Orpheus Descending

Tennessee Williams’s play Orpheus Descending opened in New York City in 1957. Already an established playwright with several successful productions, including The Glass Menagerie and A Streetcar Named Desire, this latest work, heavily criticized, was widely considered a failure in spite of the fact that Williams labored over it for more than seventeen years. He rewrote the play five times. His premise for the work was to create a modern-day version of the legend of Orpheus and Eurydice.

Orpheus Descending tells the story of a young charismatic musician who descends upon a small, repressed southern town. He begins a relationship with a passionate woman with a tragic past who is trapped in a bad marriage. The play ruminates on themes that are often associated with Williams’s work, including loneliness and desire, sexuality and repression and, above all, the longing for freedom. Throughout the play, violence is always lurking just below the surface; it comes to a head in the grand finale.

The opening scene of the play is set in a dry goods store in a small southern town. Two women, Dolly and Beulah are laying out a buffet dinner. Gossiping amongst themselves, they reveal that Jabe Torrance has undergone surgery in Memphis, but is going to die. Beulah reminisces about how Jabe had essentially bought his wife, Lady, when she was just eighteen years old and reeling from having her heart broken by David Cutrere. Lady’s father was an Italian immigrant who acquired an orchard in the Prohibition era and turned it into a wine garden. He was running a successful underground operation until he made the mistake of selling liquor to a black man. The locals were enraged and burned down his farm, killing Lady’s father in the process. Lady’s own husband led the mob that killed her father, and Beulah wonders out loud whether Lady is aware of this. Beulah also reveals that Lady has plans to open a confectionary in another room of the dry goods store.



As the Temple sisters gossip about her, Carol Cutrere makes a phone call. Val Xavier arrives, and shortly thereafter, Vee Talbott with one of her paintings. Val is a stranger but Carol insists that she has met him before, in New Orleans; he denies it. Carol asks him if he would like to go out somewhere together, but Val is looking for a job and so declines her offer. Lady and her husband, Jabe, enter; it is clear that all is not well in their relationship. He looks very ill and retires to the bedroom to get some rest. Carol continues to pester Val, insisting that they know each other from somewhere, and revealing a lot of information about her past as a civil rights campaigner. A couple of hours later, Val and Lady get to talking. He shows her his guitar, and she agrees to hire him as a clerk. She insists that this is strictly business and that she has no intention of becoming romantically involved with him.

As the weeks go by, Val and Lady get to know each other. Val tells her all about his wild past in New Orleans, assuring her that all of that is behind him now. Carol visits the store to get gas and while she is there, she once again makes advances towards Val. Carol’s brother, David, calls, saying that he is coming to pick her up. Lady says that she will refuse to allow her former lover David to enter the store. When David arrives, Lady lets him in and sends Carol and Val away. She tells David that she had been pregnant with his child and that after he left her, she chose to have an abortion. She tells him to leave and never return.

Lady offers to let Val stay in a small alcove in the store, claiming that it will make her feel safer if she knows he is there guarding things. He senses the tension in her and massages her neck and shoulders to relieve it. While she is gathering the linen for his bedding, Val takes money from the cash box and leaves the store. Upon her return, Lady notices the theft. Val returns later that night and replaces the money he took. He tells Lady that he is quitting his job as he has won money gambling. She accuses him of theft, and he accuses her of only hiring him with the hope of some romantic relationship. Val is about to leave when Lady breaks down in tears, begging him to stay, and the two enter the alcove together.



On Easter, Jabe visits the store and criticizes the way the confectionary is decorated. He cruelly brings up the death of Lady’s father, revealing that he obviously had some part to play in it. Vee arrives at the store at sunset and faints. As Val tries to resuscitate her, her husband enters and orders him to take his hands off his wife. Vee’s husband threatens Val, telling him that he has until the next day to get out of the county.

Val emerges from the alcove with a suitcase, explaining to Lady that he feels unsafe and wishes to leave. She tells him that if he does she will not pay his wages. Val says he is going anyway; Lady gives in and says she will go with him, but they must wait for Jabe to die. She tries to persuade Jabe’s nurse to inject him with a fatal dose of morphine, but she refuses, simultaneously revealing that she believes Lady is pregnant. Lady denies the accusation, but after the nurse leaves she confirms to Val that she is pregnant and that the baby is his.

Jabe appears on the landing and shoots Lady, wounding her. He rushes to tell the men that Val has shot his wife, and they descend on the shop with blowtorches, burning him to death.