The Night of the Iguana

Description

The Reverend T. Lawrence Shannon characterizes the Western image of God as a "senile delinquent" during a sermon and is locked out of his church. Shannon is not defrocked, but he is institutionalized for a "nervous breakdown". In 1940s Mexico, some time after his release, the Rev. Shannon is working as a tour guide for a second-rate travel agency. Shortly before the opening of the play, Shannon is accused of committing statutory rape of a 16-year-old girl,[2] Charlotte Goodall, who is among his current group of tourists.

As the curtain rises, Shannon and a group of women arrive at a cheap hotel on the coast of Mexico managed by his friends Fred and Maxine Faulk. Fred has recently died, and Maxine has assumed sole responsibility for managing the establishment.

Struggling emotionally, Shannon tries to manage his tour party, who have turned against him for having sexual relations with the minor, and Maxine is interested in him for purely carnal reasons. Adding to this chaotic scenario, spinster Hannah Jelkes appears with her elderly grandfather, Nonno, who, despite his failing health, is composing his last poem. Jelkes, who scrapes by as a traveling painter and sketch artist, is soon at Maxine's mercy. Shannon, who wields considerable influence over Maxine, offers Hannah shelter for the night. The play's main axis is the development of the deeply human bond between Hannah and Shannon.

Minor characters in the play include a group of German tourists whose Nazi marching songs paradoxically lighten the heavier themes of the play while suggesting the horrors of World War II;[3] the Mexican "boys" Maxine employs to help run the hotel who ignore her laconic commands; and Judith Fellowes, the "butch" vocal teacher charged with Charlotte's care during the trip.

The Reverend T. Lawrence Shannon was based partly on Williams' cousin and close friend, the Reverend Sidney Lanier, the iconoclastic rector of St. Clement's Episcopal Church, New York.[4] Lanier was a significant figure in the New York theater scene in the 1950s and 1960s, started a Ministry to the Theatre Arts, and became co-founder of the experimental American Place Theatre in 1962.[5] Lanier resigned from his ministry in May 1965.


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