by Logan Peaslee, marketing and development assistant
“One wakes up in the morning and reaches for eyeglasses, coffee, and a myth. You can see that one needs vision, energy, and that myth. Otherwise, the day is simply impossible to face, endure, survive.” –Tennessee Williams
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| Tennessee Williams, photographed in 1965, about 10 years before he wrote CREVE COEUR. Photo: Wikimedia Commons. |
But what is the myth that Williams believes we reach for in the
morning? The answer lies in his play, A LOVELY SUNDAY FOR CREVE COEUR, which
follows a group of women as they hope their way through a Sunday. Dorothea, a
30-something schoolteacher, hopes for love. Bodey, her kind-hearted German
roommate, hopes to pair Dorothea with Bodey’s twin brother. Helena, the local
art teacher, hopes to feign class. And Miss Gluck, Dorothea and Bodey’s
neighbor, hopes to survive the loss of her mother.
Bodey reaches for the myth that her twin brother, Buddy, and Dorothea
should be together. Bodey believes that, if Dorothea were to focus her
attention on Buddy, she could see Buddy romantically. In turn, Bodey reaches
for the myth that two people can be meant for each other and that she is
capable of recognizing and facilitating that.
Helena reaches for the myth that one’s success is reflected in one’s
wealth. More specifically, she believes that she can elevate herself socially
by securing nicer housing. The myth that Helena reaches for is not an uncommon
one; people often occupy their presents by working towards obtaining things,
material things that they think will bring them mental ease.
Dorothea reaches for the myth that what she feels
for her principal, Ralph Ellis, is love. Dorothea mistakes her admiration of
Ralph Ellis’ class for adoration of Ralph Ellis as a person. She also perceives
her sexual encounter with him as proof of his commitment to her. Believing
there is a mutual commitment between herself and someone she adores,
Dorothea—and, consequently, the audience—assumes she is in love. But if her
hope goes unfulfilled, can the audience assume she is experiencing true heartbreak?
Or is Dorothea just experiencing disappointment and loneliness as she hopes?
One character is without a doubt experiencing
true heartbreak—Miss Gluck. Miss Gluck is being torn apart by the
loss of her mother, yet her heartbreak is on the periphery of
the play, emerging only as a comical inconvenience. With this
structure, Williams criticizes people’s tendency to name disappointment
heartbreak and shows that doing so discredits a supremely real and supremely
difficult experience. It’s much like people who are late to eat their lunch
describing themselves as starving. Frustratingly, Dorothea even equates
her situation to Miss Gluck’s when she says, “Now Miss Gluck, now
Sophie, we must pull ourselves together and go on.”
Moreover, this play serves to criticize how personal
myths, like Dorothea’s “romantic illusions” (as Helena describes them), can
waste a day; they can waste a lovely Sunday. Williams implies that relying on
unfounded hope and waiting for unpromised outcomes may tend to lead to
disappointment, disappointment that may be falsely named heartbreak. Myths can
plunder the present. But he also claims that myths help us face, endure, and
survive the day. Williams would likely suggest that we daydream within reason.
The myth we reach for is that one’s life—its possibilities and its experiences
and its relationships—is more magical, more romantic than it is. Life is
beautiful and heartbreaking, absolutely. It’s just beautiful and heartbreaking
less often than in our daydreams. Some days are nothing more than a lovely
Sunday for a picnic in a park.
Milwaukee Chamber Theatre's production of A LOVELY SUNDAY FOR CREVE COEUR runs Sept. 21 to Oct. 16 at the Broadway Theatre Center's Studio Theatre, 158 N. Broadway. Click here for tickets or call 414.291.7800.
References
Grissom, James. Follies of God: Tennessee Williams and the Women of
the Fog. New York, NY: Knopf, 2015.
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