Washington, D.C. – Among Tennessee Williams's plays, there is one that exists on the edge of consciousness, where the dreams of lovers and poets are more tangible than the waking world, where "the spring of humanity has gone dry" and the terrifying unknown" "terra incognita" encroaches on the universe's last outpost of hope: "Camino Real." Directed by Michael Kahn. "Camino Real" is the last production of The Shakespeare Theatre's 1999-2000 season, playing from May 30 to July 23, 2000. One of the Washington area's leading websites, www.washingtonpost.com, is this production's media partner, providing promotional support throughout the play's run.

"This is a wonderful, difficult, incredibly personal play, investigating serious themes," Kahn said during his first rehearsal with the "Camino Real" cast. "The questions Tennessee is asking: How can innocence be maintained in a world that is cynical and corrupt? How can we be human in a world that rejects the human - are important, eternal ones."

Containing "some of the richest poetic imagery of the Williams canon," "Camino Real" springs from the mind of the impossible dreamer Don Quixote, one of the many literary characters Williams has written into his surreal work of "magical realism for the stage" (The New York Times). Deserted by his faithful Sancho Panza as the play begins, Quixote falls asleep and dreams ... " and a carnival of violence, death, and the hope and love exists, somehow, in the face of terrible adversity, unfolds around him.

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Marking his arrival by scrawling the words "Kilroy Is Here" on a wall in the plaza of "Camino Real" is the fallen prize-fighter Kilroy, an American innocent preyed upon by Williams's sensualists and decadents. Recovering from a brain fever as the play begins, encumbered with a heart of gold as big as a baby's head but threatening to collapse, Kilroy is torn between his desire to escape - from "Camino's" limbo and the forbidden love he feels for another of the plaza's inhabitants, the virginal Esmeralda. "One kiss can kill me," he warns.

Making his Shakespeare Theatre debut as Kilroy is Victor Love, who played Bigger Thomas in the film version of Richard Wright's novel "Native Son," directed by Jerold Freeman. In addition to numerous film and television credits (including a recurring role on NBC Television's "West Wing"), Love has appeared on Broadway in "Playboy of the West Indies" and "A Few Good Men," and has performed in many regional theatres across the country. The object of Kilroy's affection, Esmeralda taken from Victor Hugo's "The Hunchback of Notre Dame," whose virginity is restored each month during a fertility festival, is played by Tessa Auberjonois, who most recently played the title role in The Shakespeare Theatre's production of "The Country Wife."

As twilight descends upon the plaza, and street cleaners - messengers of death - cart away the corpses of reality's victims, two of Williams's most impassioned characters, the world's greatest lover, Jacques Casanova, whose tab at the hotel "Siete Mares" is fast running out, and the courtesan Marguerite Gautier - meet for dinner and, perhaps, something more. "We huddle together for some dim communal comfort - and that's what passes for love on this terminal stretch of the road that used to be royal," Marguerite tells Casanova, after their one hope of escape, an unchartered plane called "El Fugitivo" - deserts them.

Joan van Ark and Jean LeClerc, both appearing at The Shakespeare Theatre for the first time in "Camino Real," are Marguerite and Casanova, respectively. Van Ark, best known for her work on the television dramas "Dallas" and "Knots Landing," has performed on Broadway ("Barefoot in the Park," directed by Mike Nichols, "The School for Wives," for which she received a Tony Award nomination, and "The Rules of the Game," for which she won a Theatre World Award), off-Broadway ("Love Letters" and, most recently, "Three Tall Women"), and in regional theatres across the country (including leading roles in productions of "Macbeth," "Cyrano de Bergerac," "Heartbreak House," "Night of the Iguana," and "A Little Night Music"). LeClerc, whose television credits include the daytime television dramas "All My Children" and "Loving," has performed on Broadway, succeeding Frank Langella in the title role of the 1979 revival of the vampire thriller "Dracula," and in many regional theatres throughout the United States and Canada.

Returning to The Shakespeare Theatre for the first time this season are two long-time company members: Philip Goodwin, who plays both Don Quixote and Lord Byron, mourning the death and cremation of his fellow poet, Shelley; and Franchelle Stewart Dorn, who plays "Camino Real's" Gypsy Mother. Both Helen Hayes Award-winners, Goodwin and Dorn were most recently seen at The Shakespeare Theatre in "King John" (Goodwin played the title role) and "The Merry Wives of Windsor" (Dorn played Mistress Quickly in the 1999 Shakespeare Theatre Free For All production of "The Merry Wives of Windsor"), respectively.

A grim master-of-ceremonies, Gutman, played by Shakespeare Theatre company member David Sabin (Pinchwife in "The Country Wife"), keeps watch over the survivors just barely - and sometimes no longer - surviving at the end of the world: "La Madrecita de los Perdidos," the patron saint of lost souls played by Sheila Allen (Volumnia in Coriolanus); the homosexual cruiser Baron de Charlus played by Floyd King (the Fool in "King Lear," Bottom in "A Midsummer Night's Dream"); Lord and Lady Mulligan (Ralph Cosham and Catherine Flye); and, briefly, Sancho Panza (Eric Hoffmann). The rest of the cast includes Todd Bailey, Ann Ducati, Helen Hedman, Naomi Jacobson, Marty Lodge, and Lawrence Redmond.

"More than any other work that I have done, this play has seemed to me like the construction of another world," wrote Tennessee Williams of "Camino Real." At The Shakespeare Theatre, the playwright's world - "a plaza flanked by two hotels, the "Ritz Men Only" and the "Siete Mares," a carnival-like atmosphere of tents and swirling lights, an enormous sky heavy with thunderheads - is given shape, color, and texture by set designer Derek McLane ("Saturday Night" at Second Stage in New York, "The Waverly Gallery" at the Promenade Theatre in New York, and the national tour of "Sunset Boulevard"), lighting designer Russell Champa ("Julia Sweeney's God Said, "Ha," on Broadway, "If Memory Serves" at the Promenade Theatre in New York), costume designer Murell Horton, and composer Adam Wernick ("Sweet Bird of Youth" and "King John" at The Shakespeare Theatre).

The Shakespeare Theatre is located at 450 7th Street, NW. Parking is available in the Lansburgh's indoor garage (entrance on 8th Street) and at the PMI garage in the new Market Square North building, which can be entered via D Street, between 8th and 9th Streets.

The theatre is accessible to persons with disabilities, offering wheelchair accessible seating and restrooms, audio enhancement at every performance, and Braille and large print programs. There will be a sign-interpreted performance of "Camino Real" on Tuesday, July 11, at 7:30 p.m. and audio-described performances on Saturday, June 24, at 2 p.m. and Thursday, June 29, at 8 p.m.

"****! A MASTERWORK."
Roger Meersman, The Journal Newspapers

"THE CAST IS IDEAL! Victor Love is sexy and forthright. Franchelle Stewart Dorn is a bawdily trashy hoot. Joan Van Ark is as breathily desperate as she is alluringly fevered. Jean LeClerc has a moving, world-weary air."
Bob Mondello, Washington City Paper

"A MAGICALLY EERIE PRODUCTION. Kahn and his imaginative designers have just the right touch!"
J. Wynn Rousuck, Baltimore Sun

"SEE IT! A remarkable cast and brilliant direction give new meaning to a work that further proves the genius of Tennessee Williams."
Bob Davis, WGMS-FM