The play is set in the mid-20th century in Eldritch, Missouri, a decaying Bible Belt town that once was a prosperous coal mining community.
The cast included Dena Dietrich, Don Scardino, Helen Stenborg, Susan Tyrrell, and Bette Henritze, who won the Obie Award for Distinguished Performance.
[3] The production was directed by Davey Marlin-Jones, and stars Roberts Blossom, Susan Sarandon, Rue McClanahan, K Callan, Will Hare, Kate Harrington, Frances Sternhagen, and Ernest Thompson.
He noted that "as a TV drama, it has a good cast, an astute director in Davey Marlin-Jones, and an authenticity of background.... the action is cluttered with a confusion of bits and pieces and even scenes that jump to the past and the future.... Mr. Marlin-Jones, with the plot edging forward, handles some scenes beautifully as in one gossipy exchange between two uneasy women, Sarah Cummingham and Helen Stenborg.
Probably only Wilson, immersed in his Tennessee Williams period, could turn them into an elegiac jigsaw puzzle more reminiscent of Under Milk Wood than Tobacco Road."