Tennessee Williams:
The Blue Piano/ The Blue Guitar
Playwright: Tennessee Williams
Direction: Fred Abrahamse
Set & Costume Design: Marcel Meyer
Cast: Matthew Baldwin, Zoë McLaughlin, Marcel Meyer
Musical Direction & Accompaniment: Jaco Griesel
Venues: The Vineyard Hotel, Cape Town
Dates: September/October 2021
About: Tennessee Williams, the most lyrical of poet/playwrights, lifted the spoken word to sublime, musical heights through his inspired use of language while incorporating music itself in telling ways in many of his works. Tennessee Williams: The Blue Piano/The Blue Guitar is a celebration of Williams’ most beautiful and haunting words. Extended speeches that are practically arias and lyrical scenes that soar like duets were interlaced with a selection of musical numbers Williams adored and referenced in his plays. The programme featured extracts from some of Williams’ most celebrated plays including The Glass Menagerie [1945], A Streetcar Named Desire [1947], Summer and Smoke [1948], Camino Real [1953] and Orpheus Descending [1957]. Musical numbers included unforgettable standards from the Great American Songbook like “It’s Only A Paper Moon”, “On A Slow Boat to China” and “You’re the Only Star in My Blue Heaven” alongside haunting Mexican canciones like “La Golondrina” and “Noche De Ronda”.
What the Press Said:
“Sophistication and polish, the perennial hallmarks of A&M Productions, remain undiminished despite the challenges attendant on recurring waves of the covid pandemic... Words combine with music in a lyrical fusion as vignette succeeds vignette with the first half of the programme featuring the keyboard and the second half, the guitar…This is intimate theatre at its professional best… However, The Blue Piano/The Blue Guitar is more than just another show: with the combination of carefully crafted set, meticulous evocation of Williams’ distinctive world, and a six-course supper as true to period as everything else in this production, it is more like time-travel to another age, its pace skilfully controlled by Abrahamse’s astute direction…Five-star entertainment.” WEEKEND SPECIAL
“Enchanting! I was entranced by The Blue Piano/The Blue Guitar– spectacular costumes, and captivating performances in this immersive theatre show- How to describe the show? It is more than a revue. It is more than a compilation of snippets from Tennessee Williams plays- and music which he referenced and in some cases which were sung in his plays. The Blue Piano/The Blue Guitar is a multi-layered and highly considered musical-theatrical piece- with the first half centred around the Blue Piano and the 2nd around the Blue Guitar. The show is a feast of theatre, food, and the delicious lines of Tennessee Williams. The show is whimsical, elegiac, hopeful and utterly entertaining. It is about being transported by music, song, writing, alluring costumes, and sitting in a musical theatre spectacle.” THE CAPE ROBYN