Mythic Metatheatre: Repetition and Transformation in Tennessee Williams's Battle of Angels/Orpheus Descending

Mythic elements have always played a major part in the writings of the American playwright Tennessee Williams (1911-1983). As early as 1987, Judith J. Thompson demonstrated that Williams's stage endeavours are heavily indebted to Greek myth, biblical stories and pagan rituals in her study Tennessee Williams' Plays: Memory, Myth and Symbol. Additionally, Williams proved particularly adept at creating a personal "mythology" that would impair his success as a writer throughout the second half of his career. The playwright's first professionally produced play Battle of Angels (1940) and its rewrite Orpheus Descending (1957) engage with myths personal and more general. Williams, after all, referred to his account of the tragic events that take place at a small shop in the deep South as "the emotional record of his youth" in the essay "The Past, the Present, and the Perhaps". Both versions rely on the Orphic myth, as the title of the 1957 play makes clear. In my paper, I want to argue Williams did not opt for this particular story because the famous lyre-player offers an archetype for the various artistically gifted wanderers that would populate his dramatic universe, like previous critics have done. Rather, I am convinced Williams chose the Orphic material since it hinges upon repetition and transformation. Orpheus's story is repeated by various artists under a wide variety of guises and is also repetitive in itself. Its male protagonist loses his beloved female companion two times. The singer's power to transform reality through his art is well-known. Myth here provides Williams with the opportunity to reflect on his theatre. Repetition and transformation are not only the processes through which Battle of Angels and Orpheus Descending came into being but lie at the heart of Williams's entire oeuvre.