anthoullis_1 by Bookart.gr

B R O K E N G AT E S

~1~

ANTHOULLIS DEMOSTHENOUS

PHOTOGRAPHS

C H R I S T O S AV R A M I D I S LAYOUT & DESIGN

IOANNIS K. TSIGKAS BOOKART ΓΡ

9 7 8 - 6 1 8 - 5 1 9 1 - 2 7 - 6 Kapa Publishing House, 2019

~2~

ANTHOULLIS DEMOSTHENOUS

Tennessee Williams The Night of the Iguana PRODUCTION

Limassol Development Company Theatre (ETHAL) Central Stage March 2018

DIRECTOR

ANTHOULLIS DEMOSTHENOUS ASSISTANT DIRECTOR

VA L A N D I S F R A G O S SET DESIGNER

GEORGE YIANNOU COSTUME DESIGNER

R E A O LY M P I O U LIGHT DESIGNER

ANTHOULLIS DEMOSTHENOUS

Starring ELENA PAPADOPOULOU

as Hannah Jelkes

VALANDIS FRAGOS

as Reverend Lawrence Shannon COSTAS VIHAS

as Jonathan Coffin (Nonno) ELENA HEILETI

as Maxine Faulk FANI PETSA

as Judith Fellowes MELPO COLOMVOU

as Charlotte Goodall DEMETRIS MAHAIRAS

as Jake Latta

DEMETRIS CONSTANTINIDES

as Hank

~4~

ANTHOULLIS DEMOSTHENOUS

ANIMATED SAINTS

Annette J. Saddik, Ph.D. C I T Y U N I V E R S I T Y O F N E W YO R K

~6~

B R O K E N G AT E S

nthoullis Demosthenous’s minimalistic production of Tennessee Williams’s 1961 play, The Night of the Iguana, focuses on the spiritual connection between the angelic Hannah Jelkes--a “spinster” who is described as “ethereal,” suggesting “a Gothic cathedral image of a medieval saint, but animated”1--and the Reverend T. Lawrence Shannon, a disgraced Episcopal minister “at the end of his rope,”2 who was thrown out of his church for the sins of “fornication” and “heresy” after proclaiming God a “senile delinquent” who blames his creation “for his own faults in construction.”3 After his removal and subsequent breakdown, Shannon conducts Mexican bus tours, yet even this proves to be too much for his fragile nerves, as the tour company has put him on probation, and he interrupts his most recent tour of teachers and students from a Baptist female college in Texas with an unplanned stop at the Costa Verde hotel, feeling as if he “can’t go on.”4 The action takes place at this resort, located on the cliffs of a Mexican beach during the summer of 1940, with the impending evils of World War II looming in the background. The other central characters include Hannah’s poet-grandfather, Nonno; Charlotte, a teenage student whom Shannon seduced on the tour (and who is now pursuing him); and the overtly sexual and recently widowed proprietor of the hotel, Maxine, who is also in pursuit of Shannon. Shannon’s tour is cut short when his fellow guides and the unforgiving school mistress, Mrs. Fellows--who has no sympathy for Shannon’s predicament and is enraged by both the conditions of the tour and Shannon’s licentious behavior--insist that they depart and leave him, ensuring the end of his employment. Shannon’s choice to take refuge at the “very Bohemian”5 Costa Verde serves as a direct contrast to the unbearable repressions of religious piety. In keeping with Maxine’s openly sexual nature, the resort employs two young Mexican boys, who apparently serve her in other ways as well. Completing the scene are a group of German tourists identified as Nazis and described consistently as overtly physical, excessive, and grotesque, often drowning out any delicacy with their bawdy, ambivalent laughter. In this streamlined production, however, the Germans don’t appear, as has sometimes been the case in productions, and in the John Huston 1964 film; they tend to either get cut for logistical reasons, or are dismissed as minor characters. Regardless,

