CECIL BROWN
279
short play
I Rise in Flame Cried the Phoenix
is the end of a much
longer play I had in mind, but when I got to New York my agent
said, "Nobody is interested in Lawrence! Don't waste your time on
that." So, I dropped it, which was a shame because I could have
made a wonderful play out of D.H. Lawrence's life. So, I wrote
instead,
Battle of Angels
which was my first professional failure.
Int.:
Why was it a failure?
Williams:
They closed it almost as soon as they opened it. I think I
once described it as a play with intense religiosity and hysterical
sexuality coexisting in one person. The audience didn't like it, the
critics said it was dirty, and at least one official said that I should
have been run out of town for having written it.
Int.:
What was the outcome of all this?
Williams:
I was given a hundred dollars and told to go somewhere and
rewrite it. I came here to Key West. That was in 1941.
Int.:
Was D.H. Lawrence an ass-man?
Williams:
I don't think he was physically well enough, do you? But I
don't think, like some of his biographers, that he was impotent.
Int.:
You have a brother. What's he like?
Williams:
My brother is a nut. He's running for
senator-again!
Hahaha! He won't run for the House of Representatives, that's not
good enough for him. Only the Senate will do. He advertises
himself-hahaha!-as "Tennessee Williams's brother!"
Int.:
What is his political status now?
Williams:
Oh, he's still a lawyer. He converted me to Catholicism, but
then turned right around and had me put in a loony bin!
Int.:
When was that?
Williams:
I was in it for about three months in 1969 around Christmas
time. My brother
put
me away. I couldn't write anything there. They
wouldn't give me anything to write with. They even took away my
glasses. The doctor Max Jenkins gave me some speed, but it wasn't
entirely his fault. You were supposed to give up drinking, but I
wouldn't give up drinking. When I got out it was all right except
that I'd had a coronary and three convulsions in one day. I was
somewhat damaged, hahaha! (He laughs convulsively.) After I got
out I wrote many things.
It
didn't stop me from writing. I rewrote
Out Cry
around 1970, around that time, after my deep depression.
Int.:
What's your opinion about that play now? It was not very well
received.
The New York Times
was bothered by the lack of humor
and the hermaphroditic nature of the two characters, feeling that this
two-character play was actually a one-character boring monologue.
Williams:
I think it's my best play since
Street Car Named Desire.
But
