Tennessee Williams undoubtedly has a gift. The unraveling of the thread of one of his stories is like a chambered nautilus with so many layers, compartments and turns that the very complexity of the work is part of the beauty. The mid-career “The Rose Tattoo” is about new beginnings and what better play to start a season as well as the Summer?
Antoinette LaVecchia wears many hats in this production – lead actor as well as dialogue coach to a multitude! She brings a rich and varied portrayal of Serafina Delle Rose, a woman that is so devoted to her husband that love makes her blind. The story opens with Serafina basking in the afterglow of recounting to the local wise woman Assunta (Angela Della Ventura) the brilliance of her husband Rosario’s lovemaking and how she knew the moment she conceived their second child, whom she was carrying at that moment. They are Sicilian immigrants in a town with other immigrants all trying to make their way. When her husband’s mistress, Estelle Hohengarten (Rachael Fox) brings Serafina a length of rose-colored silk to make a shirt for her paramour, Estelle thinks it is positively delicious to have her lover’s wife make a shirt for him. Yes, Rosario is a Lothario. Circles within spirals. Neither woman knows that the man they love is on a collision course with Destiny. Rosario is driving bananas and contraband and not even an expert driver can escape Fate. Later that evening, when Assunta relays the news of Rosario’s accident and death, Serafina collapses in grief, and their tiny son is lost. Rosa (Billie Wyatt), Serafina and Rosario’s daughter, is transported from a happy-go-lucky tween to the caretaker of the shell of her mother.
Though time passes outside the house, within Serafina has become a spectre haunting the rooms in her slip and silk robe, while Rosa has progressed to sparkling young womanhood. Precocious, at 15 she is graduating high school and has gone to a dance and met a friend’s brother, Jack Hunter (Isaac Hickox-Young). Sparks fly when a nice young man meets the jaded, mourning Serafina and she leads him on a merry interrogation. She was young once too, and Jack proves his mettle. When Anthony Marble appears as serio-comic Alvaro Mangiacavallo his arcs are balletic as he swirls from being the comic foil to the ardent lover in split seconds. And how this unfolds is where the meat of the play begins.
Williams creates characters that you may recognize from Mean Girls and TikTok even though the play was written in 1951. Mid-century Modern takes on a whole new meaning. Bessie (Kayla Ryan Walsh) and Flora (Celia Schaefer) spill the tea on what Rosario was really up to with Estelle and Chantal Jean-Pierre's Strega is an imp-ish figure poking needle-sharp at Serafina’s vanity all helping the scales fall from Serafina’s eyes to truly see her past, and her present. This opens the way for her future.
Plays are about moments – Wyatt and Hickox-Young play the young lovers to perfection – the nascent intimacy battling with adult desires in such young people may remind you of your time in those shoes.
And those of us who have loved, lost and learned to love again will devour LaVecchia and Marble’s thrilling ascent.
This ensemble is like watching a concert – it sings from start to finish and you will love every minute.
Williams’ and Monte’s brilliance is just the start of a stellar season! Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey’s The Rose Tattoo runs now through June 18! Reserve now for the best Father’s Day gift ever at www.ShakespeareNJ.org.
