Do3 - Spring Storm

[french frank]

Sunday 6 March, 8pm: One of Tennessee Williams's earliest plays, which had its European premiere in Northampton in 2009. Radio 3 broadcasts a radio adaptation to mark the centenary of Williams's birth.

"Heavenly Critchfield has almost everything a young woman could desire, but when she's forced to decide between respectable suitor Arthur and handsome, wild lover Dick, her actions cause a chain of consequences that tear their lives apart."

Executive producer Jeremy Mortimer writes about it on the R3 blog.

[DracoM]

What a cracker! Would like to come back in more detail later, but that really was a solid joy.

[french frank]

Quite agree. I don't know what the American accents sound like to purists (they sounded good enough to me), but I thought these were excellent performances. I wonder why the play was never performed or published in TW's lifetime? Beginnings of the 'strong stuff' for which TW became famed.

[Eudaimonia]

I don't know what the American accents sound like to purists

Well, I did my best to ignore it and concentrate on the drama--which was superb and moved me to tears. As I may have mentioned, I worked hard to rid myself of a Southern accent and adopt the American equivalent of RP, so am far more attuned to it than most. As usual, when I get annoyed, I find it's best to ignore myself and soldier on.

The accents were all over the map, and shifted from syllable to syllable: as one reviewer put it, they covered a vague area from Beale Street to Kansas. But as someone else said, it's not likely an American cast could have done much better.

However, I think the biggest disappointment was that Heavenly spoke with a generic lower class Southern accent instead of one that connotes an upper class upbringing of money and privilege. If you'd like an example of it done right, watch Elizabeth Taylor in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof". To my mind, this coarsening shifted the interpretation a little: she became a little less Blanche Dubois and a lot more Baby Doll Meighan. Here's how the stage notes have it:

“The important thing about Heavenly is that she is physically attractive. She has the natural and yet highly-developed charm that is characteristic of girls of pure southern stock. She is frankly sensuous without being coarse, fiery-tempered and yet disarmingly sweet. Her nature is confusing to herself and to all who know her. She wears a white skirt and sweater with a bright-colored scarf.”

If her accent had been softer, her charm wouldn't have seemed so boorish and forced...to my mind, the way she spoke and laughed was more appropriate for the kind of girl who actually would run off with Dick and not think twice about it. If you imagine the exact same lines being read by Elizabeth Taylor or Vivien Leigh, Heavenly's character turns 180 degrees.

[french frank]

I did have a suspicion that Americans would have a similar reaction as we do to Dick van Dyke's cockney! I also detected some shifts from one unidentifiable to accent to another - but this is makebelieve, isn't it? The play itself, I thought, came out of it pretty well and I wasn't surprised to read that the cast all remembered their lines from the stage production and didn't need scripts: the action flowed.

But I can understand the voices being too much of a distraction.

[Eudaimonia]

Oh don't get me wrong; I thought it was marvelous: in fact, I listened through twice in a row. I think I remember reading it was never performed in TW's lifetime because he disliked it for being too blocky and structurally unrefined compared to his later works...flaws notwithstanding, I thought it was meaningful and incredibly well-done.

Also, I thought it was fun to try to come up with legitimate reasons why their accents might be off: "Well, he's on the river a lot--of course he's going to pick up speaking habits from up north" and "She's just dumbing down on purpose to appeal to Dick and make a subtly annoying jab at Arthur because she's feeling defensive about his educational advantages", etc. etc. Not so bad after all! Besides, I doubt most native New Yorkers or Californians would pick up on half as many discrepancies as someone who personally overcome a Southern accent herself.

And yes, Dick van Dyke's fake-cockney bothered me too.

[Belgrove]

This is being repeated on Easter Sunday at 7.45pm. It is splendid stuff.

[french frank]

This is being repeated on Easter Sunday at 7.45pm. It is splendid stuff.

Shamefully, I've actually retained no memory of it - or perhaps a vague one. Presumably chosen for a repeat because it's called 'Spring Storm' ...