‘Iguana’ rains down on Civic
Tennessee Williams’ biggest critical successes were “The Glass Menagerie,” “A Streetcar Named Desire” and “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.” Yet 1961’s “The Night of the Iguana” was no slouch, either.
This story of down-on-their-luck tourists at a down-market Mexican hotel was one of Williams’ biggest Broadway hits in 1961, with Bette Davis, James Farentino, Patrick O’Neal and Margaret Leighton.
John Huston made it into a provocative and controversial film in 1964. Richard Burton, as the defrocked Rev. Shannon, hammed it up on location in Jalisco with Ava Gardner and Deborah Kerr.
Now, it gets a Main Stage revival at the Spokane Civic Theatre, under the direction of talented Civic veteran Marianne McLaughlin, who previously directed the theater’s “Proof” and “The Diary of Anne Frank.”
This production will feature an elaborate set by Peter Hardie that evokes a seedy hotel in the Mexican jungle – complete with onstage rain.
“It will rain – storm! – during the show and run off the roof and hit the stage,” said McLaughlin.
When the play premiered in 1961, critics were generally impressed, calling “Iguana” one of William’s “darkest, saddest and most contemplative plays.”
It has also proven to be surprisingly resilient, filled with the classic Williams themes of loneliness, self-deception, flawed humanity and inner courage.
“Iguana” contains several enduring creations, including the flawed Rev. Shannon, who has been defrocked for “fornication and heresy” and who now shepherds discount tour groups of women around Mexico.
“Williams funneled a lot of his personality and whole life into this character,” said McLaughlin. “They shared the same struggles between the light and dark parts of their personalities.”
It was a struggle that would ultimately contribute to Williams’ death in 1983, after a long personal and artistic decline. “Iguana” was his last significant success.
New York Times critic Vincent Canby called Shannon “a mysterious, inspired amalgam of Williams’ memory, insight, fear, bravado and imagination” and the “most complex male character Williams ever wrote.”
Canby also called “Iguana” the most difficult of Williams’ plays to stage today, and “the most easily misinterpreted.”
Misinterpretation might be a generous term to describe the 1964 movie version, which was marketed under the titillating slogan, “One man … three women … one night …”
One recent stage revival apparently got it right: The BBC said that the 2006 London production with Woody Harrelson as Rev. Shannon was “dense and intense.”
In the Civic production, Rev. Shannon is played by Ric Benson, a newcomer to the Civic stage but a veteran performer in other venues.
Melody Deatherage plays Maxine, the widow who runs the tourist hotel. Manuela Peters, another Civic newcomer, plays Hannah, a painter who is traveling with her grandfather.
The rest of the cast includes Tanya Barton, Chris Carbis, Judi Pratt, Troy Heppner, Brian Cheney, Aaron Engeldinger and Brandon Jones.