the physical excess and sinister energy compounded by their presence permeates this play. In the character of Hannah, however, Williams rejects both the hypocritical agents of pious religious repression and the “mad pilgrimage of the flesh” that he had questioned in his Notebooks,6 offering us a more generous, spiritual embodiment of religion through her understanding and gentility. While Hannah signifies purity, pointing to heaven and a transcendence of the body, she is not above physical expressions of human connection, and understands the desperate exigencies of loneliness, insisting that “Nothing human disgusts [her] unless it’s unkind, violent.”7 She offers Shannon forgiveness when he cannot forgive himself. The tension between the spiritual and the physical, a split that takes center stage in several of Williams’s plays, is one that is ultimately shown to be artificial and destructive, yet is often at the core of human struggles with desire. Williams maintained that while his work was not strictly autobiographical, it was indeed “emotionally autobiographical,” explaining that “there was a combination of Puritan and Cavalier strains in my blood which may be accountable for the conflicting impulses I often represent in the people I write about.”8 The tensions between physical passion and ethereal purity in Iguana echo this duality, and although the play can be performed as a realistic script, its emphasis on religious symbolism points to its “fantastic” essence, a term Shannon uses repeatedly throughout the play. Demosthenous’s production prioritizes the play’s symbolic and spiritual focus through its allegorical split. This production eschews mundane realistic details, and instead highlights Shannon’s spiritual transformation, finally portraying him as a saintly figure, a choice supported by his namesake, Saint Lawrence. Williams often referenced saints in his plays of this period, such as Saint Valentine and Saint Xavier in Orpheus Descending (1957), Saint Sebastian in Suddenly Last Summer (1958), or Saint Christopher in The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore (1962). In line with the purity of this staging, the Costa Verde is suggested only by a small pile of coconuts in the corner, and its simplicity allows the focus to remain on spiritual transcendence. Ultimately, this production reminds us that Iguana is a play about human contradiction and connection in its many forms, and the moments of beauty and grace that save us.

1 Tennessee Williams, The Night of the Iguana, in Three by Tennessee (New York: Signet Modern Classics, 1976), 21. 2 Ibid., 26. 3 Ibid., 58-60. 4 Ibid., 12. 5 Ibid., 5. 6 Tennessee Williams, Notebooks, ed. Margaret Bradham Thornton (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007), 131. 7 Williams, The Night of the Iguana, 117. 8 Tennessee Williams, “Facts About Me,” in New Selected Essays: Where I Live, ed. John S. Bak (New York: New Directions, 2009) 65.

~7~

PROLOGUE

hen the Night of the Iguana was staged, I saw before me something beautiful. I was certain of that as of the opening night on March 2, 2018. I was aware that people would attribute its byzantine style to the arbitrariness of the Byzantinist director. I, however, did not see anything of mine in this performance. I only saw the soul and mind of Tennessee Williams. These were exactly the things I wanted to serve; to show not what the texts says but what the playwright means. The reviews were not positive. I had to accept that a part of the public was unable to make a connection with the performance. I accepted the reality of the fact and a few weeks later I visited Orlando to participate in a theatre conference. There, my course, and with it Iguana’s course, were marked by a specific person. I saw this participant in all the sessions I chose to attend. He had become the terror of all speakers with his scathing, squashing but always pertinent comments. We were going to speak at the same session. During my presentation I showed extensive visual material from the performance of the Night of the Iguana. I anticipated the worst reaction, at least from this specific academic. I was shocked by the unexpected overturn. His comments were more than praising. This person was Henry I. Schvey, Professor of Drama at the Washington University in St Louis, director and internationally acknowledged scholar of Williams’ oeuvre. In our private meeting afterwards he told me many things about the failed in the eyes of the Cypriot “experts” performance. I repeat here only one: “This was a staging that Tennessee Williams would have liked”. Later, at a conference in France, the visual material from the production was positively received by the top scholar on Williams’ oeuvre Dr. Annette Saddik, a Professor of English Theatre at the City University of New York. The production that was staged at a theatre in the middle of nowhere is taught at Universities in the U.S. and has gained the respect of sacred monsters of the artistic drama community. This is one of the reasons for the publishing of this album; because an album can only contain and preserve something momentous. The Director

INTERPRETING TENNESSEE WILLIAMS’

