Spring Storm

Even though it was written in the 1930s, this a steamy and tragic love story about single young people that has perhaps even relevence even in today's world. At the time it was written by Tennesee Williams while attending University of Iowa, the work was shunned due to its sexual content. His professor EC Mabie commented "I guess we all have to paint our nudes!" Amazingly, this was a pioneering work that deserves contemporary recognition, and in my opinion will endure as a classic for future generations. Furthermore, it illustrates the birth of the genius of great playwright. A must read for any young person aspiring to be the next Tennessee Williams.

Written in 1937, "Spring Storm" is a student work of the 26-year old Tennessee Williams. The play is the first included in the Library of America's two-volume compilation of Williams' plays. There is a story behind the play that it is best to let Williams tell in his own words. Williams discussed the play in his preface, "The Past, The Present and the Perhaps", to his 1957, "Orpheus Descending" which was itself a rewrite of an earlier failed play, "Battle of Angels". Williams recalled that he wrote "Spring Storm" for a seminar in playwrighting at the University of Iowa under Professor E.C. Mabie. He read the play aloud to the class. Here is Williams' account of what followed."When I had finished reading, the good professor's eyes had a glassy look as though he had drifted into a state of trance. There was a long and all but unendurable silence. Everyone seemed more or less embarrassed. At last the professor pushed back his chair, thus dismissing the seminar, and remarked casually and kindly, 'Well, we all have to paint our nudes!". And this is the only reference that I can remember anyone making to the play."Williams' was disheartened by the poor reception of his work and considered abandoning his career as a playwright "in favor of my other occupation of waiting on tables, or more precisely, handing out trays in the cafeteria of the State Hospital." A friend and fellow student, Lemuel Ayers, who became a set designer on Broadway, read "Spring Storm" and praised its "dialogue and atmosphere". Williams was sufficiently encouraged by Ayers' words to persevere in his chosen course. He was able to accept further rejections when he submitted "Spring Storm" to Hollywood and to several theater companies and was rebuffed.The play is a lengthy, sprawling student work that, in hindsight, has more to commend it than apparent in his professor's brief dismissal. Set in a small town in the Mississippi Delta during the Depression, the play shows the tangled sexual relationships of four young adults in their 20s. It contrasts the strong sexuality of its female characters and the creativity and unconventionality of the men with the conventionality of the town. The primary character of the play, Heavenly, is the daughter of an old family that has fallen on hard times. Heavenly has two suitors. Williams describes the first suitor, Dick, as possessing a "fund of restless energy and imagination which prevents him from fitting into the conventional social pattern." The second suitor, Arthur, is the son of a wealthy family whose father once courted Heavenly's mother. Arthur works in a bank, but in his heart he wants to read and write poetry. Arthur has another potential lady friend, Hertha, who is homely in appearance and works in the town library. Williams described Hertha as possessing an "original mind with a distinct gift for creative work. She is probably the most sensitive and intelligent person in Port Tyler, Mississippi."Dick wants to leave the conventionality of Port Tyler and run off to work on the levees. Heavenly sleeps with him to persuade him to stay -- a course which scandalizes the town and apparently scandalized Williams playwrighting class as well. Heavenly also considers Arthur, much favored by her family, as a possible lover and husband. Arthur has long carried a torch for Heavenly, who ridiculed him when the two were children. After a rejection from Heavenly, Arthur has a scene with Hertha in the library where he kisses her passionately. When Hertha offers herself to him, Arthur rejects her harshly. Later that night, Hertha dies in an apparent suicide when she is hit by a train in the freight yard. With Dick gone to the levees and Arthur leaving town in shame and guilt, Heavenly is left to sit on the family porch alone with the inexorable prospect of spinsterhood.Many of Williams' later themes, -- the small, stifling Southern town, sexual repression, the conflict between creativity and conventionality, the wildness of youth -- appear in this early effort. The play was first published in 1999 and first performed in 1996 in a staged reading in New York City. The play has had several subsequent stagings in America and Europe."Spring Storm" is worth knowing for itself. But the most important part of the play is the persistence and perseverance shown by its young author when he was almost ready to give up. A friend offered kind words of encouragement at a critical time. Williams pursued his goal of becoming a playwright. After a great deal of further effort and apparent failure, he succeeded in doing what he was born to do.Robin Friedman