In a letter to his friend, Joe Hazan, Williams writes that he is sickened by the failure of his play, laments that the audience could not recognize the “poetic tragedy” of his work, and calls the critics who reviewed the production second-string “prissy old maids.”Īfter its failed Boston debut, Williams continuously revised and rewrote Battle of Angels with the hope that the play would be reproduced. As Williams biographer Robert Bray wrote, “the haphazard decision to move the opening from New Haven to Boston in December of 1940 left Williams faced with a priggish audience unprepared to entertain his juxtaposition of sexual and religious themes.”Īt the production’s end, Williams left Boston with the intention of finding a quiet place to recuperate. The play was poorly received one critic compared watching the play to being “dunked in mire.” Boston City Council members called for the play to be censored, and it ran for less than two weeks there.
The first major production of a Tennessee Williams play, Battle of Angels (1940), was a complete failure and scandal.
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