Playwright: Tennessee Williams
At: Goodman Theatre
Phone: (312) 443-3800
Runs through: Feb. 15
BY RICK REED
Tennessee Williams is not usually associated with plays that portray a triumph of the human spirit, or ones that deal in the redemptive power of love. Usually, in such classic works as The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire, or Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Williams deals with characters and situations that wallow in despair, and find their dreams and hopes coming up against moss-covered brick walls, albeit in a poetic way.
The Rose Tattoo, which made its world premiere in Chicago in 1950, is different. Williams himself described the play as ‘my love-play to the world.’ And, although The Rose Tattoo has its desperation and characters who traffic in thwarted sexuality and misplaced dreams, the work remains one of profound optimism, a testimony to how love, family, and connection can lead to healing.
The Rose Tattoo is about a neighborhood of Sicilians who live along the Gulf Coast, somewhere outside New Orleans. Its central character is a fiery, passionate, but devout young woman, Serafina Delle Rose, who has built her world around her husband, Rosario, a truck driver whose cargo consists of bananas and, underneath the fruit, something else. It is this ‘something else’ that causes Rosario to meet an untimely and violent death at the hands of shadowy, offstage underworld figures. Serafina is crushed, losing 12 years of what she thought was the perfect union of love and passion with a single gunshot. For three years, Serafina wallows in despair, letting her sewing business lapse, and wandering around, nearly mad with grief, in a black slip. Her daughter, Rosa blossoms into a young woman, neglected and hungry for love and attention. Her neighbors make fun of her. The parish priest tries to help, but is at a loss how to deal with a woman whose depression runs as deep as the passion that once made her bloom. And then there are the rumors that Rosario was not the faithful paramour Serafina thought him. It is only through the sudden appearance of Alvaro, another truck driver who has the body of Serafina’s husband topped with the ‘head of a clown’ does Serafina begin to find salvation. It is Alvaro who shows Serafina that love is possible, even though the route to it can be circuitous and filled with bumps.
Kate Whorisky directs this revival with a great deal of style, replete with a set design that makes of Serafina’s house a giant pink rose and litters the stage with rose petals (the set was designed by Derek McLane). There is probably a bit too much style here, when Williams story and the lyrical force of his language is so potent. Simple might have been better.
But any minor flaws along the way are nearly erased by an astonishing cast, headed by Alyssa Bresnahan, as Serafina. Bresnahan delivers a flawless performance, one that I can say with confidence ranks with the best that I’ve ever seen on a Chicago stage. Her Serafina inspires tenderness, laughter, and pathos. Bresnahan creates a completely believable Sicilian woman whose heart has been broken. She reminded me of the Sicilian great aunts I grew up with: strong, passionate women whose broken English belied a fierce intellect. If you can find no other reason to spend the money for a ticket to The Rose Tattoo, Bresnahan’s performance is reason enough. The remainder of the cast is also strong, especially John Ortiz as Alvaro, Meredith Zinner as Rosa, and the incomparable Mike Nussbaum in a chillingly comic portrait of the village ‘strega.’
The Goodman has done Williams proud. If only he were alive to see Alyssa Bresnahan breathe such fierce love and credibility into one of his most lovable and believable women.