Alley's surreal `Streetcar' presents a classic well
A Streetcar Named Desire is one of the all time masterpieces of American theater. Blanche DuBois, the Southern belle living in a world of illusion, and the brutal, practical Stanley Kowalski are perhaps the two best-known characters in American drama. The Alley Theater's latest production, with Annalee Jeffries as Blanche, and Patrick St. Esprit as Stanley, is a vivid and entertaining interpretation of a work nearly half a century old.
In Streetcar , playwright Tennessee Williams combines poetic lyricism with brutal sexuality. Williams was only 36 years old when Streetcar was first produced. His childhood was a difficult one. Attempting to build his own life away from a bullying father, an overly sensitive mother and a sister whom he loved dearly but was going insane, Williams created his own imaginary world. But the world he built, as we can see in his plays, is not that different. His world is full of people whose fantasy lives collapse under the weight of reality, whose relationships are marred by petty jealousies and grievances and whose lives are spent trying to survive and build some kind of dignity from the shreds of their self-respect. It is a world, in other words, much like our own.
Streetcar takes us into the corner of Williams' world, the tumultuous streets of New Orleans, where the streetcar named Desire rumbles down the avenues -- both literally and figuratively. We join Blanche, whose reality has rudely interfered with her notions of gentility.
With everything of importance in her life gone, she flees from small-town life to join her sister in New Orleans. Here, too, her fantasies are shattered. Her sister Stella has fashioned an entirely different kind of life with factory worker Stanley Kowalski, a world in which there is no place for Blanche. And so Blanche and Stanley are set on an inevitable collision course.
The Alley is not Broadway and the cast may not compare to the 1947 ensemble that featured Jessica Tandy and a then-unknown Marlon Brando, but Jeffries does an excellent job of portraying Blanche's rapid decline and aging, even though her Southern accent and mannerisms ring false. The fragile but powerful Blanche keeps the audience spellbound. St. Esprit, making his debut with the Alley, lacks power in the role of Kowalski. For most of the play, he does an excellent job, but he fails to size up in his biggest scenes. Stanley, outside in the rain, impotent and confused, screaming "Stella!" at the top of his lungs, is one of the most powerful scenes in American theater. But St. Esprit yells halfheartedly, relegating the scene to among the least important in the play, and depriving Stanley of much of his humanity and tragedy.
Director Michael Wilson does an excellent job in reinterpreting Williams' vision as surreal. The audience descends more vividly into insanity than in the traditional interpretation. And as usual, the Alley did a superb job in recapturing the feel of post-war New Orleans with its set design and costuming. The supporting cast performed excellently overall, particularly James Black as Mitch, a key pawn in the struggle between Stanley and Blanche.
Alley's performance of A Streetcar Named Desire brings live theater close to its best. The production will run through April 27.
This item appeared in the Arts & Entertainment section of the April 12, 1996 issue.
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