The simple set on two levels accentuates the chasm between the two and the husband’s domination and control over his wife. Tennessee Williams. Vera decides to carry on living as ‘the fat man’s wife’ and not follow a passion which may also prove to be short-lived. She hopes to nurture understanding and tolerance across different cultures through the performing arts. You are in the living room with the couple and, when the husband departs for his rendezvous with a blonde actress called Esmeralda on the pretext of picking some aspirin, Dennis enters to implore Vera to come away with him, his passion laid bare for all to see. The Fat Man’s Wife – Canal Café Theatre, selected days until 02 March 2014. We need sponsors in order to expand our network of contributors and our connections with theatres and cultural organisations around the world. The audience is distributed around the small stage, within touching distance of the actors. Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email. The Canal Café Theatre have pulled off quite a coup in securing the premiere of a work by one of the 20th century’s major playwrights (even one in a minor key) and it would be churlish not to wish them luck for the rest of the run. Featured. ( Log Out /  Directed by Eshom Nelms, Ian Nelms. The shorter running time see Williams present something more akin to a light mood piece than the cloying richness of his more baroque work,  whilst the metropolitan setting with its urbane characters means everything stays just about the north side of the Mason-Dixon line and avoids falling into Williams’ favourite Southern state: grotesque. Tennessee Williams’ has always been a playwright that I find easier to admire than to enjoy. The Fat Mans Wife. Change ), You are commenting using your Facebook account. Passion for theatre and years spent defending immigrants and asylum seekers in UK courts fuelled her determination Rather than compromise his art, Dennis has decided to quit New York for Acapulco and wants Vera to accompany him. With Mel Gibson, Walton Goggins, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Chance Hurstfield. So there is a lot to recommend in The Fat Man’s Wife; for Tennessee Williams devotees it is essential viewing and for those who want a taste of the man without risking indigestion it works as an interesting amuse-bouche. Vera and her husband Joe, an influential theatre producer, return from a party, at which a young playwright, Dennis, has paid to court Vera. The Fat Man’s Wife, although far from a classic, comes in at a trim fifty-five minutes and could be nearer fifty if some of the pauses in this generally solid production were not quite so pregnant. ( Log Out /  The once dependable tent pegs around which we normally hang the year, Care home residents have been particularly affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, both in terms of cases and from their isol, As part of its winter season, and conceived very much with Covid restrictions in mind, THE RSC has adapted the most famo, This is a unique show from start to finish. Other productions from the … UK Premiere For Lost Tennessee Williams Play The Fat Man’s Wife casts a paralysing spell at the Canal Café Theatre. She points to the age gap: “I can be your mother’s youngest sister”. The action takes place with audience on both sides and at times it can be a squeeze to frame the drama. The prose is occasionally banal but with this superb trio of actors and impressive direction, which strips the play of social class and location, the plot gains credibility that may not be in the actual play. Our scope is wide-ranging, from Greek tragedy to stand-up comedy; from ballet and opera to mime and experimental theatre. ( Log Out /  His heady blend of American naturalism and fevered southern gothic melodrama sounds such an appealing combination that it is hard to pin down why I find his work such a struggle. Written by Tennessee Williams in 1938, The Fat Man's Wife remained unproduced until 2004, when it opened in New York. The play lacks the sophistication and complexities that we find in Williams’s later plays. New Year’s morning 1938. David Gordon Green and Danny McBride serve as executive producers of the film. It aims to promote interest in the theatre and foster dialogue, understanding and appreciation for different artistic productions around the world. Taylor carries off her role, as one would expect from such an accomplished actor, with supreme dignity: the dynamic between the couple is natural yet enthralling. He seems troubled by the attention a young playwright, Dennis Merriwether, has paid her at the party. to establish a platform for international theatre reviews. She is the fat man’s wife, a social identity she is stuck with, for better or for worse. On occasion these unfortunate limitations do overcome the production with a criticism being that the odd meaningful glance (and Williams does love a meaningful glance) is rather lost to half the audience, as we find we must intuit something meaningful from the back of an actor’s head. Richard Stephenson Winter as her husband, Joe Cartwright, could easily have fallen into the trap of a one-note performance but has an impressive depth in performance. No sum is too small. Vera Cartwright (Emma Taylor), a Manhattan wife of an influential theatre producer and a philanderer, Joe (Richard Stephenson) return home after attending a party. Vera does not allow emotions that have been aroused by the handsome young man’s attention to prevail. His heady blend of American naturalism and fevered southern gothic melodrama sounds such an appealing combination that it is hard to pin down why I find his work such a struggle. Taylor conveys something of the glassiness of Kristen Scott Thomas in her performance, a brittleness that hinted at person whose intellect means they must bear the realisation of their hopelessness of their situation in live and a sad understanding of the futility of misplaced hope. Yet time after time after time, be it Baby Doll, Night of the Iguana, Suddenly, Last Summer, Sweet Bird of Youth and, yes, even you, Streetcar (with or without Brando) guaranteed I will find my brain slowly turning to molasses as sure as if I was right there in the evening heat of the Mississippi Delta. Production Images (click + to view larger image) The Fat Mans Wife. Plays To See explores diverse cultures through the medium of the performing arts. The Fat Man’s Wife is supported by a cast who work exceptionally hard in a very limited space. The Fat Mans Wife. ( Log Out /  Written in 1938, when Williams was a mere 27 years old, the play was first performed in 2004. 