It was all downhill from here. The Night of the Iguana was Tennessee Williams’s last hit on Broadway and his last major artistic achievement. It premiered in 1961, at the beginning of a decade that would end with the author’s stay in the psych ward. Beset by flops, grieved by loss (his partner, Frank Merlo, died of lung cancer in 1963), and hounded by his own lifelong demons, Williams would sink into a severe depression, compounded by pills and booze. He called it his “Stoned Age.” His work never fully recovered.
In John Huston’s 1964 movie adaptation, Richard Burton plays Shannon with his usual air of manly melancholy. You can almost smell the musk and whiskey emanating from the screen. In the Artistic Home’s production, on the other hand, John Mossman fills the role with outrage and barely contained hysteria. Soaked with sweat and talking a mile a minute, his Shannon is a spiritual fugitive who both fears and welcomes the thunderbolt he expects to strike him down at any moment.
Through 5/5: Thu 7:30 PM, Fri-Sat 8 PM, Sun 3 PM, the Artistic Home Studio, 1376 W. Grand, 312-243-3963, theartistichome.org, $32 suggested donation.
