Insomniac Theatre uncorks its own twist on Williams

Friday, Nov. 12, 2004 | 11:29 a.m.

The theater company that presents late-night productions in conjunction with the Las Vegas Little Theatre's main stage productions, will present "Twisted Tennessee," two plays written by Christopher Durang, who cleverly spoofed the works of one of America's greatest playwrights.

The plays will follow LVLT's main production, "A Streetcar Named Desire."

"For Whom the Southern Belle Tolls" is a parody of Williams' "Glass Menagerie," a tale of a dysfunctional fatherless family living in a St. Louis apartment. In Durang's version, however, the frail daughter Laura and her glass animals are replaced by the son Lawrence and his swizzle stick collection.

"Desire, Desire, Desire" is a parody of Williams' "A Streetcar Named Desire," which chronicles a Southern woman's descent into madness while living with her sister and brother-in-law in a New Orleans tenement house.

"What we're playing with is all the really bad Stanley Kowalskis you've ever seen," said T.J. Larsen, director for "Desire, Desire, Desire." "And Blanche is much more crazy (than in Williams' script)."

Regarding the other Durang production, Larsen said, "All four characters (in 'The Glass Menagerie') make it into 'For Whom the Southern Belle Tolls.' But the characters dramatically change."

For more than two years Insomniac Project has presented late-night productions that follow Las Vegas Little Theatre's main stage productions. Occasionally the two will have a common theme.

"This is one where the show is aimed at the audience that just saw the earlier show," Larsen said. "They really tried to marry the two.

"Walter Niejadlik (LVLT president) thought it would be fun to throw in a little Tennessee Williams humor with Williams' most serious drama."

With comedic timing and Durang's "absurd" playwriting style, the productions are a challenge, said Larsen, who directed Durang's "Beyond Therapy" while in college.

And what about spoofing one of the greatest American playwrights?

"It is incredibly difficult," Larsen said. "In the script for 'Desire, Desire, Desire,' Durang even writes about how difficult it is to spoof Tennessee Williams. One thing he has going for him is the canon. Tennessee Williams gave him this wonderful piece of work to take from. In turn, Durang has given us a couple of great scripts.

"Because he's spoofing these incredible plays, he's spoofing the nature of theater itself."