The play takes place in a holiday cottage near a lake. An eccentric mother and her sensitive teenage son have fled from the big and busy city with their maid. It seems the father has left them and that the house, the son’s retreat, is to be sold. The son is an absent-minded loner and throughout the play the mother is worried that he is gay. Midway through the play the son goes to take a swim and towards the end he commits suicide in the dark water. No one could come to his rescue. This text can be seen as a forerunner of William’s debut THE GLASS MENAGERIE with the single mother and the homosexual son.
ONE ACTS BY TENN is a series of one act plays by Tennessee Williams, written in the thirties and the forties. They can be performed separately or with others. Regarding USA productions the performance has been given the title 5 BY TENN or 8 BY TENN.
