Tennessee Williams’ Disturbing 50s Drama Exposes White Patriarchy

by Jenyth Jo

Terrific acting in OTP’s production of “Orpheus Descending” rescues a play Tennessee Williams struggled to perfect. Flawed script? Certainly.

But the last half hour of this show offers a big reward. Williams provides stunning moments and a climax that feels surprising and inevitable. During the 1950s, when hatred for the “other” permeated the U.S., Williams offered a stark picture of how women, gay folks, and immigrants barely survived.

Will Detlefsen‘s direction keeps the dedicated actors moving deftly. Inspired lighting and sound project a small-town dry-goods shop disguised as a sizzling red Hades.

Powerhouse Lisa Ramirez plays Lady Talbott, the beleaguered shopkeeper who struggles to keep the shop alive.  When her Italian immigrant father sold bootleg liquor to Black townspeople, a white mob set his orchard on fire.  He died trying to save it. Lady sold herself to a devilish, abusive husband, who rules from his deathbed upstairs.

Ramirez demonstrates a musical talent for an Italian lilt. She mesmerizes us, ranging from soft-spoken, nuanced accents to high decibel “dago rage.” With cat-like quickness, Lady runs, twists, turns, and falls into despair.

Her husband Jabe Talbott (versatile Robert Parsons) uses the full-on N-word repeatedly. When Parsons addresses newcomer Val (Brooklyn actor Hunter Bryant) as “Boy,” Williams reminds us of U.S. racial horrors.

When Val wanders in looking for a job, we want him to stay. As Val, Bryant—in Elvis-style snakeskin jacket—brings freshness and sensuality to the dried-up Southerners. Wary and wise, Val strums Memphis blues on a wireless electric guitar, stirring up the women with his luscious masculinity.

Handsome and humble, he’s irresistible to ‘crazy’ Carol Cutrere (Natalie Pasquinelli). In blue hair and face jewels, weather-beaten and on the run, Pasquinelli’s Carol brings intense energy as a free-spirited “problem to her parents.”

Williams’ opening feels heavy-handed, but Dolly (Zolboo Namkaidorj) and Beulah (Lizzie Izyumin) make the most of their gossiping, hypocritical roles. As they drag wired microphones, they become a Greek chorus commenting on the tragedy.

Thoughtful blocking and precise diction give Williams’ lyrical lines great force: “To be not alone, even for a few moments, is worth the pain and the danger,” says Carol, as she pleads with Val to want her. She does not care that she is white, and he is Black.

As Lady, Ramirez discovers her deep thirst for Val, who helps her rise from the abyss. Whipping her wild hair like a Fury, she embodies desperation. Lady’s white silk negligee clings to slender limbs as she descends from her husband’s bedroom to join Val in a dance of ecstasy. With each trip up and down the staircase, her body gains fluid strength.

Lady T. tosses rose petals around her new candy counter, inviting the “rejected” people inside.  She is almost free from her husband’s tyranny, when we learn the true stakes of her life in a powerful climax.

Williams forces us to think about being trapped: by color, gender, ignorance, and bigotry. “Orpheus Descending” asks us to stand up for every person, especially the oppressed.

“Orpheus Descending” by Tennessee Williams, directed by Will Detlefsen, set by Sam Fehr, costumes by Alexia Dominique Rodriguez, props by Heidi Button, lighting by Kimberly Scott, and sound by Alexis Brooks & Brooklyn Sound Lab, at Oakland Theater Project, Oakland, California.

Info: oaklandtheaterproject.org – to August 23, 2026.

Cast: Hunter Bryant, Lizzie Izyumin, Susannah Martin, Zolboo Namkhaidorj, Robert Parsons, Natalie Pasquinelli, and Lisa Ramirez.

Banner photo: Lisa Ramirez (Lady Talbott). Photos by Ben Krantz Studio