Small Craft Warnings

Tennessee Williams wrote more than a hundred plays during his lifetime.

Peaking in the 1940s and 50s with The Glass Managerie, A Streetcar Named Desire and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Williams sealed his fate as one of the Great American Playwrights.

But not every one of his stories are famous, and though some may be told again and again, perhaps a real treat comes when the more obscure pieces are reprised... if only briefly.

Small Craft Warnings is a such a story. Written much later in Williams’ career (1972 to be exact), the original Off-Broadway production included Williams himself as Doc, the alcoholic physician, and Warhol superstar Candy Darling as Violet, the hot mess.

Lacking a traditional plot to carry the story, Warnings is instead a series of monologues, thrown into a basket shaped like a seaside dive bar and pulled out one-character-at-a-time over the course of a single evening.

Nearly half a century after publication, Regeneration Theatre breathes new life into the story with a limited run at 13th Street Rep.

When a trailer park beautician named Leona (Nicole Greevy) enters the bar to find Violet (Jenne Vath) making moves on her live-in lover, Bill (Jed Peterson), Leona’s love-hate relationship with all of the regulars—along with the mere passage of time and a whole lot of alcohol—glue the evening into a story.

The cast of eight—rounded out by George A. Morafetis as Doc, Robert Maisonett as Monk the bartender, Jon Spano as Steve the short-order cook and Jason Pintar (Quentin) and Christian Musto (Bobby) as a visiting gay couple—proves that even Williams’ lesser-known works have stood the test of time.

So check it out, then come back here and tell us how much you enjoyed this evening on the Southern California shore.

Your reviews can help others decide whether Regeneration’s Small Craft Warnings is worth heeding, and your ratings help us help you find future performances you’re sure to love!