The Night of the Iguana by Tennessee Williams Excellent

The Night of the Iguana by Tennessee Williams

Excellent

 

What a great play! And there is also a movie based on the work of Tennessee Williams.

All the characters are fascinating, except perhaps for the “pool boys”, who are torturing the iguana, albeit on orders from their boss.

Shannon is at the center of it all.

He is the rugged man, with plenty of vices and failures- perhaps we could even call him “loser” in some ways.

And yet he is the coveted prize that three women want, all the major female personages, including a supporting role.

Reverend Lawrence Shannon has been defrocked and ever since he had spoken out in a sermon that had offended people and got him out of the church, he works in the travel business.

At the beginning of the play, we meet Shannon as he is taking a group of women to the hotel run by his friend Maxine Faulk.

As a tour guide, he has managed to upset the leader, who is concerned by the relationship between Shannon and young Charlotte Goodall.

The fact is that the two have spent the previous night together, but Shannon is nearly 100% innocent, since the young woman had busted in his room.

Furthermore, she did not take no for an answer and insinuated herself into the bed of the former reverend.

Another central character is Maxine Faulk, who is now a widow, after her husband – Frank- had died a short while ago.

She is a very strong, determined, resilient and brave woman. She does come across as harsh and cold hearted at times.

Even more, she seems to be immoral and ruthless, at least when we hear how she had hired two Mexicans, who appear to act as gigolos. They had been brought at the hotel while Frank was alive.

The dead husband had not minded and the marriage had been a strange arrangement, with Frank an intriguing, if secondary personage.

Maxine wants Shannon to stay. Well, I am wrong- not just to stay, but to act as official replacement for Frank.

To the two women who want Shannon we must add a third, albeit more mysterious woman – Hannah Jelkes, played in the movie by Deborah Kerr.

Ava Gardner was Maxine and the wonderful Richard Burton played the sinful reverend.

Hannah Jelkes comes to the hotel with yet another worthy character – her grandfather, who is a poet. Maxine is annoyed by the presence of a rival

-          Let Shannon alone, you think I did not see the energy going on between the two of you??

Maxine wants the woman painter and her poet grandfather to go to another pension in the town, where she makes arrangements.

Indeed, Hannah and her elderly relative are paupers; they have no more money after they had to buy a wheel chair.

But she is a proud and strong woman, making me wonder-

-          Who is stronger, Maxine or Hannah?

On the face of it, Maxine would win, with her more brutish, unscrupulous ways.

But a woman ready to travel alone around the world, after having escorted and caring for a ninety seven year old man is to be reckoned with.

A wonderful play, with amazing characters.