More First Impressions About 4 New Characters

The Sweet Bird of Youth: Act 2 Scene 1

5.) Aunt Nonnie ain’t slick.


So, not only does Nonnie just come barreling up to the front porch, or the veranda if you want to use fancy Tennessee Williams lingo, but she also “inconspicuously” rummages through her purse for who-knows-what. SMOOTH MOVE, LADY. She’s so turned up that she claims she doesn’t even notice Boss Finley standing by the open front door. So, honestly, my first thought was, “Is this chick addicted to drugs and hasn’t popped any pills yet?” And it was also, “Is she just hiding communications with Chance or is there more?” And, “Does she have a thing for Chance or is she just looking out for Heavenly?” But with only 10 lines, I guess it’s hard to get a sound first impression.

However, in her short appearance on stage, she did have a point I appreciated about violence. “[Violence] never solves young people’s problems.” Presumably hinting at both Tom Finleys. And just giving good advice. So maybe this lady isn’t completely crazy after all.



6.) Could there be a more stereotypical son?


Tom Finley Jr. What a guy. That’s about as much as I thought when I first caught his vibe. Next thought? I don’t like this kid. Sketchy, ungrateful, spoiled, nosey, unnoticed rich kid. With a whiny tone. Has a, “But, daddy, I said I wanted a pony, not a puppy!” feel, from what I can tell up to this point. I started to get that feeling when he first started talking about Dan Hatcher and Chance Wayne and his “inside” knowledge on the Royal Palms Hotel. Then he’s all “[Heavenly is] lyin’ out on the beach like a dead body washed up on it.” Is he defensive that his dad is still more interested in Heavenly, even though TFJr. has alllllllll the inside gossip hookups? Or is he just weird? He’s basically saying “Hey dad I’m smart, look at me! I just dug up all this dirt! Give me attention!” Did someone say butt-kisser?

Honestly, maybe he’s feeling pretty neglected since the press and his own father seem to favor his sister over him and he feels the need to find ways to earn him some attention. Like a teenager who wants some attention, negatively or positively, TFJr. has tried and is willng to try just about anything to get some love from his old man. Whether that means just mooching on the attention his sister already gets from the press and their father or if that means forming a cult that actively promotes disobedience, he seems to be participating. And he seems to choose mooching off of his sister’s current attention. Smart kid. A tried and true, through and through male Gossip Girl. 

7.) But I can’t figure out the sister’s deal either.


Heavenly Finley. One confusing lady. At 15, she let Chance Wayne take naked pictures of her and apparently, “she loved him,” or whatever. Even though I have lowkey suspicions that she’s more in love with the idea of him. She’s embarrassed that “George Scudder’s knife had cut the youth out of [her] body.” So she’s embarrassed that she had an abortion, or a, “whore’s operation,” as referred to by her father, and the intense press presence that knows all about her personal life story. Through the diction she uses, like “cut the youth out,” and, “old childless woman,” we’re led to see Heavenly in a derogatory light and a negative tone. She’s hinting depression and suicide to the audience, especially when she says, “I feel as if I ought to rattle like a dead dried-up vine when the Gulf Wind blows.” The physical abortion she underwent mentally destroyed her; the literal cutting of life from her body figuratively sucked her youth away. Heavenly often times repeats a line about when she “used to be” alive inside. So now she’s dead inside? But she’s hanging out by the water? Which is a direct contrast, given that she is describing herself as death and surrounding herself with life.

But back to my lowkey suspicions that she loves the idea of him more than she loves Chance himself, it could make sense. She’s going against her dad with a sneaky relationship, and we know from her father’s line, “Oh, I know, …in your heart you always wished to defy me,” that she butts heads with the guy often. Isn’t that the stereotypical teenage ideal? Break your parents rules, rebel against them, do something just because they don’t want you to. And Chance wiped away Heavenly’s picture of purity. He took something away from Heavenly that Boss couldn’t control, and Heavenly is in love with the idea that her father had no control. Boss wants Heavenly to dress in all white like a virgin and display her pureness to the entire town. But does Heavenly want that? No. And Chance Wayne was her first taste of rebellion, which started an addiction she can’t get enough of. She’ll always be looking to hit that first high she had with Chance but she’s not going to find it.

