By Staff Reporter 
Jul 29, 2021
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Cape Town audiences are in for a rare, Covid-safe-and-compliant treat as The Vineyard welcomes back its popular Hotel Plays.
The 2021 season will feature a special tribute to the life and legacy of Tennessee Williams, who would have celebrated his 110th birthday this year.
The Restaurant at The Vineyard will be transformed into a socially distanced Tennessee Williams wonderland where patrons can enjoy the playwright’s best-loved scenes and songs while enjoying a Williams-inspired menu of amuse-bouche dishes and cocktails. The Vineyard has staged immersive productions of Williams’s plays since 2016 in adjoining hotel suites.
The programme, titled Tennessee Williams: The Blue Piano/The Blue Guitar is a celebration of Williams’s most beautiful and haunting words.
Expect extracts from The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire, Summer and Smoke, Camino Real and Orpheus Descending with unforgettable standards from the Great American Songbook, such as “It’s Only A Paper Moon”, “On A Slow Boat to China” and “You’re the Only Star in My Blue Heaven”, alongside haunting Mexican canciones like “La Golondrina” and “Noche De Ronda”.
The evening is directed by leading Williams director Fred Abrahamse with musical direction, arrangements and accompaniment by Jaco Griessel.
The cast includes Matthew Baldwin who took the part of Tom in award-winning 2019 revival of The Glass Menagerie. Baldwin will play a young Tennessee Williams, hosting the evening and linking the various scenes with relevant extracts from Williams’s amusing Memoirs.
Vocalist Zoë McLaughlin, who was nominated for the Most Promising Student Fleur du Cap, will take on the bulk of Williams’s famous heroines, like Blanche Dubois and Miss Alma.
Rounding out the cast is Marcel Meyer playing hustler heroes like Val Xavier and Kilroy.
The Tennessee Williams: The Blue Piano/The Blue Guitar run will extend from Saturday, 6 August to Sunday, 5 September, (subject to change should Covid-19 regulations require it).
Seating will be restricted to comply with social distancing requirements, so tickets are very limited. For further information, please visit www.vineyard.co.za/event/.