NIGHT OF

THE IGUANA

he Night of the Iguana is one of Williams’ most difficult plays. In my view, its understanding requires the decoding of symbolisms and allegories by studying it in conjunction with two biblical texts: Genesis and the Revelation. Genesis informs us that on the fifth day of Creation the sea washed ashore terrible monsters; dragons like crocodiles and other reptiles. However… God saw that it was good… The Fathers of the Church in their interpretation of Genesis explain that God allowed these creatures to exist because they are the bearers of Evil and that Good cannot triumph unless it is confronted with Evil. Fathers like Anastasios and Procopius of Gaza ascertain that saints become spiritually established when they face the monsters of the fifth day. On the other hand, John in the Revelation describes the end of the world in reference to the presence of the dragon but also to the all-powerful woman who shall vanquish him forcing him in the end to retreat (…a woman clothed with the sun…). Mary who is described in the Revelation refers to the virgin Hannah Jelkes in Williams’ play. The main character, the preacher who was defrocked must go through his own night and confront his passions: temptation, the devil that is cryptographically depicted in the form of a reptile, the iguana. Reverend Lawrence Shannon’s support is Hannah Jelkes, the woman who has managed to subjugate the “blue devil”. Is her help enough for Lawrence Shannon to beat the “iguana”, his demonic side? Is perhaps the light of the virtuous virgin his own path to holiness? Is it possible that in this battle St George must be beaten by the dragon? Must perhaps Lawrence/ Laurentius be consumed by the flames of his passions on an imaginary griddle in order to redeem himself through martyrdom? Doesn’t the puppet of the devil, Maxine Faulk, finally push him to moral destruction but also to spiritual recognition? Is perhaps the remark by J. Thompson about Shannon’s course, true? He proceeds in contrary motion, in flight from the presence of God; but like St John, he finds that the way down leads up (J.J. Thompson, Tennessee Williams’ Plays: Memory, Myth, and Symbol, New York 1987). Anthoullis A. Demosthenous

ANTHOULLIS DEMOSTHENOUS

THE

INTRODUCTION

he set depicts the landscape of a psyche. Shannon’s inner world: Calvary, the griddle of the martyrdom and the remains of faith (the ruins of Nicodemus’ cistern). Incense is burnt in the room; the olfactory memories of the audience are awakened. The frankincense is a reference to the church. The audience enters the theatre as a congregation. The pastor is on stage with his back to the audience like the priests when they officiate in front of the altar. Holy melodies from Rachmaninov’s vespers are filling the space. Reverend Shannon takes his place at the pulpit and preaches. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The pedestal of authority collapses and he crashes to the ground when doubt sneaks into his mind in the form of jungle sounds. The wailings of the iguana are deafening. Four members of the congregation rise from their seats. They surround him while he is lying down. They stare at him condescendingly. Tennessee Williams wanted his body to be buried at sea. He was buried at the Calvary cemetery; the shape of the tombstone refers to Nicodemus’ cistern and is engraved with an orthodox Russian cross. ~ 10 ~

B R O K E N G AT E S

THE

CISTERN OF

LIFE

he bare, sliding floor and the upward movement it entails for the actors, stands for the ascension to a waste land of pain and suffering, a reference to Golgotha or the Heavenly Ladder, leading from earth to heaven and from sin to salvation, according to the treatise written in the early seventh century by the monk John Scholastikos. Albeit the ascent leads the way to Eden, fall from the Heavenly Ladder does not necessarily signify the descent to the realm of the devil. In Anthoullis Demosthenous’ stage approach it could also mean an esoteric dive or the way downwards to an inlaid, subterranean cistern, which is solely accessible to Hannah Jelkes. There she receives in a Holy Grail the holy water from the Cictern of Nicodemus, at Salamis, as it is known, having taken its name from the patron of the adjacent sixth century wall-painting, which depicts a Nile landscape with Christ portrait on a central medallion in connection with a crocodile –the closest correspondence to the figures

of Shannon and iguana- as an external juxtaposition of good and evil. During the early Christian years but also during the Iconoclast (730-842), church decoration focused on animal and vegetal motifs, each bearing its own allegoric symbolism. The river Nile constitutes the utterly substantial mingling of earth and water in lush vegetation and an abundance of living creatures, birds, serpent and fish. It becomes the most fecund materiality taken by the water in its incessant flow to the maternal infinity of the sea, which swallows grief and our everyday little births, drowning the sun every night in its “liquid moonlight” and giving it a new birth in the morning. The inscription on the fresco at the Cistern on Nicodemus transmits a sublime message of purification, catharsis and rejuvenation (from heavens): “Thus say the Lord I heal these waters”.

