A Streetcar Named Desire

The tragedy of living in a world of make-believe finds timeless expression in Tennessee Williams’s A Streetcar Named Desire, in the character of Blanche DuBois, a woman close to forty hoping that her pretensions of class, glamour, and (greater) youth will bring her the prince of her dreams.

Blanche arrives, a little earlier than expected, at the apartment of her sister, Stella, and brother-in-law, Stan, in 1947 New Orleans’s French Quarter.  Stella’s neighbourhood, living conditions, and husband clearly disappoint Blanche.  Stan especially clearly failing her own high standards, Blanche speaks critically of him to Stella on the basis of his origins, his manners, and his looks, alienating Stan when he overhears.  And this leads him to uncover the streetcar she has taken through her life.

This two-room flat becomes Blanche’s refuge from her past, even as she digs herself deeper into that past through sly tipples at Stan’s liquor and digs at his character; and the flat’s daily life, from poker nights to ten-pin-bowling outings, offers its central characters plenty of action.  The play’s major hurdle, though, lies in its lines, natural as they seem: conversations of lengthy detail that, though engaging, must have been difficult to learn to perfection.

The cast delivered, though, in spades.  A play in which passion, longing, and desperation outdo calm rationality makes it especially necessary for a director to help her actors convey these tempests of emotion without exaggeration in either voice or gesture.  Anne Somes, with able assistance from Cate Clelland, pulled all that off without a hitch and with clear articulation.  Amy Kowalczuk played the perennially self-aggrandising Blanche with vigour; Alex Hoskison carried off utterly naturally the cynicism and casually overbearing nature of Stan; and Meaghan Stewart was utterly convincing as the sister whose own needs determine what she can and what she cannot bear to believe of those she loves.

Free-Rain has excelled itself in this production of A Streetcar Named Desire.  Well-controlled lighting showing up great costume designs as well as the characters’ facial expressions and lending the set verisimilitude, the visual experience added drama to a well-performed parable of an unequal contest between reality and unreality.

John P. Harvey.

Image: [L–R] Meaghan Stewart as Stella Kowalski and Amy Kowalczuk as Blanche DuBois, in A Streetcar Named Desire.  Photographer: Jane Duong.