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| Alan Mixon, Helena Carroll, David Huffman. |
SMALL CRAFT WARNINGS [Drama/Alcoholism/Barroom/Homosexuality/Prostitution/Romance/ Sex] A: Tennessee Williams; D: Richard Altman; DS: Fred Voelpel; L: John Gleason; P: Ecco Productions; T: Truck and Warehouse Theatre (OB); 4/2/72-9/17/72 (200)
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| Brad Sullivan, Gene Fanning, William Hickey, Helena Carroll, David Hooks, |
In a seedy bar in Southern California coastal town gather an
assortment of semi-derelicts: a garrulous, itinerant hairdresser named Leona
Dawson (Helena Carroll); Doc (David Hooks), a drunken abortionist; Bill
McCorkle (Brad Sullivan), a stud who earns his keep by his sexual prowess with both men and women; Violet (Cherry Davis,
replaced by transgender icon Candy Darling), a pathetic hooker; Steve (William
Hickey), her middle-aged, short-order cook boyfriend; Quentin (Alan Mixon) and Bobby
(David Huffman), an overtly gay couple; and Monk (Gene Fanning), the fatherly
barkeep. They talk volubly about their lives and problems, but no substantial
narrative emerges.
Small Craft Warnings meanders
among its characters and their self-revelations (much of it spoken as spot-lit
soliloquies). “It is these sentimental tone poems that do the show in,” griped
Edith Oliver. She and others found that conflict and suspense are largely absent, with the emphasis entirely on character exploration. Some, like Clive Barnes, were moved by
Williams’s “enormous compassion,” the way he “opens doors into bleak and empty
hearts.” As Walter Kerr expressed it, “Mr. Williams’s gift for knowing how
people think, feel, and speak reasserts itself . . . enough to keep us firmly
attentive.” T. E. Kalem said these people “become the embodiment of the fears
that course through all of us at some time or other, the frailties that make us
lie, betray any trust, cringe before bullies, vilify others—though in our
hearts we wish to do none of those things.” And Henry Hewes thought the
playwright’s “passionate concern for the dispossessed” was as “sublime” as
ever.
But the consensus held that, touching as these people might
be, the lack of dramatic tension and plot were harmful and made the play seem tiresome,
verbose, and immobile. Stanley Kauffmann called it “vapid.” John Lahr put the
blame on the lack of anything “to discover” about its characters, who confess
all there is to know about them. Michael Smith declared that the play lacked “conviction”:
“the characters seem trumped up and nudged together carelessly, and the
circumstances and incidents impossible to believe.” Martin Gottfried was
saddened by “one more stumble in the tragic collapse of one of the finest
playwrights in theatre history,” and John Simon also mourned this “feeble
self-parody . . . of his former glories.”
Small Craft Warnings originally
had been titled Confessional, under
which name it had was first published and produced at a workshop in Bar Harbor,
Maine. During its New York run it moved to a second theatre and Williams
himself appeared in it as Doc, remaining after the show during his first week
to chat with the audience.
