The Rose Tattoo

Genre: Drama
Opened 29 March 2007
Written: by Tennessee Williams
Directed: Steven Pimlott and Nicholas Hytner
Produced: National Theatre
Cast includes: Zoe Wanamaker
Synopsis: All through the night Serafina craves her husband's return; at dawn, she learns he's been shot dead. For the next three years, she channels her fiercely passionate love into mourning, living on past glories while straitjacketing her vivacious daughter, Rosa. But an ugly rumour gathers force to contaminate her memories, just as Rosa turns rebel and an eye-catching truck driver comes knocking at the door.

What the critics had to say.....
NICHOLAS DE JONGH for THE EVENING STANDARD says, "The idea has been to treat Williams's overblown romanticism with reverent faithfulness. It does not work. An air of preposterousness and contrivance clouds the dusky, cicada-laden scene which is dominated by Mark Thompson's revolving bungalow set." PAUL TAYLOR for THE INDEPENDENT says, "True, this play that is rampant with rose-imagery peers at the world through rose-tinted spectacles, but by the end it, it would be a hard heart that failed to surrender to its generous adult fairytale vision." MICHAEL BILLINGTON for THE GUARDIAN says, "While one applauds the play's affirmation of life and Williams's sly humour, the exposition is lazy, the rose-symbolism wildly excessive...Never mind. Williams created a great character in Serafina that produces from Zoe Wanamaker the performance of her career. " DOMONIC CAVENDISH for THE DAILY TELEGRAPH says, "It's a mark of just how great an actress Zoe Wanamaker is that she negotiates the play's uneasy mixture of laughter and tears, absurdity and poignancy without showing the slightest strain." SAM MARLOWE fro THE TIMES says, "Blending comedy and agony with the grotesque, rhapsodic and carnivalesque, the play exuberantly celebrates the way in which hope can be born of despair."

External links to full reviews from popular press
The Independent
The Guardian
Daily Telegraph
The Times