The Night of the Iguana

DRAMA

directed by Fred Abrahamse featuring Gail Phaneuf, Marcel Meyer, and Everett Quinton

South African and American artists stage Williams' vision of madness, endurance, and grace in a new production inspired by Japan's traditional Noh theater.

ABRAHAMSE AND MEYER PRODUCTIONS

Cape Town, South Africa

The earthy widow Maxine Faulk runs a hotel at the edge of a Mexican cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean. On a rainy and turbulent night, the hotel becomes a sanctuary for the defrocked Reverend Shannon, terrorized by his loss of faith.

Shannon has rerouted and held hostage a tour group from a West Texas women's college. They're joined on the jungle cliff by a family of grotesque Nazi vacationers, an iguana tied by its throat under the veranda, and a self-described New England spinster whose 97-year-old grandfather is “the world’s oldest living and practicing poet.”

Considered among the finest of plays written by Williams, The Night of the Iguana is staged by director Fred Abrahamse. The production features Gail Phaneuf, South African stage star Marcel Meyer, and the iconic Everett Quinton, a longtime member of the Ridiculous Theatrical Company.

Abrahamse and Meyer Productions previously produced Hamlet and Sweet Bird of Youth at the Festival in 2017, as well as Desire Under the Elms in 2016, The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore and The Day On Which a Man Dies in 2015, Mishima’s The Lady Aoi in 2014, and Kingdom of Earth in 2012 and 2013.