Berto_Tony_201307_PhD .pdf - University of Guelph

92
as a buffer between the performance and the best seats. Seats closest to the stage or on the
periphery are priced at a lower rate.
Program
The play’s program further creates frames of meaning. Its cover shows a photo of
Williams in midlife, with a cigarette. Yet it is altered to a di-chromatic of blue and red, and
made to appear as if a strip of paper, which includes the subject’s eyes, has been ripped out.
Such a presentation evokes pop art, especially the seventies works of Andy Warhol. The
words "two days in the life…" appear in a typewriter-styled font on the top border of the
cover’s design, and again suggests a biographical play, with an emphasis on motifs of the
setting's era. But again no details about the homosexual themes are suggested. Inside the
program, a six paragraph biography details Williams’s writing and life. And while it
mentions, briefly, issues of alcoholism, addiction and insanity, no mention is made about
the playwright’s sexuality, nor any of the gay themes in the play even though, as some
authors have suggested, Williams’s substance abuse is likely linked with his troubles
negotiating his sexuality (Vidal xxiv; Sinfield, Out193).
The program reiterates the quotes about "a snapshot of genius" and "inspired by a
potentially true story about two days in the life of the American playwright Tennessee
Williams. . ." used on the play’s posters (Program, His Greatness). These quotes again
focus a viewer's attentions to biographical aspects of the play and also to an examination of
the playwright's intellectual connection to his art. While the Vancouver production of His
Greatness does examine the playwright’s creative process, this exploration is
predominantly addressed in the play’s book-ending frames, a mere two pages of the eightypage
text. The opening depicts Playwright in a darkened space, an expressionistic setting.