Comedy

Characters: 4 male, 3 female

Interior Set

Premiering on Broadway with Montgomery Clift and Edmund Gwenn in leading roles, this comedy is about the triumph of an old sea captain over a sadistic spinster sister was an early triumph for Tennessee Williams. Although the home in which she lived and ruled and the income on which she thrived in piety and pretension were her brother's, she had got him under her thumb after he had gone on a binge in the Caribbean, foundered his ship, and suffered the dishonor of losing his skipper's certificate. The return of the waif the skipper had brought up, revives his will to fight. His chance comes when he senses that a deep love has sprung up between his foster son and his daughter, a love thwarted by the girl's spinster aunt. The skipper's greatest difficulty lies in overcoming the fears and reticence that have been instilled in the boy and the girl.

Neglected for over forty years, this moving novel has been republished in a more tolerant climate. "Two People" is about a love affair in Rome between a middle-aged American and a much younger Italian, but the word "people" in the title is both singular and plural, dealing with two cultures as well as with two individuals. First published in 1965, when the word "gay" in its sexual implications was little used or even recognized by heterosexuals, "Two People" anticipated many novels about same-sex relationships that followed. But Windham's gentle story was forgotten, in part because of the propriety of its manner and in part because it is as much a meditation on love and friendship as it is a recounting of the affair between Forrest and Marcello. "Love's power is that it lets you exist outside your own body," Windham observes through Forrest: "It is present in affection's most immaterial manifestations, in the knowledge that your thoughts contain another person, or that another person has you in his mind. Its biological end is the creation of a new body, and because of this it has been taught that the love between men should remain chaste. But life is not so clearly defined..." --- Donald Windham is the author of novels, short stories, plays, and memoirs, in a distinguished career spanning half a century. His writing has been praised by J. R. Ackerley, Albert Camus, Cyril Connelly, E. M. Forster, Andre Gide, Thomas Mann, Marianne Moore, Georges Simenon, Carl Van Vechten, and Tennessee Williams, among others. (Bruce Kellner). --- Works by Donald Windham: Novels: The Dog Star, 1950; The Hero Continues, 1960; Two People, 1965; Tanaquil, 1972; Stone in the Hourglass, 1981. Stories: The Warm Country, 1960. Plays: You Touched Me , 1947 (with Tennessee Williams); The Starless Air, 1953. Memoirs: Emblems of Conduct, 1964; Lost Friendships, 1987; 1948: Italy, 1998.

Emblems of Conduct is the simple, moving memoir of the Depression-era youth in Atlanta of novelist Donald Windham. When the author was six, his father left him, his brother, and his mother. Windham's recollections contrast the emotional weather of childhood with the memory of a devoted mother struggling alone to maintain family harmony in the face of mounting financial turmoil. Windham eloquently relates the often idyllic time his family lived in the Victorian home of his grandparents on historic Peachtree Street. Tempering these memories are Windham's recollections of such trials as the loss of the family "homeplace" and a move to the newly constructed Techwood Homes housing project. As Windham grows aware of the restraints placed upon him by his life, he becomes no longer willing to accept an expected career with the Coca-Cola company, where he has started to work making barrels. Spurred on by newfound friendships, weekend excursions, and his love of books, Windham increasingly yearns for a world beyond Atlanta. Finally, at nineteen, he leaves for New York, intending never to return. Praised as "a masterpiece" by Georges Simenon, Windham's tale is at once a portrait of a bygone era in Atlanta and a moving statement about the physical and spiritual need of youth to take risks.