Hello from Bertha

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Hello from Bertha is a one-act play by Tennessee Williams (1946 and 1953).

The original text

A play about Bertha, a prostitute on the verge of being evicted from a low-class bordello. In a series of delusions she revisits her past loves while slipping toward disease and death.

The play premiered on television on the PBS program "Play of the Week: Four Plays by Tennessee" in 1961.

The text is included in the collection of thirteen one-act plays by Williams in the volume called 27 Wagons Full of Cotton And Other One-Act Plays (1966).

Translations and adaptations

Translated into Afrikaans as Hallo van Berta. Copy of the translation (dated 1984), found in the archives of the Stellenbosch Drama Department in 2022.

Performance history in South Africa

1971: Staged by the Libertas Theatre Club in 1971, directed by Marie van Heerden, with Brenda von Memerty (Goldie), Jean McDonald (Bertha), Annette Muller (Lena) and Laetitia Roos (Girl).

Sources

https://www.concordtheatricals.com/s/7523/hello-from-bertha

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