Published as a trade paperback for the first time, with a new introduction by the acclaimed playwright John Patrick Shanley ( Doubt ) and the one-act on which The Rose Tattoo was based.
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Published as a trade paperback for the first time, with a new introduction by the acclaimed playwright John Patrick Shanley ( Doubt ) and the one-act on which The Rose Tattoo was based.
Read Less
Add this copy of The Rose Tattoo. (Acting Edition for Theater to cart. $3.19, very good condition, Sold by HPB-Emerald rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Dallas, TX, UNITED STATES, published 1998 by Dramatists Play Service, Inc.
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Very good. Connecting readers with great books since 1972! Used books may not include companion materials, and may have some shelf wear or limited writing. We ship orders daily and Customer Service is our top priority!
Add this copy of The Rose Tattoo to cart. $3.74, very good condition, Sold by HPB Inc. rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Dallas, TX, UNITED STATES, published 2010 by New Directions.
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Very good. Connecting readers with great books since 1972! Used books may not include companion materials, and may have some shelf wear or limited writing. We ship orders daily and Customer Service is our top priority!
Add this copy of The Rose Tattoo. (Acting Edition for Theater to cart. $5.98, very good condition, Sold by EdmondDantes Bookseller rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Minneapolis, MN, UNITED STATES, published 1998 by Dramatists Play Service, Inc.
Add this copy of The Rose Tattoo. (Acting Edition for Theater to cart. $5.99, good condition, Sold by One Planet Books rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Columbia, MO, UNITED STATES.
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Good. Ships in a BOX from Central Missouri! May not include working access code. Will not include dust jacket. Has used sticker(s) and some writing and/or highlighting. UPS shipping for most packages, (Priority Mail for AK/HI/APO/PO Boxes).
Add this copy of The Rose Tattoo to cart. $5.99, very good condition, Sold by HPB-Diamond rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Dallas, TX, UNITED STATES, published 2010 by New Directions.
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Add this copy of Rose Tattoo to cart. $7.85, very good condition, Sold by Newsboy Books rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Ontario, CA, UNITED STATES, published by Dramatists Play Service, Inc..
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Very Good. B000J4UBBU Almost like new. Cover crease. Previous owner's name on first page. Pages are like new. No highlighting. No underlining. Pamphlet style (staple bound). Dramatists Play Service.
Add this copy of The Rose Tattoo to cart. $7.95, very good condition, Sold by Gian Luigi Fine Books, Inc. rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Albany, NY, UNITED STATES, published 1955 by SIGNET 1236.
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Add this copy of The Rose Tattoo to cart. $8.00, very good condition, Sold by Gils Book Loft rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Binghamton, NY, UNITED STATES, published 1950 by Signet (#1236).
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Very good++ Book Movie tie-in edition: Burt Lancaster & Anna Magnani on front & backcovers. b/w movie stills. very good++, mass market paper, photo yellow covers. Tight 128 pgs.
Add this copy of Rose Tattoo to cart. $8.75, like new condition, Sold by Newsboy Books rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Ontario, CA, UNITED STATES, published by Dramatists Play Service, Inc..
Tennessee Williams is most often remembered as a lyrical writer of tragedy and lurid violence and as the author of three classic plays: "The Glass Menagerie", "A Streetcar Named Desire", and "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof". Williams wrote many other plays in different styles. Among the best of his works is this romance, "The Rose Tattoo", a play which is too-little known today. Cheryl Crawford directed the play when it opened on Broadway in 1951 starring Maureen Stapleton and Eli Wallach. The play, Stapleton, and Wallach each won Tony Awards. In 1955, Williams wrote the screenplay for the film version of "The Rose Tattoo" which became famous for the Academy Award winning performance of Anna Magnani. Williams wrote an introduction, "The Timeless World of a Play" to "The Rose Tattoo" in which he said: "Whether or not we admit it to ourselves, we are all haunted by a tragic sense of impermanence." He argued that a play gave the opportunity to suspend time by allowing its audience to share in human emotion and change as spectators and so to understand oneself and one another better, if only for a moment. This short, difficult essay is an apt introduction to the play.
The three-act play is set around 1950 in an unnamed town on the Gulf Coast between New Orleans and Mobile with a large population of Sicilian immigrants. The play tells the story of a middle-aged Sicilian immigrant woman, Serafina Delle Rose who passes from grief and despair to love and sexuality and to a second chance at life. In the opening scenes, Serafina is pregnant and married to a man named Rosario and the couple have a 12-year old daughter, Rosa. Rosario never appears in the play. He is killed almost immediately when he is smuggling contraband for the underworld under a truckload of bananas. Serafina, who works as a seamstress, is shaken to the extent that she loses the baby. She lives solely with the memory of Rosario and of his sexual prowess, symbolized by the rose tattoo on his chest. She comes to idealize her dead husband and fights fiercely to repress compelling evidence of his long-term infidelity.
Most of the play is set in a single day three years after Rosario's death. Serafina continues to mourn his passing and loses interest in her friends and in other people. She becomes over-protective of Rosa, who is now an adolescent graduating from high school who has fallen in love with Jack, a young sailor. Serafina meets an uncouth but magnetically attractive young man, Alvaro, who also drives a truck for a living and who reminds her of her late husband. The sexual attraction is immediate. In long scenes between Rosa and Alvaro, Williams develops their relationship. Serafina comes to terms with the frailties of her husband and with love and romance. She is able to love herself and to release her daughter to her own life.
The play is lengthy and takes concentration to read. It is full of symbolism, including the rose tattoo, religious icons, a watch, a randy goat, a flamboyant pink shirt and more. The Sicilian immigrant community is vividly drawn with eccentric characters including a herbal doctor and a witch. The play includes some Italian dialogue which is best read over quickly as its meaning is generally clear from the context. I found it helpful to watch the film version between readings of the play to help visualize the action. Magnani's portrayal of Serafina brings the character to life more than any reading could do. Although the film version is bowdlerized, the spirit of Williams' play comes through.
John Lahr's biography "Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh" (2014) devotes substantial space to Williams' writing of "The Rose Tattoo" and to its biographical significance. Williams wrote several early drafts which were critiqued by Elia Kazan, who had already directed several of Williams' plays. Williams wrote and rewrote to adopt Kazan's suggestions into the final version of the play. When he had completed the final draft, Kazan, after hesitation, declined to direct the work, to Williams' great disappointment. In this instance, Williams was right to have faith in the worth of his play, as suggested by the Tony Award. Years later, in 1959, Kazan would back out from directing another Williams comedy, the far less successful play, "Period of Adjustment". Williams and Kazan never worked together again.
"The Rose Tattoo" is a beautiful play about disappointment and grief and about the power of love and sexuality to redeem life. In addition to this individual version, the play is available in the first of the two Library of America volumes devoted to the plays of Tennessee Williams.
