The play ‘27 Wagons Full of Cotton’ by Tennessee Williams, renowned playwright, is underway at Three Dots Theatre House, Khosravi Hall.
The performance is directed by Hamidreza Farahani, who started work on the play several months ago, Honaronline reported.
The play is a 1946 one-act that Williams referred to as “a Mississippi Delta comedy.” In it, Jake, a middle-aged, shady cotton gin owner burns down the mill of Silva Vicarro, a rival in the cotton business. His rival, who knows what happened but cannot prove it, seeks revenge by seducing Jake’s young, frail, delicate wife, Flora. Elia Kazan’s controversial 1956 film ‘Baby Doll’ was based on the play.
The permission to stage the play was granted after several modifications for the dramaturge. “For instance, some dialogues were inserted in the play for clarification, which I didn’t really want.” Some inappropriate words were also omitted but on the whole, the play received approval with no major changes, he said.
The message of the play was that people may display acceptable behavior “but they forget to be proper and correct when they are under pressure.” The cast includes Naghmeh Rezaei, Hamid Reza Farahani and Behnam Chareie. The play will run through July 3.
Thomas Lanier ‘Tennessee’ Williams III (1911–1983) was an American playwright and author of many stage classics. He is considered among the three foremost playwrights of 20th century American drama.
Williams wrote over 70 one-act plays during his lifetime, which explored many of the same themes that dominated his longer works. The plays include American Blues (1948), Mister Paradise and Other One-Act Plays, Dragon Country: a book of one-act plays (1970), The Traveling Companion and Other Plays and 27 Wagons Full of Cotton and Other Plays (1946 and 1953).
