The Traveling Companion & Other Plays (New Directions Paperbook)
Most of the shorter plays contained in The Traveling Companion were never produced during Williams’ lifetime; some remain unproduced. All illustrate Williams’ restless creativity. Never content to settle on a trademark style—to the consternation of those who liked the slightly heightened realism of his most famous plays—Williams persistently experimented. The moving one-act, The Day on Which a Man Dies, finally produced this year, borrows elements from Japanese Noh drama to illustrate the final days of a once-great, now suicidal artist coping badly with the loss of his creative powers. The poetic but laconic, postapocalyptic The Chalky White Substance clearly owes a debt to Samuel Beckett. Not all of Williams’ attempts are successful, yet there is something of value even in his half-baked pieces. Readers who know about Williams’ life may find the title play, about the dysfunctional relationship of an elderly gay man and a handsome but opportunistic young man, especially poignant. --Jack Helbig