~ 11 ~

Dr Nadia Anaxagorou

ANTHOULLIS DEMOSTHENOUS

~ 12 ~

B R O K E N G AT E S

FA L L I N G FROM THE

PULPIT HANNAH: I can imagine that it… provoked some comment. SHANNON: That it did, it did that. So the next Sunday when into the pulpit and looked down over all those smug, disapproving, accusing faces uplifted, I had an impulse to shake them –so I shook them. I had a prepared sermon –meek, apologetic- I threw it away, tossed it into the chancel. Look here, I said, I shouted, I’am tired of conducting services in praise and worship of a senile delinquent – yeah, that’s what I said, I shouted! All your western theologies, the whole mythology of them, are based on the concept of God as a senile delinquent and, by God, I will not and cannot continue to conduct services in praise and worship of this, this…this…

~ 13 ~

ANTHOULLIS DEMOSTHENOUS

THE

SHADOW MAXINE:

I have a little shadow That goes in and out with me, And what can be the use of him Is more than I can see. He’s very, very like me, From his heels up to his head, And he always hops before me When I hop into my bed […]

SHANNON: Maxine, you’re bigger than life and twice an unnatural… […] MAXINE: Aw-aw, I see you got on your gold cross. That’s bad sign, it means you’re thinkin’ again about goin’back to the Church.

~ 14 ~

B R O K E N G AT E S

~ 15 ~

ANTHOULLIS DEMOSTHENOUS

~ 16 ~

B R O K E N G AT E S

THE

LIGHT [Hannah appears at the top of the path, pushing her grand-father, Nonno, in a wheelchair. He is a very old man but has a powerful voice for his age and always seems to be shouting something of importanceâ&#x20AC;Ś] MAXINE: They look like a pair of loonies. SHANNON: Shut up.

~ 17 ~

ANTHOULLIS DEMOSTHENOUS

THE

HELPLESS CHARLOTTE: I don’t believe you don’t love me. SHANNON: Honey, it’s almost impossible for anybody to believe they’re not loved by someone they believe they love, but, honey, I love nobody. I’m like that, it isn’t my fault. […] CHARLOTTE: Help me and let me help you. SHANNON: The helpless can’t help the helpless!

~ 18 ~

B R O K E N G AT E S

~ 19 ~

ANTHOULLIS DEMOSTHENOUS

~ 20 ~

B R O K E N G AT E S

SHANNON AND

NONNO [He is being fiercely, almost mockingly tender with the old man- a thing we are when the pathos of the old, the ancient, the dying is such a wound to our own (savagely beleaguered) nerves and sensibilities that this outside demand on us is beyond our collateral, our emotional reserve. This is as true of Hannah as it is of Shannon, of course. They have both overdrawn their reserves at this point of the encounter between them.]

~ 21 ~

ANTHOULLIS DEMOSTHENOUS

~ 22 ~

B R O K E N G AT E S

HANNAH JELKES Hannah is remarkable-looking â&#x20AC;&#x201C; ethereal, almost ghostly. She suggests a Gothic cathedral image of a medieval saint, but animated. She could be thirty, she could be forty: she is totally feminine and yet androgynous-looking- almost timeless.

~ 23 ~

ANTHOULLIS DEMOSTHENOUS

~ 24 ~

B R O K E N G AT E S

THE

ANGEL OF THE

RESURRECTION Nothing human disgusts me unless it’s unkind, violent…

~ 25 ~

ANTHOULLIS DEMOSTHENOUS

STILL WA T E R S HANNAH: I have a strong feeling you will go back to the Church with this evidence you’ve been collecting, but when you do and it’s a black Sunday morning, look out over the congregation, over the smug, complacent faces for a few old, very old faces, looking up at you, as you begin your sermon, with eyes like a piercing cry for something to still look up to, something to still believe in. And then I think you’ll not shout what you say you shouted that black Sunday in Pleasant valley, Virginia. I think you will throw away the violent, furious sermon, you’ll toss it into the chancel, and talk about… no, maybe talk about… nothing… just… SHANNON: What? HANNAH: Lead them beside still waters because you know how badly they need the still waters, Mr Shannon.

