A Streetcar Named Desire (2010)
For many years now, the Adamson Theatre Company’s Senior Play has won renown for tackling difficult and challenging works, confident in the capacity of Wesley’s many fine young actors over the years to deliver the goods. This was never more evident than in this year’s production of Tennessee Williams’ American classic, A Streetcar Named Desire, a disturbing journey into an emotional terrain requiring great maturity to understand, explore and finally articulate. The fact that this was achieved with such conviction places this production amongst the very best seen on the Adamson stage in the past couple of decades. A long and intense night in the theatre was compellingly sustained through a combination of brilliant performances, lucid direction, a magnificently evocative set, and a moody lighting and sound design. When theatre is successful on all these levels, the result is, in Blanche DuBois’s signature word, ”magic.”
Laurence Olivier, the most eminent theatrical figure of his generation, once famously disclosed that actors must frequently render situations and emotions they have not directly experienced. His advice was simple: ”try acting.” The cast of Streetcar could have been following his dictum to the letter. The youthful performers found their ways into difficult roles, and discovered unexpected and often unsettling emotional landscapes in which they appeared totally at home. At the heart of the play’s psychic tremors are the fading and neurasthenic southern belle, Blanche DuBois, and her sister’s husband, the coarse and threatening Stanley Kowalski. In these theatrically famous roles, Ella Richards and Morgan Stubbs were outstanding, registering the nuances and depths of emotional lives forced to extremities that only a whole-hearted willingness ”to act” can deliver. Ella’s Blanche was all nerves and painful longing, forever trembling on the brink of mental collapse; Morgan’s Stanley was, by contrast, instinctual animal passion, frighteningly brutal, yet vulnerable and raw by degrees. Their conflict carried the drama forward with disturbing authenticity, and their energy never flagged.
Equally impressive were Elly Coker as Stella and Ryan Murphy as Mitch. Both delivered highlight moments, and their performances were never overshadowed by the strong leads. Stella is a key role, the source of the play’s pathos, as she is the tragic victim of its central conflict. Elly Coker gave us a wholly believable Stella, grounded, loving, torn between passion (for her husband) and compassion (for her fragile sister). Ryan Murphy is a young actor adept at teasing out the nervous edginess of men who would want to appear stronger than they are. His Mitch was wonderfully awkward and emotionally clumsy, effectively complementing Blanche’s longing for stability but in an entirely other dimension. We were made to feel Mitch’s pain at his own betrayal, of himself as well as Blanche. And the upstairs neighbours, the Hubbels, were impressively portrayed by Syd Zygier, as Eunice, and Martin Quinn or Daniel Dindas, in the role of Steve on alternate nights. The Hubbels’ turbulent but loving and honest relationship was a striking contrast to the simmering hostilities beneath them, and a regular reminder of what Stanley and Stella are in danger of forfeiting. And Jakub Duniec, as the card-playing Pablo, gave audiences a glimpse of the broader dimensions of the Kowalski life in New Orleans. Two other exceptional talents were also on show, albeit briefly: Ben Symon and Nick Denton, alternately appearing as the young boy collector in momentary danger of being ensnared in Blanche’s sexual web. In different ways, both actors delivered a short scene of exquisite pathos, and their characters actually seemed to shimmer with the radiance of an innocence so easily defiled. It was another small but transcendent moment in a production that delivered many.
And three cheers for the Supernumeraries! They performed the walk-on small character roles with great enthusiasm, and their professionalism and commitment to the enterprise were crucial in establishing the richness of the New Orleans life so central to a successful production of this play.
The production values and direction were exemplary. Under the skilful guidance of Clare Cooper and Tony Scanlon, the characters and the narrative arc were always clearly defined, and the play was beautifully paced, building steadily and rhythmically to its brutal climax and tragic denouement. The set, by Tony Scanlon and Sam Cook (OW2005), allowed for a complex interaction between the interior world of the Kowalski household and the vibrant external life of Elysian Fields. This was encapsulated in a see-through rear wall which, when appropriately lit, allowed for the intrusion of the busy street beyond the apartment. Blanche’s nervous entrance and heart-breaking exit, visible through this wall, provided stunning visual moments at either end of the play. The set was moodily lit by Sabino Del Balso, creating a series of visual statements about the drama’s emotional progress. Stephanie Des Barres’ authentic looking ”Forties” costumes enhanced the play’s naturalism, and Lisa Bennett and Alexia Thorne were comprehensively well organised in their management of a madly complicated properties plot. Such are the demands of naturalistic theatre, and all were met in ways that made this production truly special.
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