Stairs to the Roof

Blurb

Stairs to the Roof is a play by Tennessee Williams, the last of his apprentice plays. It was completed in December 1941, and premiered at the Pasadena Playhouse on February 26, 1947.
The play is based on earlier stories written by Williams, including "The Swan" and most specifically, one of the same title written in October 1936, after he had recovered from a nervous breakdown arising from his experiences working in the relentlessly mechanical world of the large International Shoes factory in St. Louis, Missouri. Unlike that story, the play is optimistic, with elements of romance and fantasy, and a deus ex machina ending.
The subtitle of the play is "A Prayer for the Wild of Heart That are Kept in Cages"; though that phrase conveys the seriousness of the playwright's chosen topic, its treatment, particularly the elements not present in the original story, lighten the tone with elements of fantasy.
Williams scholar Allean Hale, in his introduction to a 2000 New Directions Publishers edition of the play, commented on similarities the play shares with the 1923 expressionist play The Adding Machine by Elmer Rice.