''The Red Devil Battery Sign'' is a three-act play by American writer

Tennessee Williams Thomas Lanier Williams III (March 26, 1911 – February 25, 1983), known by his pen name Tennessee Williams, was an American playwright and screenwriter. Along with contemporaries Eugene O'Neill and Arthur Miller, he is considered among the thre ...

. He copyrighted the text in 1975 for its premiere in Boston, but revised the play in 1979; that later version was published by New Directions in 1988.

Synopsis

The first scene of the play is a cocktail lounge in a hotel in Dallas, soon after the 1963 assassination of President Kennedy. There is the character "Downtown Woman", the wife of a powerful business man, she has undergone electro-shock therapy, drugs, and she is being confined against her will. She meets King Del Rey, who was once the leader of a mariachi band, until he got a brain tumor. She feels that he is empathetic and might help her escape. It is revealed that the woman’s father is a corrupt Texas politician, and her husband is the president of the Red Devil Battery Company. From an affair she had with a Dallas politician, she has learned things that are dangerous for her to know about the assassination, and a secret plot to overthrow the government. King hopes to get healthy and team up with his daughter, La Nina, a singer. It is too late for the two characters, King and the Woman. She is not strong enough to escape her bonds, and King’s daughter, who is the lover of a gangster from Chicago, knows her father’s days are numbered. King attempts to save the Woman, but he has a stroke and dies. In the end, she is grabbed by a gang of homeless young men, and taken off as the booty of their triumph, and to a world that is destroying itself.

Production History

The 1975 Boston production starred

Anthony Quinn Manuel Antonio Rodolfo Quinn Oaxaca (April 21, 1915 – June 3, 2001), known professionally as Anthony Quinn, was a Mexican-American actor. He was known for his portrayal of earthy, passionate characters "marked by a brutal and elemental v ...

(King Del Rey),

Claire Bloom Patricia Claire Bloom (born 15 February 1931) is an English actress. She is known for leading roles in plays such as ''A Streetcar Named Desire,'' ''A Doll's House'', and '' Long Day's Journey into Night'', and has starred in nearly sixty film ...

(Woman Downtown),

Katy Jurado María Cristina Estela Marcela Jurado García (16 January 1924 – 5 July 2002), known professionally as Katy Jurado, was a Mexican actress. Jurado began her acting career in Mexico during the Golden Age of Mexican cinema. In 1951, she was rec ...

(Perla), Annette Cardona (La Niña) and

Stephen McHattie Stephen McHattie Smith (born February 3, 1946)Other sources cite 1945, 1947, and 1948. is a Canadian actor. Since beginning his professional career in 1970, he has amassed over 200 film and television credits. He won the Genie Award for Best Sup ...

(McCabe). It was directed by Ed Sherin and produced by

David Merrick David Merrick (born David Lee Margoulis; November 27, 1911 – April 25, 2000) was an American theatrical producer who won a number of Tony Awards. Life and career Born David Lee Margulois to Jewish parents in St. Louis, Missouri, Merrick gradua ...

and Hilliard Elkins who was married to Bloom, although they divorced soon after the play closed. Williams was fully involved in the production during the New York City rehearsals, but in Boston he was absent part of the time. He sent in rewrites when requested. The Boston premiere received mixed reviews, but the production drew audiences; Merrick, however, insisted that the financial investment had been exhausted and he closed the show two weeks after its first preview. Lahr, John. ''Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh''. New York: W.W. Norton, 2014, pp. 551-53. In 1977 ''The Red Devil Battery Sign'' was produced by

Gene Persson Eugene Clair "Gene" Persson (January 12, 1934 – June 6, 2008) was an American actor, theatrical and film producer, best known for his work as the co-producer and co-creator of the original 1967 production of the Broadway musical comedy, ''You ...

at the Roundhouse Theatre in London. Williams chose

Pierce Brosnan Pierce Brendan Brosnan (; born 16 May 1953) is an Irish actor and film producer. He is best known as the fifth actor to play secret agent James Bond in the Bond film series, starring in four films from 1995 to 2002 (''GoldenEye'', ''Tomorrow ...

to play McCabe in the British premiere. Keith Baxter starred as King Del Rey and was also the play's co-director; Williams dedicated his 1979 revision of the play to Baxter. The Vancouver Playhouse produced ''The Red Devil Battery Sign'' in October 1980, while Williams was

writer-in-residence Artist-in-residence, or artist residencies, encompass a wide spectrum of artistic programs which involve a collaboration between artists and hosting organisations, institutions, or communities. They are programs which provide artists with space a ...

at the University of British Columbia. It was directed by

Roger Hodgman Roger Hodgman (born 1 December 1943) is an Australian stage and television director. He was educated at the Hutchins School and the University of Tasmania, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in English and Political Science in 1966, an ...

and starred

Diane D'Aquila Diane D'Aquila (born October 23, 1952) is an American-Canadian actress. She has appeared in both television and film roles, but is best known for her stage appearances at the Stratford Festival. Early life Born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, D'Aquil ...

(Woman Downtown) and

Richard Donat Richard Donat (born 1 June 1941) is a Canadian actor, known for his work in Canadian and American television. He is well known for playing the character Vince Teagues in the Canadian–American TV series, '' Haven''. Donat is the younger brot ...

(King Del Rey).

References

1975 plays Plays by Tennessee Williams New Directions Publishing books Dallas in fiction {{1970s-play-stub