1. Thomas Lanier Williams III grew up in Mississippi and Missouri, yet he acquired the nickname “Tennessee”. Why?

   1. He was born there

   2. This was what his earliest attempts to say “Thomas” sounded like

   3. It was a term of ridicule at school, because of his extremely strong accent

   4. Because of his love of Tennessee whiskey, in preference to Kentucky bourbon

2. Which of these former US presidents is NOT a distant cousin of Tennessee Williams?

   1. Abraham Lincoln

   2. Franklin D Roosevelt

   3. Harry S Truman

   4. George W Bush

3. Having graduated from the University of Missouri during the pit of the Great Depression, Williams was forced to work in a factory. Doing what?

   1. Making bags

   2. Making shoes

   3. Making guns

   4. Making underpants

4. In one episode of The Simpsons, Marge successfully auditions for the role of Blanche DuBois in a musical adaptation of A Streetcar Named Desire. Who plays her Stanley Kowalski?

   1. Homer Simpson

   2. Barney Gumble

   3. Ned Flanders

   4. Waylon Smithers

5. In the film of A Streetcar Named Desire, Blanche (played by Vivien Leigh) says she would like to kiss the paperboy “softly and sweetly...” What were the following three words that the censors deleted?

   1. “... until he melts.”

   2. “... on the mouth.”

   3. “... all over. Mmm.”

   4. “... in my nightgown.”

6. What was the name of Williams’s only longterm partner, with whom he shared a relationship from 1947 to 1962?

   1. Clayton Pino

   2. John Sirra

   3. Frank Merlo

   4. Paul Shar-Donnay

7. In 1957, a production of The Rose Tattoo at The Pike Theatre, Dublin, was closed down by the authorities. What offended them in it?

   1. An implied incestuous relationship between two characters

   2. Vague details of how to perform an abortion

   3. The priest character getting drunk on communion wine

   4. The mimed appearance of a condom

8. Which Tennessee Williams play is generally thought to have been his favourite?

   1. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

   2. A Streetcar Named Desire

   3. The Glass Menagerie

   4. Night of the Iguana

9. Tennessee Williams’s life ended, on 25 February 1983, with one of the great literary deaths. What happened?

   1. He choked on a bottle cap

   2. He fell from the lighting gantry of a theatre

   3. He collapsed after finishing every single bottle in his hotel room minibar

   4. He suffered a stroke while watching one of his own plays

10. After Williams’s death, his younger brother Dakin instructed that he should be buried at the Calvary Cemetery in St Louis. But what kind of funeral had Tennessee always dreamed of?

    1. Having his body carried on foot through a field of buttercups like Emily Dickinson

    2. Being buried at sea, in the manner of Hart Crane

    3. Being burned on a Roman pyre

    4. None – he had signed up to be among the first volunteers for cryogenic storage

Solutions

1:C, 2:C, 3:B, 4:C, 5:B, 6:C, 7:D, 8:A, 9:A, 10:B

Scores

1. 3 and above.

   Better luck next time!

2. 6 and above.

   Not bad – but there's still room to brush up on your Cats and Nightingales.

3. 8 and above.

   Well done! Consider yourself a Tennessee expert.