The Rose Tattoo and Other Plays

In these three exotic, steamy dramas Tennessee Williams portrays loss, faded lives and passionate love affairs. The Rose Tattoo is set in a bustling, Sicilian-American community, where newly widowed Serafina is paralysed by grief. But when she has her romantic illusions about her dead husband shattered, she rediscovers her true nature as a fiery prima donna, in a life-affirming celebration of love and sex. Tennessee Williams explored a new 'wild and unrestricted' theatrical form in Camino Real, a colourful tropical fantasy which was described by The New York Times as a play of genuinely poetic vision. Orpheus Descending, however, takes us into the famillar dark territory of Williams's Deep South: the corrupt hell of a small, brutal township, where a forbidden and tragic love affair sparks horrific violence.