Tennessee Williams radio play Strangers.

Tennessee Williams’ early radio play, “The Strangers,” is featured in The Strand this week. Written in the late 1930s while Williams was a student at the University of Iowa, the play showcases classic radio horror elements like storms and spectral beings. Strand managing editor Andrew Gulli says the play also hints at themes Williams would explore in later works, such as isolation and the blurred lines between imagination and reality. Williams scholar John Bak notes that Williams wrote radio dramas for both commercial reasons and personal exploration, influenced by his sister’s mental health struggles.