The brutality of a racially segregated society, such as that suffered by the American South of the 1940s and 1950s requires a good deal of social and personal repression. You can see the consequences of this in many of the plays of Tennessee Williams.
One of the plays that makes this very explicit is the rarely performed Orpheus Descending from 1957, given an outstanding outing by Conjure Productions. It’s there in the scenery of the partially burnt netting hanging at the back of the stage reminding us of an earlier attack by the Ku Klux Klan that burnt down the wine garden killing Papa Romano, the father of central character Lady, because he broke the rules of segregation by selling to a black person as well as white people.
Two local gossips, Beulah (Alexandra Montalbano) and Dolly (Brock Looser), recall those events, noting that Lady doesn't yet know that her husband led the group that murdered her father. To emphasise the collective nature of the claustrophobia, the cast of characters, when not directly involved in a scene, sit on either side of the stage and are occasionally a well-choreographed physical presence in the action.
The arrival of the mysterious stranger, Val (Jonathan Aarons), to the Torrance Mercantile Store carrying a guitar prompts revelations about other characters who are not at ease in the community. Vee (Grace Wallis), the wife of the sheriff, paints pictures to escape the cruelty of the world around her. She encourages Lady (Madison Coppola) to give Val a job at the store. Carol (Daisy Hargreaves) recognises Val from her time spent among some drinking buddies, but that is in Val’s past, a time that he doesn't want to return to.
In earlier days, she supported reforms to improve the lives of black people. They didn't succeed, but resulted in her being ostracised by the community.
Increasingly, Val becomes a community scapegoat for the discontent and yearning for something different expressed by Vee, Carol and Lady.
This is a riveting production with clear, impressive performances from the fourteen actors, especially those playing the central parts of Lady, Carol and Val, along with those delivering the gossiping locals Beulah and Dolly.
Given that the root cause of the claustrophobic horror of that society is racial segregation, the company chose to begin and end the performance with the black character, the Conjure man (Yaw Osafo-Kantanka), speaking the poems written by the actor playing the part.