Tennessee Williams’ ”The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore” to be revived with Linda Marlowe and Sara Kestelman

Exclusive: The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore will be revived in London next month.

Set in an Amalfi coast mountaintop villa, Tennessee Williams’ 1962 play has rarely been revived. It follows an ageing four-time widow Flora, played here by Linda Marlowe, who is dictating her memoirs when a house guest arrives unexpectedly.

Joining Marlowe is Olivier Award-winning veteran actress Sara Kestelman as the Witch of Capri. The rest of the cast features Sanee Ravel (I May Destroy You), WhatsOnStage Award-winner Lucie Shorthouse (Everybody’s Talking About Jamie), Joe Ferrera and Matteo Johnson. The show is designed by Nicolai Hart-Hansen, with lighting by Adam King and casting by Ellie Collyer-Bristow

Director Robert Chevara said: “The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore is a play I have always wanted to direct. A heady mixture of longing, passion and reflection on mortality, the play was written after Williams’ longtime lover Frank Merlo died from lung cancer. Merlo created the stability in Williams life, getting him off prescription drugs and weaning him off casual sex, which allowed him to create his most enduring plays.

“The grieving Williams wrote Milk Train as a direct response to his partner’s death and created a poetic work of art where a woman was helped to die well and easily by Angel of Death. Though rarely performed, it has often been referred to as a play worthy of its author’s justly celebrated name. The part of Flora Goforth is like a female King Lear. I cannot think of anyone better to play the part than the brilliant Linda Marlowe, with Sara Kestelman as the venomous, dazzling Witch of Capri. Two true theatrical legends.”

Running from 26 September to 23 October at Charing Cross Theatre, tickets for the show are on sale now.