Ten Blocks on the Camino Real (Broadway Theatre Archive)

Starring:Tom Aldredge, Michael Baseleon, Albert Dekker, Hurd Hatfield, Kazimir Kokich, Lotte Lenya, Janet Margolin, Patricia Neway, Carrie Nye, Martin Sheen, Jackie Washington, Clive Thompson, Stanley Berke, Ken Novarro, Ramon Segarra, Kenneth LeRoy, Nat Horne, Sheldon Ossosky, James Truitte, Aida Lioy
Director: Jack Landau
Studio: Kultur Video
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com

Martin Sheen stars in this Tennessee Williams one-act. What is the Camino Real? According to one character, it is "a funny paper read backwards," while another says everyone must figure it out for himself. Yes, we are in the world of allegory, in a melancholy dreamlike play set in an undefined Latin American country. Sheen plays an amiable Everysoldier, Kilroy. The play unfolds in 10 blocks, each a little vignette, that Kilroy winds his way through. The Camino Real is empty, sad, and menacing--so much so that the dead are simply scooped up by laughing street cleaners. As for the rest, well, figure it out for yourself. This is a fine production, but viewers will need to have a high tolerance for the kind of play where characters actually address each other as "You, Player of the Blue Guitar." Ten Blocks on the Camino Real is recommended for just that segment of Tennessee Williams fans. --Ali Davis

Description

Martin Sheen stars as the eternal American G.I. Kilroy, a poetic soul condemned to spiritual death, in Tennessee Williams's allegorical one-act play. In a dreamlike fictitious L atin American country, a worn-out Casanova, a Camille living on memories, a Byron pitiful in hi s disillusioned pride, and others less famous live out a hopeless existence. Into this world co mes Kilroy, an ex-boxer and perpetual fall guy, who asks so little and always gets short-change d, but never gives up hope. He is finally conned, or almost, into despairing subjection like th e rest. "An allegory about people removed from time and geography..." --The New York Times. With Lotte Lenya, Tom Aldredge, Michael Baseleon, and Albert Dekker. END

Customer Reviews:

Very Entertaining Performance of Rare Tennessee Williams.......2006-09-05

I had never heard of this play when I say the DVD on the shelf. So I got it, took it home, and watched it. I found it to be delightful. Martin Sheen glows in the bloom of his youth, Lotte Lenya is a hoot, and the rest of the cast, while unknown to me, were admirable, especially Janet Margolin as Esmeralda.

The production dates back to 1966, in a B&W TV staging for NET - National Educational TV. I suppose that is the predicessor of today's PBS. It was campy and fun, with lots of cheesy sets typical of live TV shows of the day. That aspect alone gives it an ambience that looks back to an earlier day of less than slick TV performances of more than worthy theatrical properties. Too bad such things are not particularly marketable today. Still, thanks to DVD, one can enjoy one of a kind performances like this one that would otherwise be lost.

This performance is apparently based on an early version of the play, rather than an "excised" version of the final published text. In my edition of Tennessee Williams plays, there is commentary on the fact that he reworked the material several times after its Broadway Premier before releasing the final published version. For that reason alone, this is an interesting historical document. What's more, this version, without commercials, fits neatly into the standard one hour TV time slot, and in my opinion, holds the stage quite well.

I really enjoyed the perfornace, and recommend it to anyone who is not put off by out of date TV production standards. If you are interested in a more "official" version of the play based on the final published text, there are always books at the library or book store. Meanwhile, this DVD will provide you with a good visual image while you read.

A bird without wings!.......2002-06-21

Considering that this is the ONLY filmed version of "Camino Real" going, I suppose this DVD is better than nothing. That, however, still doesn't keep me from hating it. Apparently owing to television time constraints, much of the play has been excised. Unfortunately, what has been removed are the portions of the play which provide its theme and focus (e.g., the Don Quixote scenes). Thus, the play comes off like some absurdist piece with no point whatsoever!

If you're a fan of the play, you will hate this rendition as much as I do.

Description

Eccentricities of a Nightingale
Tony Award-winning actress, Blythe Danner, portrays the sensitive spinster Alma Winemiller in Tennessee Williams' 1948 drama. Frustrated with longing for the socially prominent young doctor next door, the eccentric, highly emotional minister's daughter decides to settle for one night with him in a rented hotel room. The Washington Post wrote: "Blythe Danner's Alma is as much of a television event as Katharine Hepburn's Amanda in The Glass Menagerie. Frank Langella is such a warm, dreamy-eyed Dr. Buchanan that the role is reimbursed for the loss of its cynical edge with a smooth romanticism that complements Danner's determined honesty splendidly." "How many different emotions do you expect in two hours?" --The New York Daily News. With Tim O'Connor, Louise Latham, and Neva Patterson.

