stage
Let me start with a confession. No matter how often I read or see it, I can’t find much depth in this 60-year-old classic of the American stage. Its conflict between the wayward-but-vulnerable Southern belle Blanche DuBois and her meat-slinging, wife-beating caveman of a brother-in-law, Stanley Kowalski, strikes me as a collision of gothic caricatures, and I’m unconvinced by the naive exaltation of animal sexuality as a force sufficient to sustain Kowalski’s marriage. I’d go so far as to suggest that Williams’s “masterpiece” owes its continued popularity less to the value of its script than to echoes of the original production (perpetuated by the 1951 movie) that marked the advent of Kazan, Brando and their then-radical style of theater. But this is not the place to defend such heresies. How does Live Arts handle one of the most frequently staged American plays?
 Live Arts audiences can depend on the brutality, the mania and the kindness of strangers in the current production of A Streetcar Named Desire. |
Ronda Hewitt holds our attention throughout as a high-strung, sometimes frenetic Blanche, her fragility matched by a manipulative cunning that first confounds and then enrages the blunter Kowalski. In the latter role, Mark Valahovic alternates between stiff calm and violent outburst, lacking the constant edge of menace that would make the transition convincing. Priya Curtis is a suitably uncomplicated Madonna as Stella, Blanche’s blissfully wedded, bedded, battered and impregnated younger sister. But Don Gaylord, though an impressive physical presence, seems miscast as Stanley’s friend Mitch, giving the part a coarseness that makes him a less-than-likely target of Blanche’s matrimonial designs—the man she marks out as “superior to the others,” with “a sort of sensitive look.”
Lighting, costumes and impressionistic set design combine to create a period atmosphere, aided by supernumerary actors who suggest New Orleans street life and serve as a kind of silent chorus in a balcony above the stage. A similarly picturesque touch is the decision to have the thematically-important incidental music played by live performers in an upstage alcove, rather than from the customary taped track.
Playgoers may be interested to know that their support of local theater, in this case, will also support much-needed charitable work in the Gulf Coast region. Proceeds from the production benefit the Building Goodness Foundation in its ongoing efforts to repair damage done by Hurricane Katrina.