PTC prepares for ‘Iguana’ run Theater company wants to transport local audiences …

If life were like a Tennessee Williams play, we all would be drenched in sweat and drunk all the time. We’d be fanning ourselves with folded-up newspapers, and all our love affairs would be torrid and scandalous. Every word we uttered would be colorfully graphic, delivered in shades of wild purple, aquamarine and deepest crimson.

Alas, life is not like a Tennessee Williams play, which is probably for the better, since it might get a little exhausting. For the next few weeks, though, life actually is like that at the Bangor Opera House, with the Penobscot Theatre Company’s latest production, Williams’ 1961 play “The Night of the Iguana,” opening at 8 p.m. Friday.

“It’s my favorite of his plays,” said director Scott R.C. Levy, producing artistic director for the PTC. “It’s his most underrated. When I saw it for the first time at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival eight years ago, I was completely enthralled. When it was over, I wanted to stay there. I wanted to go on vacation at that hotel.”

Set in 1940, “The Night of the Iguana” takes place over the course of a night at a run-down hotel on the edge of a rain forest on the coast of Mexico. Though it’s an ensemble cast, the play centers on the Rev. T. Lawrence Shannon, a defrocked Episcopal priest turned tour guide. Shannon is played by three-time PTC alumnus Kent Burnham, a Topsham native who makes his home in New York City.

“[Shannon is] in the midst of a nervous breakdown. He can’t control his urges,” said Burnham. “It’s definitely the most difficult role I’ve ever had. He’s on quite an emotional roller coaster. It’s also a very physical role – he’s always moving around. He’s imposing. He’s got all kinds of extremes. It’s a great part.”

“It’s been said that [‘Night of the Iguana’] is Williams’ most autobiographical play,” said Levy. “It’s also been said that Shannon is like the male version of Blanche DuBois, from ‘A Streetcar Named Desire.'”

A truly motley crew of characters convenes – from the crotchety leader of the Baptist women’s choir to which the Rev. Shannon is playing tour guide (played by Joye Cook-Levy), to a family of German Nazi-sympathizers (played by Arthur Morison, Bunny Barclay, Hans-Stefan Ducharme and Rebecca Bailey) who provide comic relief.

“It’s a slice of life,” said Burnham. “It could only happen in one place, on one night. I hope for audience members that they can feel like that, that they’re coming off the streets of Bangor into this tropical paradise full of oddball characters.”

In addition to dealing with this parade of personalities, as well as his own fragile emotional state, the Rev. Shannon must dodge the advances of both the 16-year-old choirgirl Charlotte (Danielle Beaman), and of Maxine Faulk (A.J. Mooney), the widow of recently deceased hotel proprietor Fred, a longtime friend of Shannon’s.

He also finds himself strongly attracted to Hannah (Tracy Liz Miller), a painter who travels the world with her poet grandfather (John Greenman), selling their art so they can move on to the next town.

“There are three main characters – Shannon, Maxine and Hannah – but it’s really everyone’s story,” said Levy. “All the characters, even the ones only on stage for five minutes, are well-thought-out and interesting. They aren’t caricatures. Williams is so specific in his descriptions. It feels epic, though it’s contained within only one day at the hotel.”

Miller, also a PTC alumnus (she starred in 2005’s “Spinning Into Butter,” along with Burnham), relishes the challenge of giving life to Williams’ vivid, intricately worded script.

“After doing Shakespeare and learning the language of that, I thought I would be prepared,” said Miller. “But Williams is such a stylist. It’s been a challenge getting my mouth wrapped around the words. It’s like a slalom course.”

Appropriate to the play’s setting, the actors seem as if they’ve spent several hours marinating in the heat of the Mexican jungle. Burnham and Mooney, in particular, seem to flop around like wet dishrags, draping themselves over designer Lex Liang’s evocative set like wet silk, soaked with humidity and desire. John Spencer’s lighting is thick and hazy. This is a Tennessee Williams play, after all. There’s lust, jealousy and anger seeping through every pore.

“The Night of the Iguana” will have a preview performance at 7 tonight with opening night at 8 p.m. Friday, May 9, at the Bangor Opera House. Other performances will be at 5 p.m. Saturday, May 10, and at 2 p.m. Sunday, May 11, as well as 7 p.m. May 15, 8 p.m. May 16 and 17, and 2 p.m. May 17 and 18. To purchase tickets, call 942-3333 or visit www.penobscotheatre.org.

eburnham@bangordailynews.net

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