Ten Blocks on the Camino Real
Martin Sheen stars as the eternal American G.I. Kilroy, a poetic soul condemned to spiritual death, in Tennessee Williams's allegorical one-act play. In a dreamlike fictitious Latin American country, a worn-out Casanova, a Camille living on memories, a Byron pitiful in his disillusioned pride, and others less famous live out a hopeless existence. Into this world comes Kilroy, an ex-boxer and perpetual fall guy, who asks so little and always gets short-changed, but never gives up hope. He is finally conned, or almost, into despairing subjection like the rest. "An allegory about people removed from time and geography..." --The New York Times. With Lotte Lenya, Tom Aldredge, Michael Baseleon, and Albert Dekker.

Dragon Country
This production pairs together two Tennessee Williams plays, written twenty years apart, each examining the theme of isolation with searing clarity. The joint presentation features the world premiere of "I Can't Imagine Tomorrow," starring two-time Oscar nominee Kim Stanley (The Right Stuff) and William Redfield (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest), and a much earlier work, "Talk to Me Like the Rain and Let Me Listen," starring Lois Smith (Five Easy Pieces)and Alan Mixon. Together, the dramas delve into "A land of endured but unendurable pain," said Williams, "where each one is so absorbed, deafened, blinded by his own journey across it, he sees, he looks for, no one else crawling across it with him."

Customer Reviews:

Tennessee Williams TV Productions.......2006-02-24

This was an Amazon.com special deal, with three television productions of Tennessee Williams's plays: "Ten Blocks on the Camino Real" (a very early PBS production, in black-and-white, from the mid-1960s); "Dragon Country" (two one-acts, done on PBS in 1970); "The Eccentricities of a Nightingale" (a "Great Performances" production from 1976). Quite frankly, the technical aspects of the DVDs are only fair, they have not been "boosted" and show the broadcast standards of television in other periods (1960s-1970s); nevertheless, these are exceptional productions, with superb acting, and the great writing of one of America's premiere playwrights. A young Martin Sheen is an amazingly callow and touching Kilroy in "Camino Real", confronted with an array of characters including Lotte Lenya, Carrie Nye, Hurd Hatfield, Albert Dekker, Janet Margolin... one of Williams's most imaginative plays, and it gets a classic treatment. "Dragon Country" has Lois Smith, Alan Mixon, the legendary Kim Stanley and William Redfield giving touching performances in two short plays about people trying to connect but lost in their own dreamworlds (almost archetypal performances from Smith and Stanley). The finest production is the last: "Eccentricities of a Nightingale" is Williams's reworking of his "Summer and Smoke", and it features Blythe Danner and Frank Langella at their very best. In Danner's case, it is a bold performance, because she is not afraid of the character's silliness, the off-putting affectations, and she makes you see the wrenching sadness and loneliness under the nervous gestures. This was definitely a bargain, and i can hardly wait for the upcoming boxset of Tennessee Williams films (including "A Streetcar Named Desire", "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof", "Sweet Bird of Youth", "Baby Doll" and "Night of the Iguana") which will be released by Warner Home Video.

Two great & one so-so Tennessee Williams play.......2003-01-12

If you're a fan of Tennessee Williams this triptych is a great bargain. The strongest of the three is "Eccentricities of a Nightingale" (a reworking of "Summer and Smoke" and one which Williams preferred to his earlier effort). Danner and Langella are brilliant. The sexual frankness these two characters exhibit may seem implausible for their social setting and the era being depicted, but somehow it works. It's as if Williams is presenting us with a hypothetical: "What if people could be honest with one another about their sexual desires and what if they were willing to engage one another in fulfilling these desires without burdening each other with unrealistic expectations?" Watching Danner's Alma is like seeing what might have become of Blanche DuBois if she had not lost her connection to reality and if Stanley had loved her and not just used her. "Dragon Country" is two short plays about conflicted couples. The DVD is worth the purchase price just for Kim Stanley's subtle performance in part 2, "I Can't Imagine Tomorrow." It's easy to see why she was such a major stage actor; it's a pity she didn't make more films. The only disappointment in this set was "Ten Blocks on the Camino Real," which feels like an amateurish high school production. The story is told on a mythic level which makes it difficult to take any of the characters seriously--in trying to present them archetypes Williams has created wooden stereotypes. This one will probably be of interest only to the person intent upon seeing everything Williams wrote. Even so, the cost of the set is less than buynig any two of the DVDs separately.

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