Studio Takes On Tennessee Williams
“Suddenly Last Summer” may not have been Tennessee Williams’ most notorious play, but it may have been his most notorious movie.
This brief (one-act) play was filmed in 1959 starring Elizabeth Taylor, Katharine Hepburn and Montgomery Clift. Although it was bowdlerized for the screen, it dealt with the controversial subject of homosexuality.
The 1958 play was more direct. It’s about Catharine, the only surviving witness to her homosexual cousin’s murder. She is already traumatized by the memory, but the psychological trauma builds when the man’s family brings her into a New Orleans garden for an inquisition into the truth.
On stage, it was hardly a success on the level of Williams’ “The Glass Menagerie,” “A Streetcar Named Desire” or “Cat On A Hot Tin Roof.” However, it had a long run at an off-Broadway theater and went on tour.
As a movie, it was hot news, although not a huge popular success. Moviegoers complained that they couldn’t understand it, possibly because it had been altered so substantially.
The Firth Chew Studio Theatre at the Spokane Civic Theatre gives theater-goers a chance to see it in its original state.
The director is Marilyn Langbehn. Gretchen Oyster plays Catharine, the Elizabeth Taylor role. Barbara Gale plays Mrs. Venable, the Katharine Hepburn role. Other cast members are Jack Lippard, Signe Nall, Phyllis Silver, Jason Emery and Sandra Smith-Hosking.
The show opens Friday and continues Saturday, March 14-16, 21-24 and 28-30. All shows are 8 p.m. except the March 24 Sunday matinee.
Tickets are $8, available by calling 325-2507. The Firth Chew Studio Theatre is in the basement of Spokane Civic Theatre, 1020 N. Howard St.
‘The ACT Revues Broadway … Once More with Feeling’
The irrepressible cabaret performers of The ACT Theatre in the Valley return tonight with a musical revue to benefit the Spokane AIDS Network.
Troy Nickerson directs this tour of Broadway musical history from the 1930s to the 1990s.
The show will include comic patter, torchy ballads, tender love songs, old standards and rude satire.
The performers include Nickerson, Kathie Doyle-Lipe, David Gigler, Jean Hardie, Patrick McHenryKroetch, Marianne McLaughlin, Shawna Avery, Heidi Groshoff and Zeke Maloney. Carol Miyamoto is the music director and accompanist.
Tonight’s performance is dedicated to the memory of Scott Bailey, who organized many previous AIDS benefits in Spokane.
After tonight’s benefit performance, the show will continue Friday at 8 p.m., Sunday at 7 p.m., March 15 and 16 at 8 p.m. and March 17 at 2 p.m.
Tickets are $10, available by calling 921-1706. The ACT Theatre is at 425 N. Evergreen in the Valley.
‘The Prisoner of Second Avenue’
The Spokane Falls Community College Playhouse presents one of Neil Simon’s most popular comedies, “The Prisoner of Second Avenue.”
The play is about Mel and Edna Edison, who discover through many travails that they can survive corporate downsizing.
The show opens Friday and continues Saturday and March 14-16. All shows are at 8 p.m. except the March 14 matinee at 2:30 p.m.
Tickets are $5 general admission, $3 for seniors and students.
‘The Spirit of Golem’
Washington State University’s Theater presents an original script by faculty member Lou Furman.
“The Spirit of Golem” is about a 17-year-old Jewish girl who finds the strength to confront her alcoholism.
The show runs tonight, Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., with an additional matinee on Saturday at 2 p.m. Tickets are $8, available by calling the theater box office (509) 335-7236.
The play is in Daggy Hall’s R.R. Jones Theatre on the WSU campus in Pullman.
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