By Misha Berson
ACT Theatre recently produced a Grade-A classic by Tennessee Williams, “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.” Now two more obscure scripts by this major (and prolific) American playwright are on view locally.
Though it fizzled on Broadway, there’s a molten core of tragic poetry and scathing social critique vitalizing Williams’ “Orpheus Descending” — if you can thrash through some overripe dialogue, flagrant melodrama and a meandering structure to get to it.
The Williams Project’s [now The Feast] inviting, inventive staging of the 1957 drama kicks off Intiman Theatre’s summer festival, and brings forth this rich lava. The key to the swift-moving three-hour deconstruction? Not taking the script too literally, but creatively embracing its themes, quirks and excesses with ensemble verve.