Miller, speaking for America’s political conscience, similarly eschewed romanticism. It was O’Neill who wrested American drama, kicking and screaming, into the world of realism: so repelled was he by Victorian sentimental romanticism that he ruthlessly eliminated all poetry from his plays. Over a remarkable 15 years, Williams wrote 10 plays that transformed US theatre, securing his place in the pantheon with Eugene O’Neill and Arthur Miller. Like any good cannibal, Williams understood the symbolic power that consuming your enemy confers. As John Lahr notes in his mammoth new biography, Williams was “the most autobiographical of American playwrights”, using the raw material of his troubled youth to fuel his art. W hen Tennessee Williams declared “Life is cannibalistic” he was also speaking of art: he had a tendency to equate the two.
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