~ 26 ~

B R O K E N G AT E S

~ 27 ~

ANTHOULLIS DEMOSTHENOUS

LIQUIDS OF

DOOM AND

LIQUIDS OF

S A LVA T I O N SHANNON: I can’t see what you’re up to, Miss Jelkes honey, but I’d almost swear you’re making a pot of tea over there. HANNAH: That is just what I’m doing. SHANNON: Does this strike you as the right time for a tea party? HANNAH: This isn’t plain tea, this is poppyseed tea. SHANNON: Are you slave to the poppy? HANNAH: It’s a mild, sedative drink that helps you get through nights that are hard for you to get through and I’m making it for my grandfather and myself as well as for you Mr. Shannon.

~ 28 ~

B R O K E N G AT E S

~ 29 ~

ANTHOULLIS DEMOSTHENOUS

~ 30 ~

B R O K E N G AT E S

THE

LAST SUPPER HANNAH: Nonno? We’ve made a friend here. Nonno, this is Reverend Mr. Shannon. NONNO: Reverend? HANNAH: Mr. Shannon’s an Episcopal clergyman, Nonno. NONNO: A man of God? HANNAH: A man of God, on vacation. […] NONNO: Ask him to …give the blessing. Mexican food needs blessing. SHANNON: Sir, you give the blessing. I’ll be right with you. […] NONNO: Bless this food to our use, and ourselves to Thy service. Amen. SHANNON: Amen.

~ 31 ~

ANTHOULLIS DEMOSTHENOUS

~ 32 ~

B R O K E N G AT E S

LADY SHANNON: I’m going to tell you something about yourself. You are a lady, a real one and a great one. HANNAH: What have I done to merit that compliment from you? SHANNON: It isn’t a compliment; it’s just a report on what I’ve noticed about you at a time when it’s hard for me to notice anything outside myself.

~ 33 ~

ANTHOULLIS DEMOSTHENOUS

~ 34 ~

B R O K E N G AT E S

GOD IS

COMING HANNAH: Here is your God, Mr. Shannon. SHANNON: Yes I see him, I hear him, I know him. And if he doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know that I know him, let him strike me dead with a bolt of his lightning.

~ 35 ~

ANTHOULLIS DEMOSTHENOUS

AT TA C K OF THE

EVIL FORCES LATTA: Let’s have the bus key, Larry… SHANNON: The bus key is in my pocket… Want it? Try and get it, Fatso! LATTA: What language for a reverend to use, Mrs. Faulk… HANK: Larry, I got to get that ignition key now so we can get moving down there. [Hank puts a wrestler’s armlock on Shannon and Latta removes the bus key from his pocket… Maxine reappears at the corner of the verandah, with the ceremonial rapidity of a cuckoo bursting from a clock to announce the hour. She just stands there an incongruous grin, her big eyes unblinking, as if they were painted on her round beaming face.] […] MISS FELLOWES: Wait till they get my report!... Oh, preach that in a pulpit, Reverend Shannon de-frocked!

~ 36 ~

B R O K E N G AT E S

~ 37 ~

ANTHOULLIS DEMOSTHENOUS

~ 38 ~

B R O K E N G AT E S

GOD IS

COMING [The Germans troop up from the beach. They are delighted by the drama that Shannon has provided. In their scanty swimsuits they parade onto the verandah and gather about Shannonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s captive figure as if they were looking at a funny animal in a zoo.]

n The Night of the Iguana, the Germans are characterized as art or fiction, symbols that float around the margins of the play like menacing creaturesâ&#x20AC;ŚHannah therefore signifies purity, pointing to heaven and a transcendence of the body, while the Germans are lascivious, ravenous devils reveling in lowly pleasures. A.J. Saddik, Tennessee Williams and the Theatre of Excess. The Strange, The Crazed, The Queer, Cambridge 2015, 25-27.

