The world around Tennessee Williams in the 1960s, 1970s, and into the 1980s was changing at an astonishing pace, the cultural revolution of the period rendering most of his themes of sexual closeting and repression almost inconsequential. At least the entrenched cultural taboos against which he wrote seem to have disappeared by the mid-1960s and 1970s. In the 1980s, Broadway productions of his work grew infrequent, while those mounted tended to have short runs. He told interviewers from Theatre Arts magazine: ‘I think my kind of literary or pseudo-literary style of writing for the theatre is on its way out.’ European productions of his work, on the other hand, seemed regenerative: Howard Davies’s Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1989), in which the director used Williams’s original third act and not the version rewritten by Elia Kazan for the New York premiere; Peter Hall’s revival of Orpheus Descending (1989–91); Benedict Andrews’s A Streetcar Named Desire (2014), followed by his 2017 Cat on a Hot Tin Roof – a revival deemed ‘so courageous’; and in Italy, Elio De Capitani’s productions of Un tram che si chiama desiderio (1995) and Improvvisamente, l’estate scorsa (2011), both in fresh, new, up-to-date translations by Masolino D’Amico – all these have maintained an edge to Williams’s theatre lost in so many American productions. All seem to suggest the continued vitality of Williams’s work in Europe by directors willing to probe and rediscover Williams’s depths, who consider him ‘a playwright worthy of further artistic investigation’, as European audiences, correspondingly, seem less inclined to dismiss him as an artist whom history has overtaken. S. E. Gontarski is Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor of English at Florida State University. His critical, bilingual edition of Tennessee Williams’s A Streetcar Named Desire was published as Un tram che si chiama desiderio / A Streetcar Named Desire (Pisa: Editioni ETS, 2012). His Włodzimierz Staniewski and the Phenomenon of ‘Gardzienice’, co-edited with Tomasz Wiśniewski and Katarzyna Kręglewska, is forthcoming (Routledge).

中文翻译：

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田纳西·威廉姆斯的创造性战栗、审查制度和戏剧的酷儿

在 1960 年代、1970 年代和 1980 年代，田纳西威廉姆斯周围的世界正在以惊人的速度发生变化，这一时期的文化革命使他的大部分性封闭和压抑主题几乎无关紧要。至少他所反对的根深蒂固的文化禁忌似乎在 1960 年代中期和 1970 年代消失了。在 1980 年代，他作品的百老汇作品越来越少，而那些登上舞台的作品往往是短片。他告诉采访者从戏剧艺术杂志：“我认为我为戏剧创作的那种文学或伪文学风格正在消失。” 另一方面，他作品的欧洲作品似乎具有再生能力：霍华德戴维斯的热铁皮屋顶上的猫（1989 年），其中导演使用了威廉姆斯最初的第三幕，而不是伊利亚·卡赞为纽约首映而重写的版本；彼得霍尔的复兴俄耳甫斯降世（1989-91）；本尼迪克特·安德鲁斯欲望号街车（2014），其次是他的 2017热铁皮屋顶上的猫——被认为“如此勇敢”的复兴；在意大利，埃利奥·德·卡皮塔尼 (Elio De Capitani) 的作品Un tram che si chiama desiderio（1995）和即兴表演，l'estate scorsa（2011 年），无论是由马索里诺·达米科（Masolino D'Amico）提供的新鲜、新、最新的翻译——所有这些都保持了威廉姆斯剧院在众多美国作品中丢失的优势。所有这些似乎都表明威廉斯作品在欧洲的持续活力，导演愿意探索和重新发现威廉斯的深度，他们认为他是“值得进一步艺术研究的剧作家”，因为欧洲观众似乎不太倾向于将他视为艺术家历史已经超越了谁。SE Gontarski 是佛罗里达州立大学的 Robert O. Lawton 杰出英语教授。他对田纳西·威廉姆斯的批判性双语版欲望号街车发表为Un tram che si chiama desiderio / 一辆名为欲望的有轨电车（比萨：Editioni ETS，2012）。他的Włodzimierz Staniewski 和 'Gardzienice 的现象'，与 Tomasz Wiśniewski 和 Katarzyna Kręglewska 共同编辑，即将出版（Routledge）。