Big Bill

A moving and incisive portrait of legendary tennis player William Tilden. Big Bill, by A.R. Gurney, is a quick-paced work that captures Tilden’s turbulent life in a series of scenes that shift back and forth in time.

Bill Tilden (known to everyone as Big Bill) was considered one of the greatest tennis players of all time, dominating the sport in the 1920’s by winning seven U.S. championships. He was also a closeted homosexual. In a series of scenes that shift back and forth in time, the play illuminates Tilden’s distinguished career, extravagant style, personal travails, and, ultimately, his calamitous downfall. Mark Lamos directs.