neck, lacerating himself, as if to free himself from its constraints.
Minor characters in the play include: a) a group of German tourists whose Nazi marching songs paradoxically lighten the heavier themes of the play , but suggest the horrors of World War II , b) the Mexican "boys" Maxine employs to help run the hotel who ignore her laconic commands, and c) Judith Fellowes, the "butch" vocal teacher charged with Charlotte's care during the trip. Fellowes is one of William's few overtly lesbian characters.
Original Broadway stage production
The play premiered on Broadway at the Royale Theatre on December 28, 1961, and ran for 316 performances. It starred Patrick O'Neal as Rev. Shannon, two-time Oscar winner Bette DavisBette Davis
Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis was an American actress of film, television and theater. Noted for her willingness to play unsympathetic characters, she was highly regarded for her performances in a range of film genres, from contemporary crime melodramas to historical and period films and occasional...
as Maxine and Margaret Leighton as Hannah. Davis left the production after four months and was replaced by Shelley Winters
Shelley Winters
Shelley Winters was an American actress who appeared in dozens of films, as well as on stage and television; her career spanned over 50 years until her death in 2006...
.
Davis' role was Maxine, a lusty life-force of a woman, with some good comic lines, who is offstage for a significant part of the play, while Hannah is on. Hannah is a role along the lines of Williams' greatest female characters, like Blanche DuBois
Blanche DuBois
Blanche DuBois is a fictional character in Tennessee Williams' 1947 Pulitzer Prize-winning play A Streetcar Named Desire...
and Summer and Smoke
Summer and Smoke
Summer and Smoke is a two-part, thirteen-scene play by Tennessee Williams, originally titled Chart of Anatomy when Williams began work on it in 1945. In 1964, Williams revised the play as The Eccentricities of a Nightingale...
s Alma Winemuller, women possessed of extraordinarily refined sensibilities and grace. But for her intrinsic strength of character, Hannah is a departure for Williams. Hannah, a single woman in service to others, serves as an inspiration to Shannon for her inner strength, a strength denied the Blanche and Alma in their plays, although they share other similarities. The play featured Alan Webb
Alan Webb (actor)
-Biography and Career:Educated at Bramcote School, Scarborough, and RN Colleges Osborne and Dartmouth. He served in the Royal Navy.Webb's early days were spent performing with the Lena Ashwell Players , J. B. Fagan's Oxford Players , The Croydon Repertory Company , and the Old Vic-Sadler's Wells...
as the dying grandfather to whom Hannah is devoted, Louis Guss
Louis Guss
Louis Guss was an American character actor with a long line of screen credits, having appeared in hundreds of TV series, feature films and stage productions, specializing in blue-collar ethnic roles, over a five decade career...
, Bruce Glover
Bruce Glover
Bruce Herbert Glover is an American character actor, perhaps best known for his portrayal of homosexual assassin Mr. Wint in the 1971 James Bond film Diamonds Are Forever. He is also the father of actor Crispin Glover.-Life and career:...
and James Farentino
James Farentino
James Farentino is an American actor. He has appeared in almost one hundred roles, among them in The Final Countdown, Jesus of Nazareth, and Dynasty.-Career:...
. The production was directed by Frank Corsaro
Frank Corsaro
Frank Corsaro is one of America's foremost stage directors of opera and theatre. His Broadway productions include The Night of the Iguana ....
(Bette Davis in her memoir Dark Victory, wrote that she banned Corsaro from rehearsals shortly before opening). The play was nominated for a Tony Award
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
for Best Play. Leighton, as Hannah, won the Tony Award
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
for Best Actress in a Play.
Film versions
The 1964 film version was directed by John HustonJohn Huston
John Marcellus Huston was an American film director, screenwriter and actor. He wrote most of the 37 feature films he directed, many of which are today considered classics: The Maltese Falcon , The Treasure of the Sierra Madre , Key Largo , The Asphalt Jungle , The African Queen , Moulin Rouge...
and starred Richard Burton
Richard Burton
Richard Burton, CBE was a Welsh actor. He was nominated seven times for an Academy Award, six of which were for Best Actor in a Leading Role , and was a recipient of BAFTA, Golden Globe and Tony Awards for Best Actor. Although never trained as an actor, Burton was, at one time, the highest-paid...
