Why Tennessee Williams’ ‘Confessional’ remains a groundbreaking watch in 2016
By Will Stroude
Following a critically-acclaimed run at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2015. Confessional transfers to Southwark Playhouse tonight The only of Tennessee Williams’ plays to feature expressly gay characters, Piers Webb explains why the production continues to push boundaries in 2016.
Whilst being originally set in the 1950s, the play has an incredible amount to say about Britain in 2016. This production sets the play in a more-or-less contemporary Britain. (Though not explicitly stated to the audience, it’s a Britain as it might be a short number of years in the future. A fact hinted at by the abstract set.) In this production, Confessional is like a warning from the middle of the 20th Century that the mistakes of the past are not necessarily behind us, and that progress is neither inevitable, nor irreversible.
The two main themes the play addresses could be described as “poverty and the dis-enfranchised” and “homophobia and the gay experience”. In Britain today where the welfare state is being quietly dismantled and the poor have suffered through years of austerity, Confessional addresses the desperation of poor people struggling to get by – dealing with their financial hardships and personal flaws, with only each other to rely on.
A few years ago Britain without a welfare state might have seemed unimaginable, but today with libraries closed, social housing being sold off, and the NHS being privatized by stealth, that’s no longer the case. The play addresses many of these topics from the human side, making them accessible and pertinent to audiences.
In the play, Violet, Leona’s mentally-ill best friend, is left to care for herself and is seemingly unable to do so. By default, Leona is left to act as her carer. This is a direct example of the sort of circumstances the #ItAffectsMe social media movement is trying to increase awareness of. Everyone knows someone with mental heath issues. With cuts to mental health and disability budgets, more and more of the care burden is falling on family and friends, rather than the British state. For people like Violet, who have nobody, there is no longer the safety net there once was.
On top of this, backstreet abortions, far from being consigned to the dustbin of history, are already on the rise in some minority communities. With a privatized NHS it’s hard to predict what could happen. The nightmare that audiences witness in Confessional could be a reality for our poorest citizens if we don’t act appropriately now.
Likewise the vocal bigotry Confessional’s regulars direct at the two gay characters show that despite huge advances, bigotry doesn’t simply disappear forever. And we are seeing it today; as the rise of anti-Muslim sentiment shows – from Britain First marches in the UK, to Donald Trump’s chilling rhetoric on Muslims and Mexicans. Shockingly, for every Obama voter in 08, there is a Trump voter today.
The gay themes Williams explores are also highly relevant today. While homosexuality has been legal since the 60s, and LGBT rights are increasing, especially with the introduction of gay marriage, homophobic attacks (“beat ‘em and roll ‘em” – as described in the play) are on the increase according to police. Within the last six mongths alone a homosexual man was glassed in the face and three others attacked at a gay bar in Manchester.
Williams’ 50-year old language also remarkably lends itself to describing the phenomenon of chemsex – ‘Chemical sex’, a modern fad, generally associated with gay men taking hard drugs and having sex. New chemical cocktail drugs such as G or methodrone excite momentarily, but addiction and overuse lead to a numbing effect, and a seemingly inescapable downwards cycle.
The older gay character describes his inability to be surprised any more and find sex numbing and repetitive “like the jabbing of a hypodermic needle”. His description reads like a metaphor drawn from chemsex.
Confessional was the first play Williams wrote which features an openly gay character. The omnipresent theme of homosexuality, and the struggles of gay characters against stigma and homophobia make 2016 a perfect time for Confessional to return to the stage. 2016 also marks the ten-year anniversary of the first Pride party held in Soho Square. The play invites all to remember, recollect, and rejoice.
Southwark, a historically poor area of London, is the perfect place to illustrate that for all the gentrification in the world, human nature is slow to change. And while the text of the play is old, we believe that the interpretation we provide is fresh and current. It’s Tennessee Williams, but not like you’ve seen before. It’s loud, its British, and it’s now.
The cabaret style seating enables us to immerse the audiences in the action, turning the above-mentioned themes of the play into the issues in their local. We put the drama into the room there are in, to make of it, or do, what they will.
Confessional opens tonight at London’s Southwark Playhouse and runs until October 29. For tickets, head to southwarkplayhouse.co.uk/show/confessional.
For more deals on tickets and shows, visit tickets.attitude.co.uk.
Words: Piers Webb
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