Audiences at the Chemainus Theatre will be treated to a rarely produced comedy by Tennessee Williams, A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur – that translates roughly to ‘a lovely Sunday for a broken heart.’
The one-act play, with two scenes, takes place in a cramped, mid-1930s St. Louis apartment where Dottie, a ‘southern belle’ school teacher, is awaiting her ‘prince charming’, the high school principal who also happens to be her boss.
Despite her friends’ doubts Dottie is certain she’s about to receive a proposal of marriage which will boost her social status and change her life.
A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur is one of Williams’s lesser-known (and final) works, written in 1978 – he died in 1983.
While relatable in theme to his first success, The Glass Menagerie, this story, which debuted 35 years later, offers a kinder look at the subjects of a dominating matriarch, a wounded heroine, and foolish romantic dreams.
“The heroine in ‘A lovely Sunday’, like so many women in Williams’s plays, holds on to a hope for love and sweet romance against the obstacle of class and poverty,” said Director Sarah Rodgers
“There is an underlying sense of tragedy and desperation while Williams’s sweet wit and humour deliciously bubbles out of these beautiful, ever hopeful women.”
Taking the audience through the slapstick scenes will be Stacie Steadman, as Dottie; Randi Edmunson, as the gloomy Miss Gluck; Erin Ormond, as Bodey the uplifting sidekick; and Kaitlin Williams as Helena, the uptight woman with an agenda, whom it’s just plain fun to hate.
A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur plays Sept. 9 to 24. Tickets can be reserved by calling the Chemainus Theatre Festival box office at 1-800-565-7738 or online at chemainustheatre.ca.