Talisman Roses

by Tennessee Williams

WORLD PREMIERE
Tennessee Williams imagines flowers might restore a crushed soul in this unpublished one-act, performed for the first time under the direction of distinguished actress and director Marsha Mason, and featuring Tony and Emmy-winning actor Amanda Plummer.

directed by Marsha Mason
featuring Amanda Plummer

with short plays by
Charlene A. Donaghy
Joseph Paprzycki
Eric Marlin

THE COLLECTIVE NY

New York, NY

Tom Williams, not yet “Tennessee,” wrote Talisman Roses as a student at the University of Iowa. Set in a suburb of St. Louis, the play is rooted in Williams family sorrow.

In 1937, his sister Rose suffered a mental collapse and was taken to a state asylum. When his mother took him to see her there, he was shocked that her windows were barred. Rose’s doctors recommended shock: insulin shock, electric shock.

Williams wrote Talisman Roses that same year and named the play for the yellow and orange roses popular in the 1930s for bridal bouquets. The play presents a young woman in the same condition as Rose, released into the care of her family. Williams suggests the delivery of a bouquet could shock her back into enjoying her life. The play has never been published or performed.

Talisman Roses, the Festival’s 12th world premiere of a Tennessee Williams play, will be directed by Marsha Mason, who is herself from St. Louis and has been nominated four times for an Oscar. Starring Tony-winning actor Amanda Plummer, it will be performed alongside several other world premiere short plays on the theme of waiting by Charlene A. Donaghy (Gift of an Orange, 2012), and Festival newcomer Joseph Paprzycki.

The program is produced by The Collective NY, New York’s ensemble of professional theater artists dedicated to the belief that the current conditions of commercialized theatre necessitate collective action.