This fall, Intiman Theatre and The Feast join forces to bring Lillian Hellman’s The Little Foxes to the Erickson Theatre, running October 15 through November 2, 2025. Audiences will be seated in the round for an up-close encounter with this Southern Gothic drama, complete with select 21+ tables offering cocktail service and Southern-themed libations.
The production will be directed by Ryan Guzzo Purcell, founding Artistic Director of The Feast (formerly The Williams Project), and will open Intiman’s 52nd season. This marks another collaboration between the two acclaimed companies, following their co-productions of The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window (2023) and Orpheus Descending (2015).
Hellman’s The Little Foxes is a scorching portrait of greed, ambition, and betrayal in the American South. Alexandria Tavares stars as Regina Hubbard Giddens—a woman watching her brothers build fortunes while she, constrained by gender and inheritance laws, schemes to seize her own share. With manipulation, blackmail, and deceit as her tools, Regina’s drive for power exposes the rot beneath genteel Southern civility.
In The Feast’s signature style, the production transforms Hellman’s classic into a high-stakes spectacle—part sexy cocktail party, part emotional cage match. From the electrifying opening to its devastating finale, audiences will be immersed in the storm of ambition and moral decay.
Lillian Hellman (1905–1984) remains one of America’s most influential playwrights and memoirists. Known for The Children’s Hour (produced at Intiman in 2015) and The Little Foxes (last staged there in 1987), she broke barriers as the first woman admitted to the formerly all-male canon of American dramatic literature. Hellman also wrote the screenplay for the 1941 film adaptation of The Little Foxes, which starred Bette Davis and earned nine Academy Award nominations.
We caught up with Alexandria Tavares to talk about stepping into the role that Bette Davis made legendary, the modern vision behind this production, and the women who inspire her every day.
On playing the iconic Regina Giddens
“Regina is such a fascinating role,” Tavares says. “She feels like a fabled grand dame—almost in the tradition of Hedda Gabler. She’s sharp, strong, and unapologetically ambitious, yet confined by the expectations placed on women in the 1890s. The reminder to smile, to influence through softness—it’s so relatable to women today. What excites me most is playing a woman for whom the word nurture doesn’t even enter the room. Her drive and determination are thrilling to explore.”
On filming those wickedly fun promos
“So much fun! I mean, who doesn’t want to sink their hand into a fruit pie?” she laughs. “Filming the promos was wonderfully messy and a little mischievous. That said, my sweet tooth is basically nonexistent—I was secretly wishing for fries!”
On the time period of this production
“The production takes place in a modernized world that feels both now and not now,” Tavares explains. “It’s recognizable as contemporary, though without phones or obvious modern technology, yet still grounded in the language and social structures of 1900s Alabama. It bridges eras in a way that lets the play’s themes hit powerfully in the present.”
On Bette Davis and the legacy of Regina
“Of course, Bette Davis! Her willingness to inhabit complex, morally ambiguous characters is endlessly inspiring,” Tavares says. “Her portrayal of Regina—nominated for an Oscar—brought incredible humanity to a woman often dismissed as an anti-hero. She made Regina’s ambition and moral unraveling both unsettling and irresistibly captivating. It’s a masterclass in empathy for the so-called ‘unlikeable’ woman.”
On who inspires her
“That’s an impossible question—so many people inspire me!” she admits. “But at nine o’clock on a Monday morning, my mind goes straight to my mom and my two daughters. My mom ran her own ad agency in Silicon Valley when very few women were doing that. And my daughters—they’re these bold, motivated young women who speak up and also know the power of listening. I learn from them every single day.”
Intiman Theatre and The Feast’s production of The Little Foxes runs October 15–November 2, 2025, at the Erickson Theatre. For tickets and more information, visit Intiman.org
