Unpublished and previously unperformed, I Never Get Dressed Till After Dark on Sundays was written by Tennessee Williams in 1970 after a stint in rehab.

The script was offered to IdeasTap member Hamish after he impressed Williams’s agent with his Edward Bond season at the Cock Tavern last year.

“It was daunting because the play was hard to read,” Hamish admits. “But when the actors started performing it, it made sense. This is why Williams is a genius: he writes words that need to be spoken.”

A play within a play, the audience is presented with “two lost souls coming together in an apartment, who struggle to break away from one another, but can’t.” This is traditional Williams territory: disillusionment and decay in a rugged Southern world.

“But this is Tennessee Williams experimenting with form, and it’s very different from what you’d expect.” This beautiful inner play is torn apart by the characters attempting to stage it: a director, griping actors and an alcoholic (and undeniably autobiographical) playwright, who struggles against the destruction of his artistic vision. Hamish adds, “It’s very personal and revealing when the playwright character cries out, ‘Just stay in the world!’”

“Through the playwright’s closing speech, you hear Tennessee Williams’s views on the theatre and how the play should be performed. Most of Williams’ plays are about his relationship with his family, whereas this is explicitly about his relationship with the theatre.” Another undiscovered Williams play opening soon at the Cock Tavern, A Cavalier for Milady, focuses on his relationship with his sister.

Williams once gave a reading of I Never Get Dressed Till After Dark on Sundays, in which he acted all the parts. He explained to his student audience that “the play was about disaffected youth and young people losing their way in life.”

Williams’s reputation was a hindrance to his success later in life. “It plagued him because people were just expecting the next Streetcar or Glass Menagerie, and they couldn’t cope with this. It’s not in the league of his masterpieces but it’s a brilliant play in its own right. It’s beautifully written with amazing language.”

Hamish was talking to Cathy Thomas.

I Never Get Dressed Till After Dark on Sundays is at the Cock Tavern, London until 26 March – the 100th anniversary of Williams’s birth. Book tickets.