Burned House was first produced at the Intimate Theater on 5 December, 1907, and was received as poorly as The Pelican, which had premiered just days before. It was critiqued as having “not even the ruins of a plot,” and was withdrawn after seven performances. Future productions have been less frequent than the other Chamber Plays. One of the most celebrated productions of the play premiered in 1970 at the Royal Dramatic Theater of Stockholm, directed by Alf Sjöberg and starring Max Von Sydow as the Stranger. More recently, a 1997 production of The Burned House, directed by Loveday Ingram, premiered at the Gate Theater in Notting Hill. This production was notable for portraying the dyer’s brother as mysterious and ghost-like, producing a dreamlike atmosphere. Critic Robert F. Gross in Tennessee Williams: A Casebook also notes the influence of The Burned House’s on Williams’ short play Auto-Da-Fé.
