Being Tennessee Williams

en i nto everything Tompos voices as Williams. No less central: “We are all of us trapped inside our own skins, condemned to solitary confinement.”

Speaking of voices, it was in the magazine Voices, founded and edited by poet Harold Vinal, that a poem by 25-year-old Tom (Tennessee) Williams first saw print, and it is that Harold Vinal who in “Bent to the Flame” has invited Tennessee to do the Hart Crane reading.

Two other real-life people with whom Tennessee here talks on the phone are Audrey Wood, the agent who saw him through thin and thick, till a separation late in his career, and Donald Wyndham, the writing partner (co-playwright of “You Touched Me”) with whom, says Tompos, Tennessee was unrequitedly in love. “Tennessee loved Donald but Donald didn’t love back. They used to crawl the streets together, with Tennessee hiding in doorways and Donald as bait.”

Doug Tompos, who has been seen in New York in “City of Angels,” “Forever Plaid,” “Jeffrey,” and other works, considers this his hometown, though he was born and bred in Columbus, Ohio, youngest of four sons of a mechanical engineer father and pediatric nurse mother. He came down to NYC after graduation from Syracuse University in 1984.

When “Being Michael Madsen” arrives here, you’ll be able to see Tompos as “a documentary filmmaker hired to turn the tables on the paparazzi.” Tennessee Williams, playwright and poet (1911-1983), could have used just such a kindness.

BENT TO THE FLAME — A Night With Tennessee Williams. Written and performed by Doug Tompos. Directed by Michael Michetti. Through August 26 as a Fringe Festival presentation of a Fugitive production at the SoHo Playhouse, 15 Vandam Street, (212) 279-4488.