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Eccentricities of a Nightingale (Broadway Theatre Archive)

Eccentricities of a Nightingale (Broadway Theatre Archive)

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Product Info Reviews

Features:
  • Color


Description:

Blythe Danner gives a luminous performance in this Tennessee Williams classic. Eccentricities of a Nightingale has an interesting history: it is actually a rethinking of Williams's own play Summer and Smoke (viewers familiar with that work will notice that the setting and character names are the same). Williams preferred Nightingale, and it is easy to see why--the play is at once gentler and more direct than the other. Danner plays Alma, a typical Tennessee Williams heroine, too delicate for this world. Alma is shy and mannered, with an artistic temperament that her joyless father does his best to suppress. She is in love with the boy across the street, the dashing John, but of course in Williams's plays these things are never easy. Danner does a brilliant job of being true to Alma's fragility while still keeping her likable, and Frank Langella endows John with such a warm heart that it's hard to blame him for anything that happens. This excellent production is a pleasure to watch, and Williams's grace of language gives it a crystalline beauty in spite of its shocking ending. --Ali Davis
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