The Night of the Iguana

The Night of the Iguana
By Tennessee Williams
Theater Emory
Directed by Jan Akers

The sound for this classic tale of ruin and the possibility of redemption reflected the theatrical realism that Williams’ detailed in his stage directions. The rainforest surrounding the Costa Verde hotel came to life as the literal and symbolic storm threatened the characters’ delicate equilibrium. The end of the second act is marked with an epic storm, complete with the carefully placed sounds of thunder and lightning, choreographed to mesh perfectly with the lighting and the action onstage. An eight speaker system allowed me to direct the position of various sounds so that the audience could hear the commotion of the broken tour bus coming from one direction, the waves crashing on the beach from another, and even music drifting up from a cantina in the distance. Most of the production, including the preshow, was underscored with the sounds of the environment, making the theatre space feel hot, sticky and saturated with bugs.

A bus is heard pulling up from behind the audience, stage left, followed by a recording of the ladies in the tour group on the bus.

 

Herr Fahrenkopf enters carrying a transistor radio.  This is the newscast where he discovers that Germany launched the air campaign in the Battle of Britain.

 

Some music heard in the distance from the cantina by the shore.

 

A “harsh bird” calling from the forest, as called for in the script.

 

The thunder from the storm is layered over the sound of marching soldiers and bombs as the Germans move eerily in a militaristic Nazi style across the stage.

 

The ladies on the bus are heard cheering as Hank drives them away after retrieving the bus key from Shannon

 

Maxine’s live voice is heard echoing back to her off the cliffs.

 

An unexplained rustle is barely heard in the distance.  Is it the iguana?  Is it Shannon’s “spook”?