20th February 2010. Tagged in THE FAT MAN'S WIFE. The Fat Man's Wife by Tennessee Wiliams. Vera Cartwright (Emma Taylor), a Manhattan wife of an influential theatre producer and a philanderer, Joe (Richard Stephenson) return home after attending a party. This production, directed by Russell Lucas, captures and maintains an undercurrent dramatic tension throughout the 55 minutes performance, which makes the theatrical experience well worth the journey to this fringe theatre. Post was not sent - check your email addresses! Female rapper in Alaska, music available on all digital platforms Remaining un-produced until 2004, The Fat Man’s Wife by Tennessee Williams is having its UK Premiere at the Canal Cafe Theatre.It is a fragment of a play rather than a fully fledged piece that is about a sophisticated society lady who has to make a choice… The verbal exchange between the two leaves no doubt of protracted matrimonial friction and the couple’s emotional estrangement. A rowdy, unorthodox Santa Claus is fighting to save his declining business. A large presence, he also brings a physicality that gives the impression of a man shrinking before our eyes and one can sense that behind the burly cocksure attitude was someone who knew quite well how other people saw him. The Fat Man's Wife. Change ), a blog about theatre and performance // @rcurtis0914, a forum for critical analysis and cross-discplinary dialogue. The verbal exchange between the two leaves no doubt of protracted matrimonial friction and the couple’s emotional estrangement. Copyright © 2016 Plays To SeeCharity No: 1151193, This is certainly up there as one of the top ten performances I’ve seen this year – but, seeing as it is 2020, make of t, These are curious times through which we’re living. Canal Café TheatreLondonRivka JacobsonTennessee Williams. It will be directed by Russell Lucas and produced by Annie Biddlecombe. The plot follows an unorthodox Santa Claus who must fight off an assassin sent by a vengeful naughty kid. The intimacy of Canal Café Theatre lends itself exquisitely to this one Act play by Tennessee Williams. The Fat Man’s Wife Tennessee Williams’ has always been a playwright that I find easier to admire than to enjoy. When you arrive at the Bridge Theatre expectations are confounded. | By Stuart Black. 55 talking about this. Joe hardly looks at his wife. Fatman is a 2020 American dark comedy action film written and directed by Eshom Nelms and Ian Nelms and starring Mel Gibson, Walton Goggins and Marianne Jean-Baptiste. The staff, International Exposure of Israeli Theatre, Snow White in the Seven Months of Lockdown, Constella’s Connecting Stars Christmas Gala, Between the Seas: Mediterranean Performing Arts in NYC. You want to know what other people think, well here you go: Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Dennis, superbly performed by Damien Hughes, has decided to quit New York for a voyage and wants Vera to accompany him. She is particularly keen to encourage young critics to engage with all aspects of theatre. Many of Williams’ plays are just too long. We are now able to accept credit/debit card donations directly from this site, with the security of PayPal. Meanwhile, Billy, a neglected and precocious 12 year old, hires a hit man to kill Santa after receiving a lump of coal in his stocking. The Fat Mans Wife. Overview. Joe hardly looks at his wife. After Dennis leaves, Vera sits at her husband’s feet to help him undo his shoelaces; there is an element of servitude and surrender as a woman married to a fat but powerful man as she utters: “We have to get used to saying unimportant things to each other for the rest of our lives”. There is the older female character flirting with the idea of a relationship with a younger man, the fear of age and growing old alone is present, the gap between the optimism of youth and the realism of age and the tear between the grim truth of reality and unobtainable fantasy; these are all ideas that even at this early stage Williams was clearly playing around with and would later return to and develop into his best known work. Classic productions in the age of the internet, Little Malcolm and his struggle against the eunuchs, The Eradication of Schizophrenia in Western Lapland, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (As You Like It), Jacques Brel is alive and well and living in Paris, Oh, the Humanity and Other Good Intentions, The Hound of the Baskervilles – The Radio Theatre, A Night at the Theatre – Olivier Winners 2013, The human being’s guide to not being a dick about religion, Exclusive: Tennessee Williams in restrained play shocker | Civilian Theatre. Rivka Jacobson, founder of playstosee.com. The sense of Williams’ work being closer to an examination of mood than a fully developed play suits an evening that is not dissimilar to seeing a seasoned jazz trio perform some improvisations on a Sunday afternoon; you realise that whilst the surface of The Fat Man’s Wife is fresh and new, underneath there is the emergence of motifs that will repeat again and again through his work or an idea will spark and you can see how later it will be bent and refracted in a new way to power a later, more mature drama. This is a list of the one-act plays written by American playwright Tennessee Williams. 20th February 2010. This recycling of themes and ideas in later works is hardly something limited to Williams but rarely can it be seen so clearly. However the Canal Café Theatre’s production of The Fat Man’s Wife, previously unstaged in the UK and never seen anywhere before 2004, perhaps provides a clue to my troubles; length. 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