Sweet Bird Youth (Drama)
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| Title: | Sweet bird youth |
| Original title: | Sweet Bird of Youth |
| Genus: | Drama , tragedy |
| Original language: | English |
| Author: | Tennessee Williams |
| Literary source: | Sweet Bird of Youth |
| Music: | Paul Bowles |
| Publishing year: | 1959 |
| Premiere: | March 10, 1959 |
| Place of premiere: |
Martin Beck Theater ( New York ) |
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Sweet Bird of Youth (Engl. Sweet Bird of Youth is) a spectacle of American playwright Tennessee Williams (1911-1983), the March 10, 1959 at the Martin Beck Theater in New York City under the direction of Elia Kazan with and Paul Newman and Geraldine Page in the lead roles.
action
The play tells the story of Chance Wayne, who returns to his hometown of St. Cloud ( Florida ) on the American Gulf Coast after many years . It begins with a scene in a hotel room in St. Cloud. The sleeping princess Kosmonopolis aka Alexandra Del Lago lies in the hotel bed. After an unsuccessful odyssey at the end of which he met the aged princess, Chance has returned to the place of his youth. Alexandra Del Lago had promised to help him professionally. In the course of the plot it becomes clear that the real motivation for his return lies in the hope to reconcile himself with Heavenly Finley, his childhood friend, whom he once seduced and infected with a sexually transmitted disease. But the reconciliation fails and Chance is castrated by Boss Finley's followers in retaliation for the desecration of the daughter.
Stage Productions / Broadway
The original version was produced by Cheryl Crawford on March 10, 1959 and premiered at the Martin Beck Theater. The director was Elia Kazan , performers were Paul Newman, Geraldine Page, Sidney Blackmer , Madeleine Sherwood , Diana Hyland , Logan Ramsey , John Napier and Rip Torn . Bruce Dern played a supporting role. The production was nominated for 4 Tony Awards , including Best Actress Geraldine Page . The piece saw 375 performances.
A revival opened at the Harkness Theater on December 29, 1975, in a production directed by Edwin Sherin, with Christopher Walken as Chance Wayne and Irene Worth as Princess Kosmonopolis. Irene Worth won the 1976 Tony Award for Best Actress.
- First performance in Germany
The German premiere took place on October 6, 1959 at the Berlin Schiller Theater under the direction of Hans Lietzau . Marianne Hoppe was seen in the role of Alexandra Del Lago, while Chance Wayne was played by Klaus Kammer . The play was rejected by the critics as disgusting and obscene, but Hoppe's performance was well appreciated.
- Performances in Great Britain
It took 26 years for the play to reach London's West End. This production had its world premiere on July 8, 1985, directed by Harold Pinter , presented by the impresario Douglas Urbanski . Actors were Lauren Bacall , Michael Beck and James Grout . The performances in England took place at the Theater Royal Bath and the Theater Royal Plymouth . The production was then revived in Los Angeles under the direction of Michael Blakemore .
Film and television version
- The play was in 1962 with Paul Newman, Geraldine Page, Shirley Knight , Madeleine Sherwood , Ed Begley , Rip Torn and Mildred Dunnock in the leading roles filmed . The director was Richard Brooks .
- This film won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor (Ed Begley), and was nominated for Best Actress (Geraldine Page) and Best Supporting Actress (Shirley Knight).
- Sweet Bird of Youth also appeared as a TV movie in 1989, starring Elizabeth Taylor , Mark Harmon , Valerie Perrine , Ronnie Claire Edwards and Rip Torn. Directed by Nicolas Roeg .
literature
- Tennessee Williams: Sweet Bird Youth. ( Hans Sahl , Franz Höllering , translation). Fischer Bücherei, Frankfurt / Main, Hamburg, DNB 455685282 .
- Tennessee Williams, Frank Castorf: Sweet Bird Youth. Forever Young. (Original script for the stage version from 1959, translated by Nina Adler). Alexander Verlag, 2003, ISBN 978-3-895-81107-4 .
- Brian Parker: A provisional stemma of drafts and revisions for Tennessee Williams's Sweet Bird of Youth (1959). In: Bibliographical Society of America: The papers of the Bibliographical Society of America. Volume 103, 2009, No. 3: pp. 357-390.
- Tennessee Williams: Sweet Bird of Youth. A&C Black, London 2010, ISBN 978-1-408-11438-4 .
Web links
- Brooks Atkinson in the New York Times, March 11, 1959: The Theater: 'Sweet Bird of Youth' a Portrait of Corruption. on nytimes.com
- Sweet bird of youth on worldcat.org
To the films
- Sweet Bird Youth (1962) in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Sweet Bird Youth (1989) in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ See: Birgit Pargner: Marianne Hoppe. "First beauty, then wisdom and then the bright, clean heart". Leipzig 2009, page 224
- ↑ See: Birgit Pargner: Marianne Hoppe , page 146/47
- ↑ Sweet Bird of Youth by Tennessee Williams, Theater Royal Bath 1985, Theater Royal Plymouth, 1985 on haroldpinter.org
- ↑ Sweet Bird Youth (USA 1962) - Oscar 1963 ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on filmdb.marquart-it-service.de, accessed on May 22, 2013.
