Shakespeare Downtown Presents Free Performances of Tennessee Williams’ Controversial and Rarely Performed “Tiger Tale”

Lower Manhattan’s Shakespeare Downtown brings the gothic heat, poetic intensity, and sexual tension of Tennessee Williams’ controversial and rarely performed “Tiger Tale” to the open-air walls of Castle Clinton Thursdays-Sundays from June 12-22, 2025. Geoffrey Horne directs Williams’ play about sexuality and power - based on Elia Kazan’s film “Baby Doll” - which itself was based on Williams’ one-act “27 Wagons Full of Cotton.” Tickets are free and available at the door of Castle Clinton National Monument at the Battery at 5:45 p.m. on the day of the performance. In “Tiger Tail,” Archie Lee (Steven J. Cambria), a down-at-the-heels Mississippi cotton gin owner with a child bride, Baby Doll (Billie Andersson) crosses rival gin owner Silva Vacarro (Juan Pablo Toro) - the Sicilian who exacts his revenge by seducing the young bride.