~ 39 ~

ANTHOULLIS DEMOSTHENOUS

BROKEN G AT E S SHANNON: What is my problem? HANNAH: The oldest one in the world –the need to believe in something or in someone – almost anyone– almost anything…something. […] SHANNON: Something like… God? HANNAH: Broken gates between people so they can reach each other, even if it’s just for one night only.

~ 40 ~

B R O K E N G AT E S

~ 41 ~

ANTHOULLIS DEMOSTHENOUS

~ 42 ~

B R O K E N G AT E S

THE

MARTYRDOM OF

SAINT L AW R E N C E SHANNON [In a few moments Shannon is hauled back through the bushes and onto the verandah by Maxine and the boys. They rope him into the hammock.] […] SHANNON: What’s simple? HANNAH: Nothing, except for simpletons, Mr. Shannon. […] SHANNON: Just light a cigarette for me and put it in my mouth and take it out when you hear me choking on it… I have a pack of my own in my pocket. I don’t know which pocket, you’ll have to frisk me for it… Now light it for me and put it in my mouth. [She complies with these directions. Almost at once he chokes and the cigarette is expelled.] HANNAH: You’ve dropped it on you- where is it? SHANNON: [Twisting and lunging about in the hammock.] It’s under me, under me, burning. Untie me, for God’s sake, will you –it’s burning me through my pants!

~ 43 ~

ANTHOULLIS DEMOSTHENOUS

H O LY EUCHARIST HANNAH: What is a –what– iguana? SHANNON: It’s a kind of lizard- a big one, a giant one. […] HANNAH: Mr. Shannon, please go down and cut it loose! SHANNON: I can’t do that. HANNAH: Why can’t you? SHANNON: Mrs. Faulk wants to eat it. I’ve got to please Mrs. Faulk, I am at her mercy. I am at her disposal. […] SHANNON: You mean that I’m stuck here for good? Winding up with the… inconsolable widow? ΗΑΝΝΑΗ: We all wind up with something or with someone, and if it’s someone instead of just something, we’re lucky, perhaps… unusually lucky.

~ 44 ~

B R O K E N G AT E S

~ 45 ~

ANTHOULLIS DEMOSTHENOUS

HOUSE FOR

THE DYING HANNAH: In Shanghai, Shannon, there is a place that’s called the House for the Dyingthe old penniless dying, whose younger, penniless living children and grandchildren take them there to get through with their dying, on pallets, on straw mats….the custodians of the place had put little comforts beside their death pallets, little flowers and opium candies and religious emblems. That made me able to stay and draw their dying faces. Sometimes only their eyes were still alive, but, Mr Shannon, those eyes of the penniless dying with those last little comforts beside them, I tell you, Mr Shannon, those eyes looked up with their last dim life left in them as clear as the stars in the Southern Cross, Mr Shannon.

he last time I saw Tennessee were at a dinner party at his house and for a reading of Vieux Carré by some local actors, also at his house. At the dinner he was very depressed and at one point said, “Let us talk about death shall we?” He said he wasn’t afraid of death but only of dying, it’s possible pain. He also read a poem entitled “Arctic Light,” which was recently written. It was about death as a going toward light. W. Prosser, The Late Plays of Tennessee Williams, Lanham 2009, XVIII

~ 46 ~

B R O K E N G AT E S

~ 47 ~

ANTHOULLIS

DEM

OSTHENOUS’

ALBU

“BROKEN

G AT E S .

DIRECTING TENNES SEE

WILLIAMS’

E NIGHT OF THE IG UANA”

WITH

OGRAPHS

PHOT

CHRI

S T O S AV R A M I D I S W AS

DESIGNED

OANNIS

TSIGKA

S AND PRINTED BY K A PA HOUSE

PUBLISHING IN

MARCH

OF TWO THOUSAND NINETEEN

B R O K E N G AT E S

A directorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s job is to put on stage not what a playwright says but what a playwright means. Anthoullis Demosthenous

~ 49 ~

ANTHOULLIS DEMOSTHENOUS

~ 50 ~