Double helping of Tennessee Williams
5:20pm Sunday 5th September 2010 in News
HE was one of the great American playwrights, and this month there will be not one, but two plays by Tennessee Williams produced for theatregoers in Bolton.
On September 16, the Octagon will open its new season with the classic, A Streetcar Named Desire, directed by David Thacker.
And Farnworth Little Theatre has embarked on a dramatic challenge with the first production of its new season, opening tonight, The Glass Menagerie.
Williams was born in 1911 and, despite a troubled family and love life, wrote some of the most enduring plays of the 20th century.
He penned around 30 major works in addition to the works being produced in Bolton this month, including Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Suddenly, Last Summer.
A Streetcar Named Desire won him the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1948.
The Octagon’s production stars local actress Amy Nuttall in the role of Stella Kowalski.
Amy, who is best known for her role as Chloe in Emmerdale, said: “It’s nice to be back in Bolton again.
“We’re currently half-way through the rehearsals. I’m completely in awe of the talent I’m working with and looking forward to the biggest mountain of the challenge ahead!”
Amy will be appearing opposite Kieran Hill, with whom she starred in last season’s production of The Hired Man, as Stella’s husband, Stanley.
The role of Stanley was most famously played by a then-unknown Marlon Brando in the 1947 Broadway premiere of the play.
Clare Foster will be taking on the role of Blanche DuBois, Stella’s emotionally unstable sister.
Director David Thacker said: “Rehearsals are going fantastically well, I’m so pleased to be working with such a talented group of actors.
“We have some new faces among the cast as well as some Octagon regulars who appeared in a couple of last season’s productions.
“A Streetcar Named Desire is a play that I think audiences will really love. It packs an enormous emotional punch, with a compelling narrative that will leave any audience deeply moved.”
At Farnworth Little Theatre, The Glass Menagerie tells the story of the slow breakdown of a St Louis family whose lives are invaded by loneliness.
The play, which runs until next Saturday, is directed by Helen Hamilton, and stars Joyce Smith as the abandoned wife, Amanda Wingfield.
Morag Peacock will play Amanda’s shy, crippled daughter, Laura, while Alfie Howard will play her son Tom, a poet confined by a job in a warehouse and longing to escape his mother’s grasp.
Jog Maher will take on the role of the gentleman caller.
Helen said: “I wanted to direct the play because of its strong emotional appeal and because of the challenge it presents in evoking the atmosphere of the period in Mid-West America.”
● Tickets for The Glass Menagerie cost £7 and can be booked via farnworth littletheatre.co.uk or by ringing 0845 643 0808.
Tickets for A Streetcar Named Desire cost £9.50 to £21.50. To book, visit octagonbolton.co.uk or ring 01204 520661.