as Rev. Shannon, Ava Gardner
Ava Gardner
Ava Lavinia Gardner was an American actress.She was signed to a contract by MGM Studios in 1941 and appeared mainly in small roles until she drew attention with her performance in The Killers . She became one of Hollywood's leading actresses, considered one of the most beautiful women of her day...
as Maxine and Deborah Kerr
Deborah Kerr
Deborah Kerr, CBE was a Scottish film and television actress from Glasgow. She won the Sarah Siddons Award for her Chicago performance as Laura Reynolds in Tea and Sympathy, a role which she originated on Broadway, a Golden Globe Award for the motion picture The King and I, and was a three-time...
as Hannah. It also featured Sue Lyon
Sue Lyon
- Lolita :Sue Lyon was 14 years old when she was cast in the role of Dolores "Lolita" Haze, the sexually charged adolescent and the object of an older man's obsessions in Stanley Kubrick's 1962 film, Lolita. She was chosen for the role partly because her curvy figure suggested an older adolescent...
, Cyril Delevanti
Cyril Delevanti
Cyril Delevanti , sometimes credited as Syril Delevanti, was an English-born character actor with a long career in American films....
, Grayson Hall
Grayson Hall
Grayson Hall was an American television, film and stage actress. She was widely regarded for her avant garde theatrical performances in the 1960s-80s. Hall was nominated in 1964 for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award for the John Huston film The Night of the Iguana...
(who received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her performance) and Barbara Joyce (later an acclaimed artist). The screenplay was written by Huston and Anthony Veiller
Anthony Veiller
Anthony Veiller was an American screenwriter and film producer. The son of the screenwriter Bayard Veiller and the English actress Margaret Wycherly, Anthony Veiller wrote for 41 films between 1934 and 1964.-Career and Awards:Veiller was twice nominated for an Academy Award for Best Screenplay...
.
The film won the Academy Award for Best Costume Design (B&W), and in addition to Ms. Hall's nomination, was also nominated for Cinematography (by Gabriel Figueroa
Gabriel Figueroa
Gabriel Figueroa Mateos was a Mexican cinematographer who worked both in Mexican cinema and Hollywood....
) and for Art Direction. The film removed the Nazi tourist characters from the original stage version.
There was a 2000 Serbo-Croatian film version that was directed by Janusz Kica.
1976 Broadway revival
The 1976 Broadway revival at the Circle in the Square TheatreCircle in the Square Theatre
The Circle in the Square Theatre is a legitimate Broadway theatre in midtown Manhattan on 50th Street in the Paramount Plaza building.The original Circle in the Square was founded by Paul Libin, Theodore Mann and Jose Quintero in 1951 and was located at 5 Sheridan Square in Greenwich Village...
opened on and closed on after performances. The show was directed by Joseph Hardy
Joseph Hardy (director)
Joseph Hardy is an American Tony Award-winning stage director, film director, television producer, and occasional performer....
, scenery and lighting H. R. Poindexter
H. R. Poindexter
H. R. Poindexter is a theatre lighting designer and set designer. He has designed many Broadway productions and received a Tony Award for Best Lighting Design for his work on Paul Sill's Story Theatre.- External links :...
, costumes by Noel Taylor
Noel Taylor
Noel Taylor was an American costume designer of the stage, television, and film. A four-time Emmy nominee, Taylor won an Emmy Award in 1978 for his designs for the PBS drama Actor: The Paul Muni Story....
, production stage manager Randall Brooks, and stage manager James Bernadi.
The opening night cast featured Richard Chamberlain
Richard Chamberlain
George Richard Chamberlain is an American actor of stage and screen who became a teen idol in the title role of the television show Dr. Kildare .-Early life:...
(Rev. Shannon), Gary Tacon (Pedro), William Paulson (Pancho), Ben Van Vacter (Wolfgang), Jennifer Savidge (Hilda), John Rose (Herr Fahrenkopf), Amelia Laurenson (Frau Fahrenkopf), Matt Bennett (Hank), Barbara Caruso (Judith Fellows), Allison Argo (Charlotte Goodall), William Roerick (Nonno), Benjamin Stewart (Jake Latta), Dorothy McGuire
Dorothy McGuire
Dorothy Hackett McGuire was an American actress.-Career:Born in Omaha, Nebraska, she began her acting career on the stage at the Omaha Community Playhouse...
