Set in Mexico in 1940, The Night of the Iguana is one of the later plays in Tennessee Williams’ huge canon of work.
It centres on a disgraced former minister of the church, Lawrence T. Shannon, who has been barred from his church after allegations of statutory rape and for defaming God. Now working as a tour guide, he becomes embroiled in an uncomfortable love triangle involving a recently widowed hotel owner and a travelling artist.
Exploring themes of man’s relationship with God, sexual desire, loneliness, jealousy and confinement, it is considered one of Williams’ best plays and was made into the 1964 film starring Richard Burton, Ava Gardner and Deborah Kerr.
“It’s an Iguana. Do you want to see the Iguana? At the end of its rope? Like YOU! Like ME! Like Grampa with his last poem!” – Shannon