And hopefully this isn’t one of those Catcher in the Rye pieces of literature where Holden and Jane never actually see each other.

8.) So that’s why he’s the Boss.


Maybe this is just a stereotypical family. Boss Finley is, as the name employs, bossy, controlling, deceptive, slightly creepy (despite Tennessee’s side note that Boss looks at Heavenly in a non-romantic, fatherly way), obsessed, rude, fake, whiny (I see where his son gets it), grumpy, possessive, slimy, and those were just my initial thoughts.

He’s OBSESSED with Heavenly. I get it, your wife passed away and your daughter is the spitting image of your wife in her youth. However, still feeling that way and looking at your daughter like the picture of perfection when you host a mistress at a local hotel? (Fake) And spend more money on this secret lady than on both of your kids combined? (Fake) Or how about shoo-ing your son under the table for five grand after driving drunk? (Fake) Trying to portray an image of perfection and brushing negativity under the rug rather than addressing the problems at its root? (Fake) I feel like Boss has this sort of me-against-the-world mentality and it shows through in his aggressive diction. Like when he’s talking to Tom Junior about Miss Lucy and he goes from, “What’re you talkin’ about?” to, “That is a goddam lie. Who says Miss Lucy says that?” I see you, Boss, all defensive and whatnot. You’re real SMOOTH too, buddy. Or when he has that “ultra-power” feeling when he’s just ungrateful and smack talking their manservant Charles, later admitting to Heavenly, “I have power, which is not an illusion.” Well congratulations, sir.

Maybe I just don’t like this guy. He has zero respect for females. Cheating on his wife with a mistress, only giving a crap about his daughter when she’s causing bad publicity, treating Aunt Nonnie like she’s a straight up moron and telling her to her face that she’s as “gullible as [his] wife was.” He’s demanding and straight up rude. But maybe that’s just because I wouldn’t respond to the way he has spoken to any of the women seen thus far. And, even though Tennessee claims that his “affection” for Heavenly is purely fatherly and not romantic, I feel like his possessiveness and control over her is creepy nonetheless. Boss can’t get over the fact that he wasn’t in control of the time and place and age and way Heavenly lost her virginity. So not only is he all up in her personal business, he’s also judging her for it rather than providing guidance or lending her a hand. She’s going through a rough time and he’s more concerned with the image she’s putting out than the hardships she’s facing.


But maybe I’m wrong. They’re called first impressions for a reason.

4 First Impressions About 2 Main Characters

The Sweet Bird of Youth: Act 1 Scene 1 

1.) How OLD is Princess?!

Soooooo, based on the background we already know prior to reading, Princess is middle aged but her career is based on her youthful looks and mannerisms. She’s a sex addict, so she’s made her way around the block a few times, if you know what I mean. Maybe that gives her some wisdom? In a weird way? But another thing that stuck out to me, other than her fancy illegal Moroccan drugs, was the way in which she spoke. She sounds like an overdramatic grandmother to a snobby, dependent grandson. If I didn’t have the background and I never saw an actress playing her role (as an actress ha-ha), I would probably instead picture a much older woman, solely because of her diction.

First, a huge bell-going-off-in-someone’s-head is definitely when she freaks out without either of two things: her breathing machine and her glasses. Uh, OK, so she can’t breathe or see I guess. When she says to Chance, “Wouldn’t that be pretty? A year in jail in one of those model prisons for distinguished addicts. What is it? Don’t you know what it is you beautiful, stupid young man? It’s hashish, Moroccan, the finest,” she throws up a few red flags. The biggest one is when she calls him a stupid, young man. She obviously knows he’s younger, but I’d assume most other women in her position would be at least somewhat ashamed to admit they just slept with a man half their age. Then again, she even admits to Chance that she’s “not common.” But also, back to my earlier exploitation of her dialogue, she then depicts an entire, dramatic image for being caught with her illegal substances, overdramatizing the event in a way that any regular woman wouldn’t do and any youth just wouldn’t care to take the time to do. But I guess back to her whole spiel of “In all respects I’m not common,” line. To me, however, the whole useless imagery she paints makes her sound pretty darn old. And definitely not middle aged having existential crises every few hours. Like nearing her deathbed old.

