Tennessee Williams’ eloquence flows in a convincing solo show

“If the writing is honest, it cannot be separated from the one who writes it,” Tennessee Williams once observed. It’s a mandate that actor Jeremy Lawrence has taken very much to heart in creating his one-man portrait of the playwright, “Talking Tennessee.”

Joining “Tennessee in the Summer” and “Lament of the Moths” in a Williams-themed trilogy at Studio City’s Laurelgrove Theatre, Lawrence’s meticulously crafted presentation is a deceptively breezy, in-character series of personal anecdotes and career reminiscences addressed directly to his audience -- a format ideally suited to the master of the memory play.

Without resorting to imaginary situations or putting words in his subject’s mouth, Lawrence culled the entire text from Williams’ “occasional” writings -- essays (the collection published as “Where I Live” was a primary source), newspaper articles and interviews, poems and even record album jackets. That the resulting piece comes across as a seamless and believably intimate conversation with Williams is a great credit to Lawrence’s editorial skills in weaving together his diverse sources, as well as to his presence and delivery.

Only a few curious lighting changes and an unnecessary intermission distract from an utterly convincing incarnation. Through precise accent, inflections and cadences, Lawrence uncannily evokes the Williams preserved in audio recordings, punctuated with knowing smiles and rolling eyes at the human frailty he recounts -- including his own. From throwaway descriptions (being surrounded at a table of “Mac trucks disguised as women”) to poignant self-revelations (getting an unnecessary eye operation to “retreat behind a gauze mask” from his own success), Lawrence radiates the sly, effete delicacy and gentility that never deterred Williams from confronting and embracing the most wrenching human tragedy.

Like so many of his characters, Williams was “an exile from the time and place of his own fulfillment.” In the elegantly languid sentences that wind gently around the bends of psychological defenses to coax forth uncomfortable truths, Lawrence finds the essential paradox of romanticism and steely, unflinching realism that so baffled Williams’ contemporary critics.

Perhaps most important, rather than rehashing the lurid fodder of Williams’ late-career spiral into dissolution and squalor so abundantly dramatized elsewhere, “Talking Tennessee” presents the author at the height of his eloquence and creative powers. By focusing on the relationship between Williams and his art, Lawrence leaves us with a deeper appreciation for both.

*

‘Talking Tennessee’

Where: Laurelgrove Theatre, 12265 Ventura Blvd., Studio City

When: Sundays, 3 p.m.

Ends: Dec. 22

Price: $20

Contact: (818) 760-8368

Running Time: 1 hour, 35 minutes