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A CurtainUp DC Review
A Streetcar Named Desire
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I don't want realism. I want magic! Yes, yes, magic. I try to give that to people. I do misrepresent things. I don't tell truths. I tell what ought to be truth.— Blanche DuBois
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Cate Blanchett as Blanche DuBois
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As the lights go up, Blanche sits at the edge of the stage on her suitcase and says, "Why, they told me to take a streetcar named Desire and then transfer to one called Cemetery and ride six blocks and get off at Elysian Fields." Her slowly disclosed whereabouts are about as far from paradise as you can get. Blanche has come to the modest and decidedly lower class New Orleans apartment where her sister Stella and brutish brother-in-law Stanley Kowalski happily live, love and fight. What a come-down for such a "lady."
What makes this production so exciting is the ensemble of players and designers — all from the Sydney Theatre Company of which Blanchett and her husband, Andrew Upton, are Artistic Directors. Under Liv Ullman's extraordinarily perceptive direction, they are uniformly excellent even though (to this mid-Atlantic ear) their Southern accents do not always hit the mark.
For a play that most audiences have seen before, it is an enormous feat of ingenuity and sensitivity to extract from Tennessee Williams' brilliant script nuances and revelations that other readings have either overlooked or ignored. Ullman does this with ease. Every detail seems just right: Stanley's throwing a dirty broom on the bed where Blanche is to sleep. . . the Mexican Woman's languid pose on the fire escape as she recites "flores para los muertos". . . .the couple upstairs alternately bickering or engaging in foreplay in silhouette behind a window shade. . . jazz music and, yes, a crescendo — a rousing climax, as Stanley beds Blanche.
Given the strength of Blanchett's performance it is gratifying that she is well matched by Robin McLeavy's Stella, Tim Richards's Mitch, and particularly Joel Edgerton's Stanley. He does not have movie star looks, he doesn't preen around the stage showing off washboard abs as so many past Stanleys have done. Instead he personifies animal magnetism, or as Blanche remarks "bestiality."
Just when you thought "oh, no, not another revival," this Streetcar makes its way into a theatergoers conscience where it will be remembered for years to come.
Editor's Note: This production will move on to BAM where I hope to be as thrilled as Susan obviously was. For more about Tennessee Williams and links to his work reviewed at Curtainup (including other productions of A Streetcar Named Desire), check out our Tennessee Williams backgrounder.
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A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams Director: Liv Ullman Cast: Cate Blanchett (Blanche DuBois), Sara Zwangobani (Rosetta), Mandy McElhinney (Eunice Hubbell), Robin McLeavy (Stella Kowalski), Joel Edgerton (Stanley Kowalski), Tim Richards (Mitch), Michael Denkha (Steve Hubbell), Jason Klarwein (Pablo Gonzales), Morgan David Jones (A Young Collector), Gertraud Ingeborg (A Mexican Woman), Elaine Hudson (A Strange Woman), Russell Kiefel (A Strange Man). Set: Ralph Myers Costumes: Tess Schofield Lighting: Nick Schlieper Composer/sound design: Paul Charlier Piano arrangements: Alan John Running time: 3 hours 15 minutes with intermission Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C. www.kennedy-center.org From October 29 to November 21, 2009 From November 27 to December 20, 2009, BAM, www.bam.org, Reviewed by Susan Davidson, October 31, 2009. |
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