I have wanted to do Sweet Bird with Elizabeth Ashley since we did Cat on a Hot Tin Roof together on Broadway. Tennessee asked me to direct Sweet Bird many years ago, but I just wasn't ready. The time feels right to do it now. It was, but I think Sweet Bird of Youth is a better title. It means the same thing.
Youth is sweet and has a buoyant quality, while the enemy, time, is what makes the sweet bird fly.
Tennessee was very careful about his titles. The play, which has its lyric and lurid moments at the same time, is about the end of a lot of things. No one escapes having to choose, but it's fascinating to see what each of the characters do when faced with their choice. Writing became his retreat. Oh, I think he was unhappy with bourgeois life in St. Louis.