Camino Real (play)
| Camino Real | |
|---|---|
First edition (New Directions)
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| Written by | Tennessee Williams |
| Characters |
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| Date premiered | March 17, 1953 |
| Place premiered |
National Theatre New York City, USA |
| Original language | English |
| Genre | Drama |
| Setting | The end of Camíno Re-ál and the beginning of Camino Real |
Camino Real is a 1953 play by Tennessee Williams. In the introduction to the Penguin edition of the play, Williams directs the reader to use the Anglicized pronunciation "Cá-mino Réal." The play takes its title from its setting, alluded to , a dead-end place in a Spanish-speaking town surrounded by desert with sporadic transportation to the outside world. It is described by Williams as "nothing more nor less than my conception of the time and the world I live in."
Kilroy, a young American visitor, fulfills some of the functions of the play's narrator, as does Gutman, (named after Sydney Greenstreet's character from The Maltese Falcon, but bearing more resemblance to Signor Ferrari, Greenstreet's character in Casablanca) manager of the hotel Siete Mares, whose terrace occupies part of the stage. Williams also employs a large cast of characters including many famous literary characters who appear in dream sequences. They include Don Quixote and his partner Sancho, Marguerite "Camille" Gautier (see The Lady of the Camellias), Casanova, Lord Byron, and Esmeralda (see The Hunchback of Notre Dame), among others.
Taking place in the main plaza, the play goes through a series of confusing and almost logic-defying events, including the revival of the Gypsy's daughter (Esmeralda)'s virginity and then the loss of it again. A main theme that the play deals with is coming to terms with the thought of growing older and possibly becoming irrelevant.
Camino Real was originated from a Williams's one-act play, Ten Blocks on the Camino Real. This series of 10 scenes, or "blocks", was first staged in a workshop by Elia Kazan at the Actors Studio in 1949, and later turned into a 1953 Broadway production directed by Kazan with assistance by Anna Sokolow and starring Eli Wallach (as Kilroy), Frank Silvera (as Gutman), Joseph Anthony (as Casanova), Jo Van Fleet (as Marguerite "Camille" Gautier), Jennie Goldstein (as the Gypsy), Barbara Baxley (as Esmeralda), and David J. Stewart (as the Baron).
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