I went to see the play at the National Theatre. It has a vast cast but the star is Zoe Wanamaker. The cast numbers 35 and includes a chorus of women, a further chorus of children, and a goat (totally live) comes on twice! The set was excellent too - a revolving wooden cabin used to great effect.The play is not the usual moody Tennessee Williams. It is a vehicle for a tour de force performance by Ms Wanamake. A story about a Scicilian woman in the deep south of the United States who believes she has the perfect husband and a perfect marriage. Naturally this is not true, as she discovers when her husband is killed in suspicious circumstances. She keeps his urn of ashes in front of a shrine to St Mary. A devout, if not fanatical Catholic she believes in miracles (including the appearance of a tattoo of a rose just like the one her husband used to sport at critical moments). After becoming a widow her grief drives her to bizarre behaviour and she cossets her daughter to prevent her falling into sin.
Really this is a stary of delusion - she refuses to accept her husband's infidelity, that her daughter has grown up, that the rose tattoo did not appear at the moment of her daughter's conception, etc.
Zoe is superb, her accent wonderful, and many of the supporting cast are excellent, but some have trouble with the accent - it veers from sub cockney to godfather Italian, New York Jewish to West Coast Hollywood - sometimes in the same sentence!
This was a theatrical occassion - and probably the performance of Zoe's life - she must be exhausted as she is on stage for almost all of the three hours.
My rating: 9/10
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