Local production off to a sweet start
TOUTED as one of the best theatre productions staged in Boston in the US last year, the soaring classic Sweet Bird of Youth by American playwright Tennessee Williams, first staged in 1956, opened to incredible audience reactions at the Artscape Theatre at the weekend.
The internationally acclaimed Williams masterpiece comes to Artscape in a landmark production direct from the US, according co-producer Marcel Meyer. The play is also produced by South African Fred Abrahams.
Williams is the most produced playwright in the world after William Shakespeare.
He established himself as one of the most influential writers of the 20th century with classic plays such as A Streetcar Named Desire, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and The Glass Menagerie.
Meyer said: “The reaction from the (Artscape) audience was incredible. They gave the production a standing ovation at the end of the play. We had an incredibly warm reception.
“This comes after the production had received similarly incredible receptions overseas.
“It was heartwarming, moving to bring it back home to South Africa. In America the play was completely sold out.”
With prices ranging from R180 to R200, the haunting classic drama Sweet Bird of Youth production runs until April 8 at Artscape and stars a doyenne of the South African stage, Fiona Ramsay, in the much-coveted role of Princess Kosmonopolis.
Meyer co-stars as the gigolo-drifter Chance Wayne, Michael Richard plays Boss Finley, Dean Balie Miss Lucy, Matthew Baldwin is Heavenly, Jeremy Richard is Tom Junior and Tristan de Beer plays Aunt Nonnie.
The award-winning Abrahams also does direction for the play.
“All in all the play has been a success this past weekend,” said Meyer.
This visceral revival of Williams’s seminal text had American critics and audiences raving when it opened at the 12th Annual Provincetown Tennessee Williams Theatre Festival and was named one of the best theatre productions in the Boston area in 2017.
Sweet Bird of Youth was hailed by the American press as “exceptional theatre”, “a transformative experience” and “nothing short of brilliant”.
Cape Town theatre lovers have only eight performances to see this unforgettable drama in its only local engagement, said Meyer. Set in the small town of Saint Cloud, on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi, Sweet Bird of Youth tracks the fading dreams of hustler Chance Wayne, a long-gone traveller returning home.
The play contains some of Williams’s most evocative lyrical passages and is regarded as one of his finest dramas.
Sweet Bird of Youth opened on Broadway in 1959 starring Paul Newman as Chance Wayne and Geraldine Page as the princess.