how to: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh, John Lahr

They say life imitates art, and as theatre critic John Lahr's new biography of Tennessee Williams reveals, the enigmatic playwright was every bit as shatteringly vulnerable and grippingly volatile as the characters he created. And the breathtaking drama he created for the stage is almost tame in comparison to the playwright's own chequered history. In his widely acclaimed new biography, The Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh, Lahr takes a sensitive and balanced approach to uncovering the secrets and traumas that taunted the talent. He will give an intimate discussion and insight into this life story for the how to: Academy.
Along with igniting enthusiasm for Williams's work, this exploration of his personal life reveals a man whose own tangled web of familial dysfunction has distinct parallels with The Glass Menagerie, the play that rocketed Williams into the Theatre hall of fame. And whose tragic sister, diagnosed as mad, lobotomised and institutionalised for life, formed the basis of A Streetcar Named Desire's Blanche DuBois.
If you fell in love with Williams's dramaturgy afresh after the mesmerising Young Vic revival of Streetcar this summer, or if you missed out on this sellout show and want an insight into one of America's most successful and troubled playwrights, this is an unmissable evening of theatrical history and personal narrative.