Review: ‘And Tell Sad Stories of the Death of Queens’ by CRT

STORRS, CT - ‘And Tell Sad Stories of the Death of Queens’ was written by Tennessee Williams. The Pulitzer Prize-Winning playwright wrote over 70 one-act plays during his lifetime, but they were seldom produced. ‘And Tell Sad Stories of the Death of Queens’ is the first known Tennessee Williams play set in the gay world. It tells the story of a New Orleans transvestite trying to make a life for herself with a brutish and exploitative sailor while suffering from “the specter of loneliness.” The sometimes funny and touching play was written in 1957 and first produced in 2004.

Candy Delaney is a successful New Orleans interior decorator and also a drag queen who is approaching her 35th birthday. Candy is on the rebound from a seventeen-year relationship and has picked up a rough sailor, Karl, on whom she lavishes money. On the day of the dreaded birthday, Karl walks out and it's left to the two queens who live upstairs, Alvin and Jerry, to comfort Candy.

Four UConn students take on the one-act from their homes for this Connecticut Repertory Company production under the direction of Dexter Singleton. The director welcomes the audience with a brief virtual curtain speech. During the post-show talkback, one actor revealed that he was working from Greenwich, CT, while two others acted from the west coast.

Paul Flores leads the cast in the role of Candy by fully embracing the character. Sean Redahan did his best to play the mean sailor Karl, who is hard to like. Andre Chan as Alvin and Colin Kinnick as Jerry played the queens upstairs. All did well with the Southern drawl required and the costume they wore made their characters even more believable. Kudos to the UConn students for taking on this often challenging Tennessee Williams play that was a new one for me.

On opening night, the technical aspects of the Zoom performance were uneven. On my screen at least, the sound did not match the actor speaking, making it hard to understand the dialogue. At times, an actor disappeared from the screen while delivering his/her lines; this allowed the audience to focus on the reactions of the scene partner, but was frustrating when it wasn’t required for a costume change. The physical interactions between the characters that the script required did not transfer well to the Zoom platform.

Interestingly enough, Zoom worked extremely well for the after-show toast and brief talk-back that included a good number of participants.

The virtual production of CRT’s ‘And Tell Sad Stories of the Death of Queens’ runs April 22-25, 2021. The running time is 45 minutes and there was a three-minute intermission on opening night. There will be a talkback following each performance. Visit crt.uconn.edu to purchase tickets for this weekend.