Orpheus Descending, Menier Chocolate Factory

Wales’ Theatr Clwyd and London’s Menier Chocolate Factory are co-producing a revival of Orpheus Descending. Tennessee Williams’ 1957 drama follows a young musician who forms a relationship with a married woman shortly after he arrives in a small town in America's deep south. It is a tense story about a dangerous passion within an oppressively conservative community, which, as is characteristic of Williams' work, erupts towards the end of the play in a final burst of violence.

The myth at the heart of the play reflects Williams' preoccupation with Greek tragedy and dramatising the pattern of hubris that leads to downfall. His modern re-working of the Orpheus and Eurydice story was a subject of scrutiny and revision. He wrote and rewrote Orpheus Descending over a period of seventeen years, after his critically-acclaimed successes The Glass Menagerie (1944) and A Streetcar Named Desire (1947).The resulting play interlaces classical mythology with Williams' characteristic themes of sexuality and death.

Casting has yet to be announced but Orpheus Descending is directed by Theatr Clwyd’s artistic director Tamara Harvey, and will transfer to London’s Menier Chocolate Factory after premiering in Wales in April. Harvey directed the premiere of Laura Wade’s Home I’m Darling by Laura Wade which is currently impressing on the West End.

Booking for Orpheus Descending at the Menier Chocolate Factory opens at 9am on Monday 11 March.