Tennessee Williams Spotlight at the NFSA

Overview

One of America's most acclaimed playwrights, Tennessee Williams was born Thomas Lanier Williams in Columbus, Mississippi, in 1911. He once said of his parents' relationship, 'it was just the wrong marriage,' and the subject matter of his plays reveals a close observation of marital conflict. His overbearing father became the model for Big Daddy in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. At the same time, the story of his sister, who was given a lobotomy to treat psychiatric issues, emerges in Suddenly, Last Summer.

His plays were often adapted into films, drawing Hollywood heavyweights including Marlon Brando, Elizabeth Taylor, Paul Newman, Richard Burton, Vivien Leigh, Katharine Hepburn, Ava Gardner and Montgomery Clift.

Williams' work evokes the tension and poignancy of an American South in decline. His characters are trapped within rigid societal expectations and use illusion and fantasy to help them repress reality. As a gay man, he wrote frankly about sexuality, presenting both gay and female sexuality on the American stage for the first time.