A Streetcar Named Desire
by Tennessee Williams
Directed by Tim Ocel
Tennessee Williams Festival St. Louis
May 10, 2018
The 3rd annual Tennessee Williams Festival St. Louis has opened with a highly ambitious main stage production. With this year’s festival concentrating on the playwright’s years in New Orleans’ French Quarter, it makes perfect sense that their headline production is Williams’s much-lauded A Streetcar Named Desire, which is set in that neighborhood in the late 1940s. Often considered Williams’s best play, Streetcar has been performed so many times at so many different levels over the past few decades, but this production is aiming to take a fresh approach, with some bold casting and directorial choices. It’s a stunning production not to be missed.
The well-known story follows the enigmatic Blanche DuBois (Sophia Brown), who arrives in the French Quarter from Mississippi to stay with her younger sister Stella Kowalski (Lana Dvorak) and her husband Stanley (NIck Narcisi), who is immediately suspicious of Blanche, who has arrived suddenly and announced she’s taken a “leave of absence” from her job as a teacher. Through the course of the play, more is revealed about Blanche, as well as about the controlling Stanley. Blanche is haunted by her past in more ways than one, as well as being threatened by the present, and by Stanley’s forceful personality and mistreatment of the devoted Stella. Blanche’s role as an outsider is emphasized by the rest of the characters, and the neighborhood itself, which is essentially a character in the play. Stanley’s poker buddies Steve (Isaiah DeLorenzo) and Pablo (Jesse Munoz) help empasize the Stanley’s primal, impulsive behavior, and their neighbor (and Steve’s wife) Eunice (Amy Loui) is at turns helpful and suspicious. There’s also another poker buddy, Mitch (Spencer Sickmann) who is different–more gentle, senstive, polite, but also something of a follower to the more forceful Stanley. Mitch is also attracted to Blanche, and they begin a tentative relationship that provides both of them with some hope, for a time. I’m not going to say much more about the plot, as well-known as it is, except to say that ultimately, this is a tragedy, told in Williams’ most poetic, lyrical style. Everything–every character, every interaction, every moment of dialogue is important, and the brilliance of the script is highlighted here by the bold, incisive direction of this production.
Visually, this play is simply stunning, with the techical elements enhancing and augmenting the overall atmosphere and performances of the stellar cast. James Wolk’s detailed set essentially lives and breathes the French Quarter, with the emphasis being on windows and doors rather than walls. The world of the Kowalskis’ apartment and the world of the surrounding neighborhood are brought together through the use of this meticulous but open design. There’s also excellent, responsive lighting by Sean Savoie that not only helps set the mood, but changes in response to it. Michele Friedman Siler’s costumes are vividly detailed, with colors fitting the personalities of the characters and styles appropriate to the period and tone of the show. There’s also excellent use of sound by Amanda Werre and an evocative new score by Henry Palkes, bringing the French Quarter to life in an auditory sense to complement the visual.
The casting here is a little different in some roles than what has generally been done in other productions, with Blanche especially being cast younger than usual. This, according to the Festival’s press release, is to reflect Williams’ original stage directions and making Blanche around 30, which adds some irony to the frequent mentions of her age in the play. Casting younger works extremely well in this production, especially in the truly remarkable performance of Brown, who brings a mixture of hope and regret to the role, and a youthful energy as well as sense of gravity and gradual unraveling as the story progresses. It’s an outstanding performance, and the rest of the cast matches her, from Narcisi’s increasingly controlling, emotionally needy and ultimately brutal Stanley, to Dvorak’s adoring but increasingly wary Stella. Sickmann is especially effective as the conflicted Mitch, and his scenes and chemistry with Brown are especially compelling. There’s also strong supporting work from Loui, DiLorenzo, Munoz, and the rest of the strong, cohesive ensemble. Director Tim Ocel has staged this play emphasizing the relationships and sense of immediacy, and the result is profoundly effecting.
There’s only one weekend left to see this play. It’s a production I had been looking forward to for a while and it’s more than lived up to the hype. William’s briliantly scripted, poetic and emotionally volatile play has been brought to the stage in a dynamic, bold, youthful production that brings its character and setting to life with rich, visceral detail. The production closes Saturday. Don’t miss it. You have to catch this Streetcar.
The Tennessee Williams Festival STL is presenting A Streetcar Named Desire at the Grandel Theatre until May 19, 2018
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