Baby Doll and Other Plays

by Tennessee Williams

Tennessee Williams's controversial Hollywood screenplay 'Baby Doll' opens with Archie Lee's teenage bride driving him to distraction, as she has refused to consummate their marriage until the day of her 20th birthday. This volume also contains 'Something Unspoken' and 'Summer and Smoke'.

Genres: Plays, Theatre, Classics, American Fiction

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1958

About the author

Thomas Lanier Williams III, better known by the nickname Tennessee Williams, was a major American playwright of the twentieth century who received many of the top theatrical awards for his work. He moved to New Orleans in 1939 and changed his name to "Tennessee," the state of his father's birth.

Raised in St. Louis, Missouri, after years of obscurity, at age 33 he became famous with the success of The Glass Menagerie (1944) in New York City. This play closely reflected his own unhappy family background. It was the first of a string of successes, including A Streetcar Named Desire (1947), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955), Sweet Bird of Youth (1959), and The Night of the Iguana (1961). With his later work, he attempted a new style that did not appeal to audiences. His drama A Streetcar Named Desire is often numbered on short lists of the finest American plays of the 20th century, alongside Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey into Night and Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman.

Much of Williams' most acclaimed work has been adapted for the cinema. He also wrote short stories, poetry, essays and a volume of memoirs. In 1979, four years before his death, Williams was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame.

From Wikipedia

Reviews

[Regina Andreassen · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.75 stars! Oh,how disappointing! I had reasonable expectations but they were unfulfilled. I have the impression that Tennessee Williams’ plays are better suited to films or to theatre than they are to be read. When compared to Oscar Wilde, Sophocles, Shakespeare, Arthur Miller, Lope de Vega, Henrik Ibsen, Federico Garcia Lorca, Euripides, and Bertolt Brecht , among others who wrote plays that are as captivating in-text as they are on stage, Tennessee Williams is rather ordinary. I have watched Tennessee Williams’s A Streetcar Named Desire, it was brilliant. I have not read it though, and, based on my experience reading Baby Doll and Other Plays, I am hesitant to read it. Frankly, I don’t know if I will give Tennessee Williams another chance because I have an extremely long ‘to-read’ list that I consider 'must-reads'. Now, I shall explain why I did not like Baby Doll and Other Plays. I will not be discussing the plot of any of these plays, ergo, my review is spoilers-free.

There are three plays in this book: Baby Doll, Something Unspoken, and Suddenly Last Summer. My favourite play, which I thoroughly enjoyed, was also the shortest one: Something Unspoken. Another play that I found just adequate was Suddenly Last Summer. It has potential but ultimately Suddenly Last Summer fails to deliver what it promises; the denouement is particularly lacklustre. Suddenly Last Summer was another case of ‘building up’ yet never reaching its climax but going downhill…which curiously is one of the ‘key’ words uttered toward the end of this play. Lastly, there is Baby Doll, which was an insipid, chaotic, vulgar, and utterly futile play. I did not like it at all. In fact, after reading half of Baby Doll, all I wanted was for it to finish and to take a day off -or two- before reading the next two plays.

This book would have worked better for me, if it were called ‘Something Unspoken and Other Plays’ instead of ‘Baby Doll and Other Plays’. Going from the shortest and wittiest play to the longest and dullest one would have enhanced my reading experience. Since Goodreads does not have half or quarter stars, I must round it to 3 stars. Below I am also sharing the plays’ individual rating:

The main play, Baby Doll, was in my opinion, a fiasco but the initial pages were enjoyable so 1.5 stars. I Ioved the shortest play, Something Unspoken: 4 stars for that one; oh, I wish it went for longer! Suddenly Last Summer is, to me, a 2.75, stars; coincidentally, as you can see, this rating also reflects how I feel about the book as a whole.

[Rowan Watson · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's been a long time since I read something so beautiful and so profoundly sad as Summer and Smoke, possibly my favourite of his works.

[Kaja · Rating 4 out of 5]

4/5 ⭐️ Baby Doll; 3/5 ⭐️ Something unspoken; 5/5 ⭐️ Summer and Smoke ❤️‍🩹

[Michael Reffold · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars each for Baby Doll and Suddenly Last Summer (which I think is probably the best of the three) and 3 stars for Something Unspoken which is good but not particularly memorable compared to most of Tennessee Williams’ plays.

[Jaimini Mehta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautifully written and all three players had fantastic plots to them that worked at a good enough pace. Emotive challenging and thoughtful read. Characters were appropriately flawed and interesting, with redeeming qualities.

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reviewed with The Glass Menagerie.

[Joan Hageneier · Rating 3 out of 5]

Vaig agafar aquest llibre de s'estanteria de ca nostra fa un any, i fa un any que ronda dins sa meva motxilla.

Ha estat sa primera vegada que he llegit un guió de pel·lícula en aquest format i m'ha parescut, si més no, interessant. Sobretot veure ses diferències entre s'estil de s'autor quan escriu per una pel·lícula i quan escriu per teatre. M'agrada més es seu teatre. Crec que és perquè a Baby Doll Tennesse Williams deixa de banda ses seves mítiques acotacions, donant preferència a n'es diàleg, que m'ha parescut un poc més fluix.

Peeeeerò, tot s'ha arreglat perquè he pogut gaudir de Something Unspoken i Summer and Smoke, dues peces de teatre curt amb un estil deliciosament propi d'en Williams.

Sa primera obra no m'ha agradat massa. Ses dues darreres obres les he disfrutat. Nyam.