Stairs to the Roof Book

One of the least known of Williams' plays, and for good reason - this ode to the fate of those stuck in office drudgery takes a stab at fantasy, political satire and even a happy ending, complete with heterosexual romantic love. We go from Arthur Miller Lite - clerical workers under the boot of cruel bosses - to theatre of the absurd wherein two of the minions break free not only of their own 'cages' but set out to a park and liberate the little foxes (no, that's Hellmann. The clerk and the secretary just free foxes, plain old foxes). Then there's a madcap carnival, which leads onwards and upwards to Stairs to the Roof and then I was glad it was over. The script is hard going to read, and leaves no wish to see a live production. The subtitle, "A Prayer for the Wild at Heart That are Kept in Cages" speaks as much to TW's life at the time he wrote Stairs to the Roof as it does to his imagined trapped office workers; the introduction points out that the play was written "during the Depression when Tennessee Williams had to quit college to type orders eight hours a day at the International Shoe Factory in St. Louis." That would be enough to drive anyone write such a muddled - albeit angry, and occasionally effective - little thing, even one of the greatest playwrights ever to grace the planet. Thank Gods he was able to leave his own drudgery behind and go on to create the plays of quiet desperation (not that quiet, shouts Mr. Kowalski from the wings) and wild passion that still, 75 years later, can leave an audience breathless.