The Theatre Department Presents ... The Night of the Iguana

The Night of the Iguana by Tennessee Williams will be presented on November 7, 8, 9 and 14, 15, 16, 2002 at 8:00 p.m. in Fenwick Theatre on the college campus in Worcester. Tickets are $10 general admission/$7 Holy Cross Community and can be obtained by calling the box office at (508) 793-2496. Fenwick Theatre is not handicapped accessible.

The Night of the Iguana is a late masterpiece by Tennessee Williams, first produced on Broadway in 1961. Set in a broken-down hotel, out of season, on the edge of a Mexican rain forest, it focuses on four weary travelers who have, perhaps, come to the ends of their various ropes.

The Reverend T. Lawrence Shannon was removed from his church after a brief but tempestuous affair with one of his parishioners and a scandalous sermon he preached the following Sunday. He now conducts tours through tropical countries, but he is on the verge of losing this job, too, for similar reasons. Hannah Jelkes is a Nantucket spinster who has traveled the world with her nearly centenarian grandfather, Jonathan Coffin (whom she calls Nonno), a poet who is struggling to complete his final work - his first in two decades - before he dies. Their hostess is Maxine Faulk, an American émigré, recently widowed, who is trying to keep her hotel open. Their private turmoil is reflected in both the natural surroundings and in the world beyond this place: It's September 1940, and Hitler is bombing London. During an afternoon and an evening, these four characters confront their desires and their demons and find ways to either stop or go on.

This deeply emotional play is directed by professor Steve Vineberg. A member of the Holy Cross faculty since 1985, Steve teaches classes in theatre history, film, American drama and political theatre. At Holy Cross he has directed The Marriage of Bette and Boo, Marco Polo Sings a Solo, Undersea/Wedlock, Pal Joey, The Eccentricities of a Nightengale, The House of Blue Leaves, The Threepenny Opera, and Lydie Breeze.

Related information:

# Theatre Department