Each Summer without fail we move QUEERGURU, lock stock and barrel up to Provincetown. This glorious piece of queer heaven at the very tip of Cap Cod is also the country’s oldest Artists Colony. It’s no surprise then that over the years the townsfolk (there are only about 3000 all-year-rounders) have devised different theme weeks to celebrate both diversity and culture with all the visitors that fill the town to bursting point
They include Carnival Week, Girl Splash, Cicuit Boy Weekend, Womens Week, Mates Leather Weekend, Gay Family Week etc etc. But in Queerguru’s book by far the best event of all is PROVINCETOWN TENNESSEE WILLIAMS FESTIVAL (the film Festival comes a close 2nd)
Williams is one of several legendary writers and artists who over the years found that all the elements of this one small fishing village was perfect for both their creative spirits and their souls. Williams didnt just write some of his very best work in the 4 summers he spent in Ptown (1940 throu 1947) but this is where he fell in love unguardedly for perhaps the only time in his life. He had his heart broken there, perhaps irreparable. Which ib our eyes cemented his status as on one of very first glamorous queer icons.
Williams was not just one of our very best and most successful writers, but he was also one of the most prolific. It is also such a sheer joy that over the years the Ptown Festival Curator David Kaplan has mounted productions of some of Williams lesser known works that are as equally as powerful as his well-trodden famous ones.
Plus the Festival have also included plays about the great man himself and this year’s festival has one of the best of its kind : actor/writer Jacob Storms’ award winning one man play TENNESSEE RISING. Storms’ drama, directed by Alan Cumming, perfectly captures a young debonair self-centered persistent name-dropper who we cannot fail to fall in love with.
Storms even looks similar to the handsome writer, and is so at ease and using his own words weaves pictures of a Williams as he appears to breeze through some tough patches. However he always comes out somehow smelling sweetly. Naturally peppering the script with some of William’s bitchy opinions of some of theater leading ladies of his days landed well with this ptiomimsnt gay audience
Seeing the play here in Ptown meens we truly understand why/how Williams allowed to be swept away by the sheer majesty of the place. Captain Jacks Wharf the scene of his tryts is still here and untouched, and we really appreciate why it cemented his love affair.
Storms generously shares with us not just his detailed knowledge on Williams but his sheer affection for him too ……and we love the fact that it rubs on us too.
TENNESSEE RISING The Dawn of Tennessee Williams Written and Performed by Jacob Storms @ Grotta Bar
ROGER WALKER-DACK Creator, Editor-in-Chief Miami Beach, FL / Provincetown, MA IG @QUEERGURU Member of G.A.L.E.C.A. (Gay & Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association) and NLGJA The Association of LGBT Journalists. and The Online Film Critics Society. Ex Contributing Editor The Gay Uk & Contributor Edge Media Former CEO and Menswear Designer of Roger Dack Ltd in the UK
PS You may also want to check out Queerguru’s interview with Jacob Storms HERE
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Labels: "Tennessee Rising – The Dawn of Tennessee Williams', 2024, Jacob Storm, review, Roger Walker-Dack
