{"id":1839,"date":"2019-07-22T12:35:16","date_gmt":"2019-07-22T11:35:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/?p=1839"},"modified":"2019-07-22T13:00:53","modified_gmt":"2019-07-22T12:00:53","slug":"propwatch-the-hammock-in-the-night-of-the-iguana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/2019\/07\/propwatch-the-hammock-in-the-night-of-the-iguana.html","title":{"rendered":"Propwatch: the hammock in The Night of the Iguana"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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It\u2019s long, saggy and full of holes. But there\u2019s more than that to The Night of the Iguana<\/em>, one of Tennessee Williams\u2019 lesser-loved plays. Though there\u2019s never enough love for Williams\u2019 characters, especially in this play from 1961. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The defrocked priest Shannon has been craving a sojourn on Maxine\u2019s veranda \u2013 rum-coco in hand, stretched out in the hammock, which he unfurls as soon as he arrives. In James Macdonald\u2019s cool-eyed revival<\/a>, Clive Owen\u2019s Shannon (photo above by Brinkhoff\/Moegenburg<\/em>) wears the crumpliest, sweatiest cream linen \u2013 a suit for the insouciant gentleman traveller, yet trashed and stained by his unhappy trek through Mexico, ushering a disgruntled party of Texas Baptists. No wonder he squirms in his seamy clothes, can\u2019t wait to unkink his lanky frame and sway unburdened in midair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As often in Williams, it\u2019s a temporary respite. The world\nintrudes unsympathetic. The world has a point: Williams wasn\u2019t a judgemental\nwriter \u2013 the heart wants what it wants, and so does the horn \u2013 but you don\u2019t\nhave to be a snarling Baptist schoolmarm to regret Shannon\u2019s recurring disgrace\nin pursuit of barely legal women in his care. Shannon eventually cracks up and is\nrestrained in the hammock. There, he\u2019s calmed by another of the hotel\u2019s fretful\nguests, Hannah (played by Lia Williams with jade-carved poise and a voice like\nthe coolest breeze). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Williams\u2019 stage direction describes it as a canvas hammock, but in Rae Smith\u2019s<\/a> design it is all rope \u2013 knotted, unstable, full of holes, an anchorite\u2019s flail, a nest and a cage. Williams\u2019 characters know how all of those things feel. It also echoes the rope that holds captive the iguana of the title, held to be fattened and tormented. Again, Williams\u2019 characters, striving to surmount despair, know how it is to be prodded by an unfeeling world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Every element of a theatre production is a choice, down to the simplest prop. The original Broadway production in 1961 was railroaded by its most celebrated actor \u2013 Hollywood star Bette Davis, who played Maxine. It\u2019s perhaps no surprise that, though the hammock is associated with Shannon, the image that pops up (via Alamy, above<\/em>) is of Davis, jauntily ensconced with cigarette held aloft, gleaming triumphantly. She may have tugged the play into something more like The Little Foxes<\/em>, an expression of her irresistible will.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Star power of another kind inflected the 1964 movie. Shannon was played by Richard Burton, whose performances were always shadowed by the anguish of talent never-wholly-fulfilled. He\u2019s not so much restrained in the hammock as straightjacketed, confined like a poetic, madhouse genius (the smiling image above comes from between takes).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking at hammockry from other productions makes it\nclear how the play could skew sensual or spiritual. Even Williams balked at the\nChrist imagery in his text, but Hannah gazes coolly at Shannon\u2019s\nself-dramatising pain: a \u2018voluptuous kind of crucifixion.\u2019 You sense that in\nthe way Woody Harrelson\u2019s arms are stretched apart in a 2005 London revival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo: Gary Lee\/Starstock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But relax the arms, open the shirt and a differently voluptuous frisson emerges, as in this Chicago version (1996) where Cherry Jones drips soporific poppy seed tea between William Petersen\u2019s lips.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo: Liz Lauren<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Hammocks are basic yet fitfully practical: they twist, tip and tangle. Owen always looks properly rocky in his, which is a decent height off the stage. I can\u2019t help feeling that the American Repertory Theater<\/a> chose a cheat\u2019s hammock in 2017 \u2013 blanketed, pillows at top and tail, and barely off the ground. It looks cosy, but should make us feel for those in peril in the air: wandering souls without a nest, hoping for a safe haven.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Amanda Plummer, Bill Heck and Dana Delany. Photo by Gretjen Helene<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

If anyone wants to stage The Night of the Iguana<\/em> with actual iguanas, have no fear: lizard-specific props are available. This tiered version would allow the entire play to be hammock-bound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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But if your production was starring the Bette Davis of the iguana world, who wants to give the sense of slumming it without sacrificing her accustomed elegance, then this polished, slatted version might do the job. At last, a hammock that feels like home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Follow David on Twitter: @mrdavidjays<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s long, saggy and full of holes. But there\u2019s more than that to The Night of the Iguana, one of Tennessee Williams\u2019 lesser-loved plays. Though there\u2019s never enough love for Williams\u2019 characters, especially in this play from 1961. The defrocked priest Shannon has been craving a sojourn on Maxine\u2019s veranda \u2013 rum-coco in hand, stretched […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1840,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[322,321,646,34],"class_list":{"0":"post-1839","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-props","9":"tag-propwatch","10":"tag-rae-smith","11":"tag-theatre","12":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1839"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1839\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1852,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1839\/revisions\/1852"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}