Stopped Rocking and Other Screenplays

by Tennessee Williams

Written at various times over the last twenty-five years but never produced, the four scripts included in Tennessee Williams’s  Stopped Rocking and Other Screenplays  encompass both the realistic style of “the early Williams” (the author’s quotes) and the more experimental dramatic devices of many of his “later” plays. Two screenplays from the fifties,  All Gaul Is Divided  and  The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond , remained in the files of Williams’s New Orleans apartment until a thorough cleaning uncovered them in the mid-seventies. Thus,  All Gaul , an expanded version of the story of a St. Louis teacher’s dreams of love told in  A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur  (1978) actually predates that play. A companion piece in mood and style,  The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond  lyrically evokes the late twenties debutante society of Memphis and the Delta plantations. Adapted from the graphic short story of the same name,  One Arm  concerns a young male hustler awaiting execution for murder. Because much of the visual action is combined with a voice-over narration, Williams considered the form of this “film-play” from the late sixties somewhat experimental. In  Stopped Rocking  (1977), Williams returns to a familiar theme, the institution as the last haven of those who cannot cope with daily conflict and have “resigned from life.” He was confident that this play, like so many of his others, would eventually find its “I know that the ’dark’ of the work is more than balanced by its humanity, and that this light of humanity will tip the balance favorably, as a natural act of grace.”

Genres: Drama

384 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 1984

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

[Danielle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thumbs up for so much representation of women in or have been in sanitariums. That was a tough, nice surprise.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tenn Williams is my favorite playwright and I consider him one of the most formidable and astute minds ever to exist. This book contains a few screenplays he wrote and it was interesting to see Williams attempt to transcend mediums. These screenplays are more fluid and interpretative, unlike his plays (which were much more "direct"). I don't think these had the same power as some of his other works, but as one of them is currently in production, I'd be interested to see how the director and cast bring it to life and jump the hurdles of poor writing that bubbles up here and there. (Ach, what a douche-baggy thing for me to say...that Williams was capable of some poor writing here and there.)

[BurgendyA · Rating 5 out of 5]

GiveThese Tennessee Williams' plays were a geat read also very interesing. I enjoyed reading TW earlier works including Loss of a Teardrop Earring. Which was one of my favorite plays. So I give this book 2 thumbs up. And I would recommend anyone to anyone read it, especially anyone who is a huge fan of Tennessee Williams. He was the very best in playwrites. :)

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved reading the screenplay format but I didn't love the characters of the stories.