AT the heart of Tennessee William’s timeless classic Sweet Bird of Youth is a clash of monsters.

That his themes – angst over the loss of youth, fear of time’s passing, racial and sexual discrimination – should still resonate so much in today’s society is sadly shocking.

Certainly, there were several loud gasps and audible taking-in-of-breath during this new production just opened at Chichester’s Festival Theatre as the protagonists in this glorious foray into the American Deep South of the late 1950’s traded insults and a fair few blows.

At the heart of the battle-zone are two self-made monsters, each desperate to thwart the passage of time.

Faded screen siren Alexandra del Largo awakes to find a stranger in her hotel bed; a beautiful young man she slowly recalls striking up a relationship with somewhere on the road from Florida and the Mississippi Gulf Coast town of St. Cloud.

It’s Chase Wayne’s home town and he’s steered the couple there with the ambition of winning back his sweetheart with promises of a movie career.

But monsters lurk, and behind the sultry heat and swaying palm trees there is murderous intent.

American TV star Brian J Smith (Sense8, Gossip Girl) plays Chance, his silk pyjamas hugging a toned torso likely to have quite a few of the female members of the audience wishing they could spend time in a tropical retreat with the buff, brash former diving champion. Smith is stupendous in the role, his desperation rising as he attempts to persuade, blackmail and then cajole his leading lady to support his far-fetched escapades.

Marcia Gay Harden plays del Largo. As angst-ridden fading beauty she is stunning as her character slips between bare sobriety and the sheets.

If Chance and del Largo recognise their own monstrosity – which they do – then the true creature of hate and bile is Boss Finley, Southern statesman and bigoted bully played with real force and menace by Richard Cordery.

Backdrop to William’s superb action is a marvellous set created by Anthony Ward, taking the audience from hotel bedroom, to beachside mansion, to cocktail bar with ease.

Jonathan Kent’s direction provides pace and pathos, the audience aching for the characters to avoid their fates by curtain down, even if their course has been pre-set by the cruellest of monsters of all: time.

Sweet Bird of Youth runs until June 24.

Ian Murray