2.) Princess talks. A LOT.

Honestly, right after I realized Princess talked with ancient language, I decided she uses way too much of it. Her dialogue takes far too long to explain far too little. She could easily condense her thoughts into a couple of words. But I understand she’s in the acting career and she has to add some flair to what she has to say in order to get any respect as an actress. And after being successful and in the industry so long, it most likely is just ingrained in her consciousness to use as much space as possible to say as little as possible.

For example, when she had that huge “remembering” of how she was so embarrassed that people saw how she was losing her youthfulness that she tripped over her dress trying to run away from the audience. She used twenty sentences to say what I could in two. “I was so embarrassed when I tried to come-back to acting with a youthful look and people in the audience audibly gasped that I ran away from them and tripped over my over-elaborate ball gown. Then I was more embarrassed because I fell.” Maybe it just doesn’t have the same dramatic effect she did. But, all talk of dramatic effect aside, Princess takes up far more lines than Chance does in this scene. Which left a huge impression on me right off the get-go that Princess likes to have the spotlight on her… Literally and metaphorically.

And honestly, maybe I’m a culprit of using so much space to say one statement right now in this blog. Using 296 words to say what realistically could be done in seven; “Princess talks a lot more than Chance.” But where’s the dramatic effect in that?

3.) Is Chance just dumb?

I was struck with the impression that maybe Chance is just an idiot. Maybe 65% of the way through the reading I was hit with that realization. Right at the time where he’s all smug about busting her drugs with the tape recorder and then she counters him with her (might I add lengthy) speech about how bad he is at playing the villain. She says, “You are trembling and sweating… You see, this part doesn’t suit you, you just don’t play it well, Chance,” drawing out his insecurities and calling him out for poorly executed acting. She’s pointing out that, despite his tough face and strong attempts, he just isn’t cutting it. Which could potentially spiral Chance into a black hole of thinking he wasn’t good enough and that’s why his acting never took off, etc. showing how Princess knew exactly how to manipulate him (maybe her wisdom does come with her sex addiction).

Then, after realizing that maybe Chance was not intelligent, through reading the rest of the play and skimming back through the beginning to test my theory, Princess somehow convinces him that she needs to “forget” through the “act of love-making” and that the only person she “wants” for such a deed is him. Chance was so ready to lock her down and force her to sign his contract to get him on a super-talented-and-respected acting career but the second she started to chip away at his exterior, he melted straight into a puddle of pure puppetry, his every thought being controlled by Princess. Is he dumb or is he just insecure?


4.) Why’s Chance such a weenie?

“Oh, I’m so cool I can blackmail older women and sleep with them in the same day. I’m so cool for being a male prostitute and then also trying to force the women I’m with into signing me for a record. Oh, it’s so cool that I’m such a great, undiscovered actor who does drugs and probably has a drinking problem. Ohhhhhh, I’m sooooooo cool for being so sneaky about bringing this older woman who can’t even remember what she had for dinner last night to St. Cloud so I actually can just hook back up with my old high school sweetheart I ditched a bunch of years back. Ooooo I can get mad at my old friends for getting engaged to my ex-girlfriend after I ran away from town and left everything behind. So cool.”

I feel like Chance is a big weenie. I started getting that feeling when he called Princess a, “plump lady,” and when he wanted, “the Bromo first,” when Fly was at his hotel room and when he was only focused on Heavenly, even after finding out his mother had passed away (but seriously how did he not know that?!). He’s vibing straight rudeness half the time, a condescending attitude half the time, and clear ignorance the other half of the time. Maybe I’m just feeling negative about this guy but I really am not painting too good of an image. Might I restate the fact that he didn’t even know his MOM DIED, yet even after he did find out he still NEGLECTED TO CARE. Uh, if he doesn’t spell out W-E-E-N-I-E, I don’t know what else does.