Memoirs

"The Memoirs are unique in the sense that they need to be considered in context. From the 1960s onward, Williams entered what he called his ‘Stone Age.’ He was having one monumental failure after another in the theatre. His cultural stock was at an all time low. He needed a hit. So he thought, well, I’ve tried the theatre, I suppose the next logical step is to mine my own life and career for the goods, for material. So he spent a significant amount of time writing this book, out of chronological order. The Memoirs are structured so they flit back and forth, kind of like a Williams play, and the periods that he does decide to focus on are so salacious, so gossipy—he just lets it all hang out. He tells us about this lover and that lover, what he thought about this or that figure. You get the sense of a man unleashed. The American filmmaker John Waters described it as being like sitting down for drinks with an already-inebriated Williams, telling you stories. It’s incredibly brave for anybody to go so far and to be that candid about themselves. Yes, Williams was incredibly forthright in his plays, very articulate and outspoken about sexual relationships. But there is a distinct difference, I think, in what he could get away with on Broadway, which was dominated by its own very conservative rules and regulations, and what he could get away with on the printed page. This is an unparalleled frankness in a public figure. In the 21st-century, we have reality television. But if you look at the Kardashians, for example, it’s curated. Any outrage is managed outrage. Whereas with Williams, it really was a man with a talent for writing who had reached a point in his life where he had nothing left to lose. He decided to bare it all on the page. That’s what attracts me to that book. It’s just so naughty. It’s a great, page-turning read. If you know Williams for the austerity of A Streetcar Named Desire or The Glass Menagerie , then you also need to get to grips with his outrageousness and his very blunt and frank nature. That is also an undeniable facet of his talent as a playwright and also his personality as a man."