Tennessee Williams' heartbreaking and daring play

Charing Cross Theatre presents a very rare, limited engagement staging of Tennessee Williams' visceral 1969 drama about artistic paralysis and clashing cultures. Only the second UK staging ever performed to date, it premiered in 1983 upon the death of Williams at this very same venue, albeit under the name,New End Theatre. Linda Marlowe plays the codependent wife of a famous artist, desperate not to relinquish her wealth in the face of his struggles.

What is it about?

Far away from their New York home, world-renowned painter Mark and his grasping wife Miriam are holed up in a hotel in Tokyo. Whilst Mark is unable to create any new works due to stress, his wife is the epitome of the Ugly American abroad, drowning her sorrows in the bar of the hotel and attempting to seduce the Japanese barman, lamenting the breakdown of her marriage and future poverty.In a last-ditch attempt to preserve their wealth, she impulsively invites his art dealer to join them in Japan, in order to spur Mark's creativity (and to secure her own future). However, events take a tragic turn and Miriam is left to ponder her own, now very precarious future.