Kind Stranger … A Memory Play, conceived and performed by Rick Simone-Friedland is successful as a historical rendering of Playwright Tennessee Williams’ life. It is also successful as a reconstruction of Williams’ public persona–that calm, lackadaisical soul who answers questions in a slow Southern drawl between lingering puffs on the black ivory cigarette holder.

But the Williams that Simone-Friedland gives us on the stage of Melrose Avenue’s Zephyr Theatre is the one we can see on the Mike Wallace interview (1958), Dick Cavett interview (1963), or the Jim Whaley interview (1978)–the persona that Williams wanted the world to see.

Not the man who struggled to come to terms with his homosexuality, nor the brother who feared, like his sister Rose, that he too would slip into insanity. We don’t see the troubled, self-destructive playwright who buried his pain beneath alcohol and drugs. When Rick Simone-Friedland relates the great romance of Williams’ life, his fourteen-year relationship with Frank Merlo, he reports it rather than experiences it.

As adapted and directed by Steven Simone-Friedland, we have a serviceable biography of one of America’s foremost playwrights, with sound design and video projections by Ed’s Filmworks, but what is lacking is insight into Williams himself.

Thus, Kind Stranger … A Memory Play works as history but not as drama.

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photos by Steven Simone-Friedland

Kind Stranger … A Memory Play
Zephyr Theatre, 7456 Melrose Ave
75 minutes, no intermission
ends on February 7, 2026
Thurs & Fri at 8; Sat at 5 & 8; Sun at 3 & 7
for tickets, ($25-$35), visit Theatre Planners or Kind Stranger

for more shows, visit Theatre in LA

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