About Tennessee Williams

The Playwright of this show

Image from Getty Images.

Thomas Lanier Willians III, better known as Tennessee Williams, was one of the most influential American playwrights of the 20th Century. He was born in Mississippi in 1911 and died in 1983. With a large list of influences from Shakespeare to Hemingway, Williams initially enrolled in journalism classes when he stidied, but his talent for story writing shone through, and he began to write plays soon after. He didn't have much success until A Streetcar Named Desire in 1947, which continues to be his most popular work, and which he won a Pulitzer for. (He would win another Pulitzer later for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in 1955. His works were hugely influential and his list of works was extensive, but his issues with alcoholism eventually caught up to him, driving down the quality of his work before claiming his life in 1983.

In addition to Streetcar, you might also know him from The Glass Menagerie (1944), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955), and Orpheus Descending (1957).

Interestingly, several parts of A Streetcar Named Desire parallel moments in Williams's own life. Blanche DuBois is modeled on his sister, Rose, who he was very close to. She faced troubles with schizophrenia, and eventually she was forced through a lobotomy that required her to be put in an institution for the rest of her life. Williams took care of her by moving her to private care and donating a percentage of his income from his works to her. Like Blanche's late husband, Williams was interested in men. One of his boyfriends left him for a girl and died only a few years afterward, and elements of that grief can be seen when Blanche talks about her late husband. Even minor details are reflections of Williams's own life. His father often played poker, just like Stanley and his friends, and his mother was a Southerner just like Blanche and Stella. His parents had a dysfunctional relationship, which influenced the abusive dynamics displayed in the play. Through Streetcar we can learn about Tennessee Williams's life and personal troubles, even if they are ascribed to fictional characters.