The Rose Tattoo

Rose Tattoo is a lengthy play, full of vibrant characters, adventuresome, physical action, interesting storyline and definitive settings. In addition, there are several themes, depression, withdrawal, lunacy and filled with symbols, the tattoo, the silk, the clock, bananas, etc. The play is perfect for the stage. Like any Tennessee Williams play, you need to read it again, in order to grasp the entire Williams style, to find the themes and symbols that further connect one to the story and characteristics. In 1952, the stage play earned a Tony Award. Much has been written about Tennessee Williams' women known as the "mad heroine" with Blanche Dubois, A Streetcar Named Desire Laura Wingfield, Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie (Broadway Theatre Archive) etc., and clearly, Sarafina delle Rose, a voluptuous Italian widow who seeks to find comfort again. Williams is very detail oriented in his character descriptions and stage settings. The play takes place in the South, near New Orleans. The time is the present, (early 50s) that spans from one evening and quickly moves to 3 years later. As the story opens, Sarafina Delle Rose is waiting for her husband, Rosario to arrive from his job. We don't get to meet him, but we learn through characterization was that he was handsome, thick black hair, and made plenty of money driving a banana truck, hauling "something" underneath the bananas. But Rosario was murdered, burned in the truck. Sarafina is in denial about her beloved Rosario, she speaks well of him. Through the many other characters, we find out more unpleasant news about Rosario. It is in the next three years we learn that lunacy and absurdity have defined Sarafina's behavior, her strange idiosyncrasies, her withdrawal, her stubbornness, and, wanting the same for her now 15 year old daughter Rosa. Then, she meets a younger man, Alvaro. Compare it with the film version, The Rose Tattoo, which is usually never as good as the original play .... Rizzo