Tennessee Williams in Three Keys

Reviewed by Holly Bartges

For a man who found life unsatisfactory, American Playwright Tennessee Williams developed a poetic writing style into the psyche of the human mind that goes unmatched.

Suzanna Wellens as Melanie, Fred Lewis as Windscape, and Chuck Wigginton as Quartermaine in Germinal Stage Denver’s production of Quartermaine’s Terms.

Germinal Stage Denver takes three of Williams’ early one-act plays and weaves them into an absolute breathtaking theatrical experience. Talk To Me Like The Rain…And Let Me Listen features Tom Borillo as The Man and Trina Magness as The Woman. Something Unspoken features Sallie Diamond as Cornelia Scott, and Laura Booze as Grace Lancaster. I Can’t Imagine Tomorrow features Lori Hanson as Woman and Ed Baierlein as Man.

Directed and designed by Ed Baierlein, undoubtedly the six actors after the preview performance studied notes of what was missed, what they could have done better, and little things they may have forgotten, but with their professional expertise covered precisely from the audience. After all, perfection is always just out of reach. Quite honestly, preview or no, no theatre on earth can possibly get any better than this production from the heart and soul of the playwright to the depth in quality unabashedly provided by the six actors.

Right out of the starting gate, this is a production that definitely should not be missed by anyone intrigued with human nature, enthralled by the theatre, and awestruck over artists who have crafted their expertise with finesse.

Thought provoking in wonderment, breathtaking in the personal revelation of individual characterizations, puzzlement in their predicament, amused and amazed over what can be said and what can’t Tennessee Williams In Three Keys provides it all. The very first thought is what a gorgeous performance, and then comes the question why? Six couples caught in a struggle of communication saying one thing revealing another dimension with their abilities and inabilities, imagination and lack of, limitations and bondages, fears and contrived escape mechanisms answers the question with welcome to the human race.

Williams’ colorful detailed portraits taken off the page and worn with psychologically meticulous finely woven garments as does the six incredible actors provide a window into the thinking process, wonderment, and puzzlement of six characters.

Borrillo and Magness open the window into a cold-water flat on the Lower East Side in Listen To Me Like The Rain…And Let Me Listen. He woke up that morning in a bathtub full of ice in a hotel not knowing how he got there or why. His memory dissolved in alcohol. For three days she hasn’t eaten anything, just sipped water. Desperation sears their eyes. In a distant far away voice she talks about the rain and wanting to go away. The two share their desperation cradled within a deep intimacy. Even without the words, Borrillo and Magness convey the isolation, the separation, the loss of hope and direction with two people who love each other. The silence between them speaks as loudly as the Williams’ poetic flow of words. The plot is scant, but it doesn’t matter because the Man on the bed and the Woman staring out the window into another dimension compels with glued attention.

In Something Unspoken, Diamond embodies Cornelia, a well-to-do Southern spinster in her 60s. The Grand Dame dresses elaborately in a long flowing red velvet gown. Conniving, cunning, Cornelia would like the world to see her in her flamboyant, take charge and run the world as she sees fit. On the surface, for most of the play, Cornelia talks incessantly about a local election for the local chapter of the Daughters of the Confederacy. She wants to be elected Regent, but wants the Chapter members to demand her taking office.

The nerve of the play lies deep beyond the words. Grace Lancaster, a mousy hesitant woman has been her secretary for 15 years. Self esteem hidden behind clouds of uncertainty, Booze contrasts sharply to Diamond’s cutting deliberations.

In the genius of Williams and the genius of Diamond and Booze, the something unspoken creeps into the context of the play revealing what goes on and doesn’t go on between the two. With gestures, looks, fragile tension, Diamond reveals the crack in Cornelia’s façade of loneliness, longing, isolation. Cornelia would choke if she ever thought anyone could sneak a peak through the façade. Grace would dry up and wither away if for one moment she thought Cornelia understood her deeply buried feelings. The something unspoken speaks strongly early on in the play. It doesn’t matter. Diamond and Booze strikingly project the double-sided meaning into two characters that would die if they thought anyone suspected. No one ever told Grace the truth, and truth is what she longs for, a truth that cannot be spoken.

I Can’t Imagine Tomorrow breaks the heart within seconds. An elderly couple, she’s dying and knows it, an elderly man who finds speaking takes great difficulty. He lives in a small hotel in a room without a TV. Every night their ritual repeats itself. He comes to her door. She says, ”Oh, it’s you.” He says, “Yes it’s me.” He doesn’t enter until she asks him to. They play cards; watch the news, and he returns to his hotel room. The love between goes deep. She asks him to write out the first thing that comes into his mind, and he writes, “I love you and I am afraid.” She knows him so well, she can finish the sentences he can’t get out. Hansen and Baierlein’s complex imagery literally takes away the breath. Their nightly ritual coming to an end. She wants him to meet new people. She knows he won’t, so does he. Words are spoken and under current emotions are shouted in poetic cadence.

Baierlein’s set design on the small GSD stage is brilliantly simple and extraordinary. Three levels determine the place for each play. The first takes place on the higher level, the second in the middle, and the third on the lower and middle levels snuggled up to the audience.

Communication is more than words laying it all out there on the various levels as does the staging. Tennessee Williams In Three Keys is a gorgeous production. To miss this experience would be a crime.