Off Script with Dan Dwyer: Katherine Almquist, Tennessee Williams' "Three By Tenn" at the Sherman Playhouse Mar 5. Preview on 6, 7, 13, 14, 15; Matinee on 20-22; Matinee on 27 & 28

Directed By KATHERINE ALMQUIST; Produced By DAVID ALMQUIST

Slapstick Tragedy.  Far out tragic-comedy in the genre of Theatre of the Absurd, with a touch of Theatre for Cruelty.

“The Gnadiges Fraulein” is set in a rickety bunkhouse, for “permanent transients,” whose characters include a society columnist, a frowzy crone, a demented former Viennese vaudevillian, a Cacaloony bird and a blond-wigged Indian.

Two lonely children inhabit “This Property Is Condemned,” abandoned and aching for human connection.

Overdressed, heavily rouged ladies,  “...in the autumn of their youth” hit the town for a high old time during an annual convention in “A Perfect Analysis Given By A Parrot.”

Tennessee Williams can compress the basic meaning of life—its pathos or its tragedy, its bravery or the quality of its love—into small scenes or a few moments of dialog.