“Tennessee Williams Drank Here” is set in a 19th-century Mississippi mansion that was converted into a popular “white table cloth” restaurant in the 1950s.
Tennessee Williams Drank Here, Kenneth Jones’ six-character drama about the clash of three generations of Mississippi restaurateurs, gets its latest developmental step April 30 in Florida Repertory Theatre’s 2026 PlayLab Festival of New Works, in Fort Myers, FL. Associate artistic director and PlayLab curator Jason Parrish directs a cast of resident Florida actors. The weekend series features staged readings of five new plays April 30-May 3.
Here’s how Tennessee Williams Drank Here is billed: “In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, members of the Hardy family gather to fix the damage to their world-famous Mississippi restaurant. When progressive niece Samantha blows into town with audacious ideas about the future, she further shakes the foundation of the beloved institution. Buried secrets, dubious family mythology and bad behavior are all on the table, threatening the status quo of three generations of Deep South restaurateurs. A toothsome, booze-soaked, three-act drama about heritage, legacy, community and responsibility.”
This is a fresh revision of a work first commissioned by Florida Studio Theatre (Sarasota, FL) and later seen in a public reading by New York City’s Ground UP Productions.
Hannah Easton will play estranged daughter Sammy, who returns to Mississippi after 15 years in Chicago.
The cast will feature Rep artistic director Greg Longenhagen as Bedford Hardy, Jr.; Liz Abbott as KeeKee; Carolyn Messina as Cammy; Hannah Easton as Sammy; Stephen Christopher Anthony as Trip; and Jan Neuberger as Great Aunt Lula. The stage manager is Arthur D’Alessio. The reader is Dianne Summers. Gail D. McClure is the reading sponsor.
“Nothing inspires fresh approaches and re-thinking more than a deadline,” Jones said. “I’ve jumped into rewrites leading up to what will be an 11-hour rehearsal process and I’m eager to work with the company to make new discoveries.”
Want a perusal copy of the script? It’s on New Play Exchange, or you can request one directly from the playwright.
Jones writes in notes, “From the beginning, I was more interested in writing a ‘family play’ rather than an ‘issue play.’ The Hardy family is a window on our national wound of racism. I want audiences to get lost in the family lore, their love and their legacy — the people, personalities and pain.”
Jones explained, “My first impulse was to write a classic three-act American play that echoes the form of works by Eugene O’Neill and Tennessee Williams: something that would take us from morning to noon to evening in one fraught setting with one complicated family, maybe with booze fueling the journey. The play is populated by archetypes — the former beauty queen, the bullying patriarch, the bookish matriarch, the ancient great aunt, the firebrand liberal, the noble son — all dwelling in a Deep South that is somewhat unreal the day after Hurricane Katrina passes through. I want audiences to get lost in the family lore, their love and their legacy — the people, personalities and pain.”
He added, “Out of this time and place, I conjured conversations about a changing America: about white people having difficult conversations with themselves that could shatter their fragile sense of self — to say nothing of their fortune, founded on the labor of marginalized people. It’s an issue play and a portrait of a colorful, indelible Southern family trying and failing — and finding the energy to keep trying. And despite its Mississippi setting, this is not just a ‘Southern story.’ The wounds explored are national. This isn’t a Mississippi story, it’s an American story.”
This is the third consecutive play by Jones to appear in PlayLab, following Why We Go to Florida (2025) and Ten Minutes On a Bench (2024). The latter has been produced by (so far) six companies around the country.
Learn more about the 2026 PlayLab series, which also includes readings of plays Dominic Finocchiaro (whose play Halfs appears May 1 at 7 PM), Kelundra Smith (whose play Monarchs appears May 2 at 7 PM), Stephen Spotswood (whose play The Last Great Escape Artist appears May 2 at 2 PM) and Jenny Stafford (whose play Ahoy-Hoy: A Play About That Relatable Feeling When Someone Else Invents the Telephone Three Hours Before You Do appears May 3 at 4 PM). A Playwrights Panel discussion appears May 3 at 7 PM. Click on links for ticket information.
