When you have the very good fortune to live in Provincetown the gay mecca on the very tip of Cape Cod, you are always aware of the wealth of queer history that constantly surrounds us. The finicky Brit Puritans may have upped anchor and sailed on to Plymouth after a mere 5 weeks in town back in the 1600s, but over the centuries they have been replaced by some extraordinary wonderful people.
In the 1940’s the writer Tennessee Williams spent several summers here. He fell in and out of love, sunbathed naked, took congo lessons, and drank far too much …… but every single morning he wrote. Many of his most famous plays started here ……. but so did some of his lesser-known works. None of them have ever been forgotten and thanks to curator David Kaplan we get to celebrate them in the Town’s annual Tennessee Williams Festival which is a major highlight in the town’s cultural calendar.
To us in the Queerguru Office, the real joy of the Festival is the sheer ingenuity of presenting Williams’ work highlighting aspects and themes that we had never ever been aware of. It not only makes the audience see the pieces in a much clearer light, but the Fest links work from other writers that complement Williams’ pieces.
This year’s Festival Theme is Science Fiction and Fantasy which will will share Williams’ lifelong fascination with both of them by presenting performances of plays, short stories and unfinished works by Williams. Kaplan explained to Queerguru. “From his teenage years to the months before he died, writing science fiction and fantasy freed Williams to boldly explore his fears and hopes for the future. Spaceships and kindly space men! Killer Queens and Vampires! Who knew? Happy to share!”
Kaplan’s catalog essay on Williams’ life-long interest in science fiction and fantasy can be found here.
Here are more details on a few of Queerguru’s top picks for the year’s performances:
Stairs to the Roof – A full-length Science Fiction Fantasy play by Tennessee Williams. The “Stairs” of the title lead to the roof of an office building in downtown St. Louis. A bearded man in a starry robe appears on that roof in a puff of smoke and—with a wave of a wand— dispatches an inventory clerk to colonize a new planet. The Festival’s production with music and dance is performed by an ensemble from the Republic of Cyprus, directed by Marios Mettis, who brought joy to the 2022 Festival with The Magic Tower.
A Recluse & His Guest – A mysterious woman wrapped in leather, a foreigner in all countries — who knows the language of birds, hounds, and swine—seeks refuge with the town outcast whom she bathes, feeds, and perhaps, comes to love.
Killer Queens: The Vengeance of Nitocris & The Pronoun ‘I’ – Adapted for the stage from Tennessee Williams’ first published work (“The Vengeance of Nitocris,” 1928), in Ancient Egypt a sister avenges the death of her brother, the Pharaoh. Nitocris plays on a double bill with Mad Queen May in Williams’ bawdy fantasy one-act, The Pronoun ‘I’, published in 2008. Shape- shifting May renounces her newest pretty boy lover, an enormously vain poet. Just what Provincetown needed: two more killer queens! The ensemble is a mix of artists from Cape Town, South Africa and Cape Cod locals.
Sci-Fi Hotel Plays – A Sci-Fi Fantasy of texts by Tennessee Williams performed in hotel rooms. Welcome to the eerie boardinghouse of Williams’ The Strange Play. The boarders include a time-travelling sailor and a witch who collects tinfoil. The room where The Chalky White Substance performs is host to a young man in a desert after a nuclear war, waiting for his older “protector.” In another room, the devotee of an unnamed Saint offers Chronicle of a Demise, an eye-witness account of an ascent to Heaven. Audiences move on separate tracks from room to room. The 2023 Hotel Plays are staged by Brenna Geffers and the Philadelphia-based Die- Cast ensemble.
The Knightly Quest – A gay vampire escapes from an American police state in a getaway spaceship. A very unusual story by Tennessee Williams (or by anyone else) adapted for the stage by Cape Town, South Africa’s Fred Abrahamse and Marcel Meyer, performed by Marcel Meyer.
The Men from the Polar Star – In an intergalactic bar, the gossipy tale unfolds of a New Orleans widow who discovered time-traveling Captain Christopher D. Cosmos asleep in her bed. Then the crew of the Polar Star arrived. Under the title “The Men from the Polar Star (or the Metamorphosis of Mrs. Holly)” director Thomas Mitchell has compiled a performance text made up of what he’s found: erotic science fiction, some of Williams’ most rhapsodic writing.
A Tennessee Williams Science Fiction and Fantasy Anthology – Die-Cast ensemble from Philadelphia with the help of Festival artists will present an onstage adaptation of a WEIRD TALES anthology, curated and directed by Brenna Geffers, putting Tennessee Williams Sci-Fi Fantasy into context. A highlight of the Festival’s Weird Anthology is an adaptation with music and dance of a poem by British poet, Paul Ibell, “Taking Tennessee to the Coast” in which a group of Williams admirers follow up on Williams’ instructions for what he wanted done with his body after he died.
For more information on this year’s Festival, visit twptown.org.
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