REVIEW: Camino Real

Broadcast: Monday, 27th January 1964

Character: Jacques Casanova

The Setting & Synopsis

The setting of Camino Real presents a surreal and dreamlike environment that merges the boundaries between reality and fantasy.

The narrative unfolds in a dilapidated hotel situated in a fictional Mexican town. This hotel symbolizes the deterioration and decline of a place that was once a thriving trading hub. Within its walls reside a diverse array of characters, each ensnared in their own personal torment, unable to break free from the limitations imposed by the hotel and the town itself.

The narrative centers on Kilroy (Donald Madden),, a former prize fighter turned drifter, as he navigates the peculiar and unpredictable residents of the town. Kilroy’s odyssey is marked by interactions with figures such as Casanova (Peter Wyngarde), Lord Byron (Philip Madoc), and Don Quixote (Donald Eccles), all of whom are ensnared in the town and unable to escape. In his quest to flee the town, Kilroy faces the stark realities of existence, including life and death, love and loss, and the quest for meaning in a seemingly purposeless world. This play presents a tragic account of human anguish and the pursuit of redemption, set against a backdrop of a surreal and haunting environment.

The setting mirrors the characters’ internal struggles and despair, serving as a metaphor for the broader human experience. The play is situated in the 1930s, amidst the Great Depression, which intensifies the pervasive sense of hopelessness and desperation throughout the narrative.

In summary, the setting of Camino Real provides a haunting and evocative backdrop for the tragic story that unfolds.

Some Background

In his own words, Tennessee Williams “Kicks over the traces” in ‘Camino Real’, the play he had favoured most of the 20 he’d written to date. Its appeal for him was in its “Unusual degree of freedom”.

Theatrically, he took liberties with convention and threw open his stages to a rich assortment of characters, including a mingling of literary real-life romantics.It was colourful, eloquent and stimulating.

Above: Peter as Jacques Casanova with Pamela Brown as ‘Camile’

There was, of course, no direct explanation, for this unlikely mixture of characters. “To go to Camino Real with the inflexible demands of a logician is unfair to both parties,” wrote the author in a foreword to the play published in the New York Times before its premier on Broadway in March, 1953. “But stay with it for the first three minutes,” said television director Henry Kaplan, “and you’ll be caught up and captivated by the goings on the plaza.”

The plaza is the central square of the town where the play is set, with its luxurious hotel on one side, and on the other, its “flop house” and “loan shark”. Outside the town is the Terra Incognito – a formidable arid wasteland – through which anyone wanting to leave must pass.

“But it requires innocence to get away and most people when they take stock of their life has taken its toll of innocence, has corrupted them, or that we’ve given way to excesses,” said Peter of the play. “So not many people are able to get away. Certainly not Casanova, the old rake, who led so an exhausting life that he’s too tired to even look for a way out. Instead he drinks.”

He also courts Marguerite Gautier – Camille. “And there’s no way out for her either – especially now that she’s taken to drugs,” said Pamela Brown. “She’s an aging voluptuary.”