Not About Nightingales

Not About Nightingales is a three-act play written by Tennessee Williams in 1938. The play itself focuses on a group of inmates who go on a hunger strike in attempt to better their situation. There is also a soft love story, with the characters Eva, the new secretary at the prison, and Jim, a handsome inmate who works for the warden and is trying to get out on parole. Williams gained inspiration for the play after reading newspaper accounts of inmates who suffocated in a steam room in a Pennsylvania prison.

Although the play was originally written in the 1930s, it wasn’t discovered until the late 1990s when Vanessa Redgrave made it her personal mission to track it down. The Play had its world premier at The Alley Theatre in Houston in 1998.

The play begins outside the warden’s office with Eva Crane and Mrs. Bristol. Eva is there for a job interview as the new secretary for the Warden, while Mrs. Bristol is here to give her son Sailor Jack some baked goods she made just for him.

Moments after the scene begins, Jim walks through towards the Warden’s office and informs the women that the Warden is out inspecting the grounds, and may not be back for a while. Mrs. Bristol can’t stay and leaves the food on the Warden’s desk.

Warden Whalen enters in an unannounced, brash way. He is a short, fat, yet powerful man with a presence. Eva begins to beg him for a job; however the Warden doesn’t want to hear it, saying “A business executive is not interested in your personal misfortunes.” In the end, after careful consideration, he gives Eva the job.

Meanwhile, Jim is being escorted back to his cell. Jim is a convict who helps out the Warden during the day. He enjoys the job because it gets him out of his cell all day. At nights when he returns, his cellmates are constantly calling him names such as Allison and Canary Bird. Some of the notable supporting characters introduced are Butch, the unofficial leader among the inmates; Queen, a gay convict who’s not all that smart; and Ollie, a smart black convict who’s well respected by all the inmates.

The next morning Mrs. Bristol returns to see the Warden and this time she had brought more food for her son. She explains how she hasn’t heard from her son in a while and is getting worried. The Warden explains, in a coarse manner, that her son had gone insane and had to be killed.

The next day, Eva talks to Jim and asks him about the eating conditions at the prison. Jim says the food is terrible; however the Warden enters, and says that the food is fine. In an effort to put Jim back in line he tells the story to Eva about when Jim first got to the prison and how he had to whip him for 14 straight days to try to break through his rough exterior. This story is too much for Eva as she ends up fainting at the end of the scene.

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Wikipedia