The Red Devil Battery Sign

The Red Devil Battery Sign is a three-act play by American writer Tennessee Williams. He copyrighted the text in 1975 for its premiere in Boston, but revised the play in 1979; that later version was published by New Directions in 1988.[1]

The Red Devil Battery Sign

The 1975 Boston production starred Anthony Quinn (King Del Rey), Claire Bloom (Woman Downtown), Katy Jurado (Perla), Annette Cardona (La Niña) and Steve McAddy (McCabe). It was directed by Ed Sherin and produced by David Merrick and Hilliard Elkins who was married to Bloom, although they divorced soon after the play closed. Williams was fully involved in the production during the New York City rehearsals, but in Boston he was absent part of the time. He sent in rewrites when requested. The Boston premiere received mixed reviews, but the production drew audiences; Merrick, however, insisted that the financial investment had been exhausted and he closed the show two weeks after its first preview.[2] [2]

In 1977 The Red Devil Battery Sign was produced by Gene Persson at the Roundhouse Theatre in London. Williams chose Pierce Brosnan to play McCabe in the British premiere. Keith Baxter starred as King Del Rey and was also the play's co-director; Williams dedicated his 1979 revision of the play to Baxter.

The Vancouver Playhouse produced The Red Devil Battery Sign in October 1980, while Williams was writer-in-residence at the University of British Columbia. It was directed by Roger Hodgman and starred Diane D'Aquila (Woman Downtown) and Richard Donat (King Del Rey). The play received scathing reviews from the Vancouver press and other Canadian papers. However, the Playhouse produced the project the following year at the world premiere of The Notebook of Trigorin, Williams' free adaptation of Anton Chekhov's The Seagull.[3]

References
  1. Williams, Tennessee. The Red Devil Battery Sign. New York: New Directions, 1988, p. xii. ISBN 0-8112-1046-4
  2. Lahr, John. Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh. New York: W.W. Norton, 2014, pp. 551-53. ISBN 978-0-393-02124-0
  3. "Gene Persson dies at 74". Variety. Variety. 2008-06-20. Retrieved 2008-07-07.


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