The Liberation of Colette Simple
MUSIC THEATER
Imported from London, this cabaret fantasy with live music pops the cork of a bottled-up shop-girl in “Primanproper” Massachusetts.
directed by Matt Peover
composer & music director Vincent Guibert
adapted from Tennessee Williams' play "The Case of the Crushed Petunias"
SPATFEATHER PRODUCTIONS
London, UK
“A plucky experiment in theatrical form, witty edge and energy."
- The Guardian
About The Play
“THE THING THAT CONSTITUTED ALL YOUR DREAMS HAS BEEN UPROOTED”
-- THE LIBERATION OF COLETTE SIMPLE
Colette Simple tends to her petunias and her shop, seemingly content in her life, with only her canary for company. Then a stranger wearing muddy boots comes through the door. His questions set her thinking; her answers set her free.
Small New England towns held some mystery for Mississippi-born Tennessee Williams. Among other short plays he placed in New England was a gothic thriller A Guest at the Gables and The Case of the Crushed Petunias, finished in Key West in 1941, set in Primanproper, Mass.
Subtitled A Lyrical Fantasy in a letter to his agent Audrey Wood, Williams suggests it “might do for the radio” and considered changing the locale to Blue Mountain, Mississippi. According to editor Thomas Keith, the first professional production on record of Petunias was presented in 1957 in Cleveland, Ohio by America’s oldest African–American ensemble, the Karamu Theatre.
The 2009 Provincetown festival production of Petunias, directed by Patrick Falco, was staged in a Commercial Street storefront as a highlight of our fourth season, The Fight for Life.
“Charming and disarming quirkiness”
-TimeOut London
London’s Spatfeather Productions’ Colette Simple transports Petunias to a musical theater here and now. The libretto, touching a line between faithful and irreverent interpretation of Williams’ work, is the teamwork of playwrights Robert Holman and Amy Rosenthal, lyricist Adam Meggido, cabaret king Desmond O’Connor, actress Honeysuckle Weeks, and rapper Charlie Dupré. It is a heady mix of songs, dance, and transformational acting. Vincent Guibert’s score delights and surprises with echoes of Broadway, Weimar cabaret, stuttering hymns to complacency, and a capella harmony.
With Nathalie Carrington as Colette, and Adam Byron playing, among other roles, the canary.