Not About Nightingales, a play Tennessee Williams wrote in 1938, was first performed on March 5, 1998 at London's Royal National Theatre. Vanessa Redgrave, who met Tennessee Williams in the early 1980's, stumbled across a brief reference to Not About Nightingales in the foreword he wrote of Orpheus Descending (Redgrave viii); however, it was 1993 before she obtained a copy of the play. In 1996, Redgrave decided that the play must be performed and “spent many hours” studying the Williams archive at The University of Texas at Austin (ix). Soon thereafter, her company staged the play with her brother, Corin Redgrave, playing the part of Warden Whalen, a performance about which critics raved. Trevor Nunn, who directed the play, received much of the credit for the play's success. Fergus McGillicundy said, “That a contemporary audience...
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Citation: Sanderson, Jordan. "Not About Nightingales". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 17 May 2005 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=16810, accessed 12 February 2026.]
