Something Cloudy, Something Clear
Something Cloudy, Something Clear
by Tennessee Williams
directed by Cosmin Chivu
starring Lou Liberatore
InterArt Group
New York, New York
"Life is all — it's just one time. It finally seems to all occur at one time."
Something Cloudy, Something Clear
A long-ago Provincetown summer, or here and now?
Sometimes it's both.
Tennessee Williams wrote in his diary that life itself is memory. In this Centennial year, we are pleased to present his candid autobiographical play, set here on the Provincetown sand, where he fell hopelessly in love with a young dancer called Kip, and struggled to launch his professional career, revising Battle of Angels.
Take this fleeting chance, expose yourself — to the elements, to a rarely seen play, and to the shimmering spectres of Tennessee Williams' life.
Something Cloudy was the last New York production of a Tennessee Williams play during his lifetime. It is a mature work, reflecting on his life in double exposure: stylistically daring, leaping in time between 1940 and 1980, peopled with ghosts. The cataract in Williams' left eye becomes a metaphor. One eye is clouded by nostalgia, guilt, and regret, the other sharply focused by a frank unsentimentality. Life becomes a series of necessary compromises -- where poetry, artistic integrity and deep longing are weighed against sex-for-hire, potential violence, and endless negotiation of terms -- for survival.
Consider seeing The Parade first. It's an early one-act play, begun here in 1940, with the same subject and setting as Something Cloudy. The Parade's simpler storyline of love and longing will provide a snapshot over which the refracted, full-length Something Cloudy can be superimposed, creating your own double-exposure.
The thematic centerpiece of our Festival is directed by Cosmin Chivu of New York’s InterArt Group and stars Tony-nominated actor Lou Liberatore in the role of the Tennessee Williams character, August.
Lou Liberatore (August). A veteran in the entertainment industry, Lou has appeared on stage, television and in film in various projects including; Broadway—Burn This (Tony Award, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle Award Nominations) and As Is. He’s also appeared Off-Broadway and in Regional theatres including; the Manhattan Theatre Club, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Vineyard Theatre, the Lark, Naked Angels, Westport Country Playhouse, Two River Theatre, Centerstage, Pioneer Theatre, the Alley, Mark Taper Forum, Steppenwolf and on London’s West End. TV/Film—"Nurse Jackie", "Sex and the City", "Law & Order", "Tales of the City", It’s My Party. As Director: Water with Lemon (Pilot). Lou is a graduate of Fordham University (Lincoln Center), company member of the Circle Repertory Company and the Ensemble Studio Theatre; board member of the ReVision Theatre of Asbury Park and studied with the legendary acting teacher William Esper. LouLiberatore.com