Swept Away Beautifully
Tenesse Williams One-Acts
Actors Capture torment, poetry of Williams' worlds
Photographer: Christian Laforce
"Tennessee Williams sure knew how to write about pain and passion.
Luckily, he does so with humour, poetry and compelling characters who are beautifully realized in a small independent production of three of Williams’ one-act plays at the TNS Studio on Agricola St.
As Roger-McKeever joked in an earlier interview, she suits Williams’ characters because the famous American playwright defines many of his women as thin and chatty.
She is rail thin but as an actress deeply in touch with her emotions for these fraught women. She acts totally and intricately within the moment. Particularly in the two later pieces, she beautifully modulates pitch and intensity -- both emotional and poetic.
In terms of age it’s hard to believe Roger-McKeever as this young girl. However, she wonderfully wraps her hard, glittering voice around the slowly revelatory and surreal words. For the next Piece, Talk to Me Like the Rain & Let Me Listen (1953), she makes a powerful transition from the crazy, lip-sticked girl into a depressed, reflective woman curled in on herself and looking intently at a window in a Manhattan apartment. It is raining."
- Article by Elissa Barnard, The Chronicle Herald | Halifax, NS | February 2008