(Hannah), and Sylvia Miles
Sylvia Miles
-Early life and career:Miles was born Sylvia Reuben Lee in New York City, the daughter of Belle and Reuben Lee, a furniture maker....
(Maxine).
More stage productions
The Circle in the Square Theatre also staged a 1988 revival starring Nicolas Surovy as Rev. Shannon, Maria Tucci as Maxine and Jane AlexanderJane Alexander
Jane Alexander is an American actress, author, and former director of the National Endowment for the Arts. Although perhaps best known for playing the female lead in The Great White Hope on both stage and screen, Alexander has played a wide array of roles in both theater and film and has committed...
as Hannah.
In 1996, a Broadway revival was directed by Robert Falls
Robert Falls
Robert Falls is an American theater director and the current Artistic Director of the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, Illinois.-Early years:Falls was born in Ashland, Illinois to Arthur Joseph Falls and Nancy Stribling...
featuring William Petersen
William Petersen
William Louis Petersen is an American actor and producer, best known for playing Dr. Gilbert "Gil" Grissom on the hit CBS series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. He portrayed President John F...
as Rev. Shannon, Marsha Mason
Marsha Mason
Marsha Mason is an American actress and television director.She received four Academy Award nominations as Best Actress for her performances in Cinderella Liberty, The Goodbye Girl, Chapter Two, and Only When I Laugh. She is also known for starring in the 1986 film Heartbreak Ridge.-Life:Mason was...
as Maxine and Cherry Jones
Cherry Jones
Cherry Jones is an American actress and recipient of the 2009 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress – Drama Series and the 2005 Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play.-Career:...
as Hannah. This was based on a 1994 production staged by the Goodman Theatre
Goodman Theatre
The Goodman Theatre is a professional theater company located in Chicago's Loop. A major part of Chicago theatre, it is the city's oldest currently active nonprofit theater organization...
in Chicago.
In London, a 1992 production at the Royal National Theatre
Royal National Theatre
The Royal National Theatre in London is one of the United Kingdom's two most prominent publicly funded theatre companies, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company...
featured performances by Alfred Molina
Alfred Molina
Alfred Molina is a British-born American actor. He first came to public attention in the UK for his supporting role in the 1987 film Prick Up Your Ears...
as Rev. Shannon and Eileen Atkins
Eileen Atkins
Dame Eileen June Atkins, DBE is an English actress and occasional screenwriter.- Early life :Atkins was born in the Mothers' Hospital in Clapton, a Salvation Army women's hostel in East London...
as Hannah. This production was directed by Richard Eyre
Richard Eyre
Sir Richard Charles Hastings Eyre CBE is an English director of film, theatre, television, and opera.-Biography:Eyre was educated at Sherborne School, an independent school for boys in the market town of Sherborne in north-west Dorset in south-west England, followed by Peterhouse at the University...
.
A critically acclaimed 2005 London production at Lyric Theatre
Lyric Theatre (London)
The Lyric Theatre is a West End theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue in the City of Westminster.Designed by architect C. J. Phipps, it was built by producer Henry Leslie with profits from the Alfred Cellier and B. C. Stephenson hit, Dorothy, which he transferred from the Prince of Wales Theatre to open...
starred Woody Harrelson
Woody Harrelson
Woodrow Tracy "Woody" Harrelson is an American actor.Harrelson's breakthrough role came in the television sitcom Cheers as bartender Woody Boyd...
as Rev. Shannon, Clare Higgins as Maxine and Jenny Seagrove
Jenny Seagrove
Jennifer Ann Seagrove is an English actress. She trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and rose to fame playing the lead in a TV dramatisation of Barbara Taylor Bradford's A Woman of Substance and the 1983 film Local Hero...
as Hannah. This production was directed by Anthony Page.
Music
"The Night of the Iguana" is also the title of a song by Joni MitchellJoni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell, CC is a Canadian musician, singer songwriter, and painter. Mitchell began singing in small nightclubs in her native Saskatchewan and Western Canada and then busking in the streets and dives of Toronto...
from her 2007 album, Shine
Shine (Joni Mitchell album)
Shine is the nineteenth studio album by Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell and was released on September 25, 2007 by Starbucks' Hear Music...
. It is a thematic and lyrical adaptation of the Tennessee Williams play.