Playwright: Tennessee Williams
At: Bailiwick Repertory Theater
Tickets: $20 - $25
Phone: 773-883-1090
Runs through: May 27
by Gregg Shapiro
Tennessee Williams, who would have been 90 years old March 26, took a look back over his creative and personal life in his 1982 play Something Cloudy, Something Clear. Set in 1940, a 30-year-old Southern playwright named August ( Tom Arvetis ) is squatting in a rundown shack on the beach in Provincetown, Mass. He is working on the revisions of what will be his first big theatrical success. While there, he is visited by a series of people, real and imagined, from his present and his past.
The first visit is by a young couple. Kip ( the stunning Jason Vizza ) and Clare ( Rebecca Prescott ) , are heavenly creatures in love with each other, earthbound by their ailments. Clare, a 20-year-old, self-described "sexually precocious Alabama kid," is a diabetic whose failing kidneys and frequent hospitalizations have put her at the mercy of Bugsy Brodsky ( Dennis Murphy ) a hateful gangster who will support her ( thereby maintaining her health ) in exchange for sexual favors. Kip is a Canadian dancer, in the United States illegally, who is suffering from brain cancer. When the duo met August in a bar the night before, they noticed his attraction to Kip, and decided that he would be a good sponsor for the young man.
Like Kip and Clare, August has had to use his survival skills to get him where he is, although his drinking threatens his existence. For example, a drunk and potentially violent seaman ( Dennis Murphy ) , with whom August had sex the night before, shows up at the shack calling August names and demanding money while Kip and Clare are there. However, he returns again, after Kip and Clare have gone, for another sexual bout.
Other visitors include his longtime companion Frank ( Tom Higgins ) on his deathbed; his producer ( Tom Higgins ) and his wife Celeste ( Kate Harris ) who have brought the actress Caroline Wales ( Alanda Coon ) with them to the Cape to collect the revisions; childhood friend Hazel ( Alanda Coon ) , and another actress, Tallulah Bankhead ( Kate Harris ) , with whom August ( a/k/a Williams ) had a working relationship and a friendship.
In any event, August, Kip and Clare begin a series of negotiations, compromises, and arrangements, thereby revealing the main focus of the play, which is "the exigencies of desperation." Laden with symbolism and an abundance of "Williamsisms," Something Cloudy, Something Clear is more cloudy than clear. The two male leads are like beacons in the fog, and are the main reason for seeing this somewhat awkward production. However, in its brief flashes of clarity, we are reminded of Williams's way with words and his ability to create unusual characters.