Hilarious, horrible madness, A House Not Meant to Stand is ‘The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari’ on the Gulf Coast.

The Chicago Tribune

The spellbinding last full-length play produced during the author’s lifetime is now published for the first time.

A House Not Meant To Stand

Theater by Tennessee Williams

Edited by Thomas Keith

With a contribution by Thomas Keith and Gregory Mosher

Christmas 1982: Cornelius and Bella McCorkle of Pascagoula, Mississippi, return home one midnight in a thunderstorm from the Memphis funeral of their older son to a house and a life literally falling apart—daughter Joanie is in an insane asylum and their younger son Charlie is upstairs having sex with his pregnant, holy-roller girlfriend as the McCorkles enter. Cornelius, who has political ambitions and a litany of health problems, is trying to find a large amount of moonshine money his gentle wife Bella has hidden somewhere in their collapsing house, but his noisy efforts are disrupted by a stream of remarkable characters, both living and dead. While Williams often used drama to convey hope and desperation in human hearts, it was through this dark, expressionistic comedy, which he called a “Southern gothic spook sonata,” that he was best able to chronicle his vision of the fragile state of our world.

Paperback(published Apr, 01 2008)

ISBN
9780811217095
Price US
14.95
Price CN
15
Trim Size
5x8
Page Count
128
Portrait of Tennessee Williams

Tennessee Williams

America’s playwright

Hilarious, horrible madness, A House Not Meant to Stand is ‘The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari’ on the Gulf Coast.

The Chicago Tribune

A House Not Meant to Stand is a ferocious scalding comedy. Tennessee Williams pushed the boundaries right up to the very end.

John Guare