Summary

In "Direction," on the night of Memorial Day, Anja, Sandro, and Trevor read the first draft of Call it Joy, written in 1982. “Trevor will take Tenn’s lines, Sandrino will play Frank and the Young Patron, and Anja will read the part of Gisele Larson, along with the author’s note and the stage directions” (198). The play consists of two stage sets: the bedroom of Tenn and Frank’s Key West bungalow and Giselle’s bar. Before Scene One is written: “though some dialogue, names, genders, and setting details have been changed, every word in these pages is true” (200).

In the play, Tennessee Williams recounts to Giselle at the bar that a man he was sleeping with, Julian, left in the middle of the night and stole his pills. Gisele gives him speed, which ups his mood significantly. Men come into the bar night...