A House Not Meant to Stand - A Gothic Comedy

Set during Christmas 1982, Williams called this surreal comedy his "Southern Gothic Spook Sonata"

It begins when Cornelius and wife Bella return one stormy midnight from the funeral of their eldest son to learn daughter Joanie is in an asylum and younger son Charlie is in bed with his pregnant, holy-roller girlfriend

Cornelius - who has political ambitions and a litany of health problems - is trying to find a large amount of moonshine money his Bella has hidden somewhere in their collapsing house

His efforts are disrupted by a stream of remarkable characters - both living and dead!

This gothic comedy contains many familiar Williams' themes - eccentricity, hysteria, madness, sexual misconduct, disappointed lives, untimely death, and a once-great southern family fallen on hard times

The central metaphor is announced by the title, referring to an elderly couple's mansion, which - not unlike Poe's House of Usher - is literally falling apart, representing the physical and mental decay of its occupants

A dark, expressionistic comedy by one of America's greatest playwrights

M8,F3 + Voices

Single set - A living room, with dining room and small entrance hall visible

Characters

Cornelius McCorkle
Bella McCorkle, his wife
Charlie McCorkle, their son
Jessie Sykes
Emerson Sykes, her husband
Stacey
Two Men from Foley's
Officer Bruce Lee Jackson
Police Officer
Hattie's Voice
Voices of three spectral children - Young Charlie, Young Joanie, Young Chips