The Two-Character Play

The Two-Character Play

<p>A classic play by Tennessee Williams in a definitive, author-approved edition.</p><br />Reality and fantasy are interwoven with terrifying power as two actors on tour—brother and sister—find themselves deserted by the trope in a decrepit "state theatre in an unknown state." Faced (perhaps) by an audience expecting a performance, they enact "The Two-Character Play"—an illusions within an illusion, and "out cry" from isolation, panic and fear. "I think it is my most beautiful play since <em>Streetcar</em>," Tennessee Williams said, "and I've never stopped working on it....It is a <em>cri de coeur</em>, but then all creative work,all life, in a sense is a <em>cri de coeur</em>."<br /><br /><br /><br />In the course of its evolution, several earlier versions of <em>The Two-Character Play</em> have been produced. The first of them was presented in 1967 in London and Chicago and brought out in 1969 by New Directions in a signed limited edition. The next, staged in 1973 in New York under the title <em>Out Cry</em>, was published by New Directions in 1973 The third version (New York, 1975), again titled <em>The Two-Character Play</em>, is the one Tennessee Williams wished to include in New Directions' <em>The Theatre of Tennessee Williams</em> series. It is this version which is presented in this ND paperback.