A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE. To 31 May.
Southampton.
A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE
by Tennessee Williams.
Nuffield Theatre To 31 May 2008.
Tue-Sat 7.30pm Mat 31 May 3pm.
Audio-described 31 May 3pm.
BSL Signed 31 May 3pm.
Runs 2hr 45min One interval.
TICKETS: 023 8067 1771.
www.nuffieldtheatre.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 24 May.
Freshly-thought, deeply-felt and quietly shattering.
Director Patrick Sandford has cast Streetcar’s main roles according to Tennessee Williams’ notes. Seeing a Blanche around 30 zooms the action into a new perspective.
How old was she when she was looking after her mother on the old Southern estate? How old when she frittered away the proceeds of its sale (if she did – Stanley, for all his expert contacts, never comes back about the deed-box she gives him) on jewels, furs and dresses? Or, when she had an affair with a boy she taught?
For she's not so old now, as she tries to cope with life in a downtown quarter, where not only she and brother-in-law Stanley share a divided room, but where there’s constant interaction with neighbours? Never mind keeping the door open – the windows seem open here, with card-games erupting onto the street, across which there’s a live jazz band.
Robin Don’s set provides that, plus a plain boardwalk tapering to distant eternity; where else is there for Blanche to go but back, or to institutionalised oblivion (think what that meant for a poor person in mid-century America)?
Katherine Tozer’s Blanche jumps at once to the defensive, as life’s doubtless taught her, with her sister, instinctively softening to flirtatiousness with any man. Rejection finally sends her into near-catatonic stiffness, but she has her moment of dignity when determining not to take Mitch without marriage.
As Adam Shipway’s Mitch says, it’s not the age, it’s the lies that upset him, though it’s unlikely this steady man would have taken a woman with Blanche’s past to spend the future with his sainted mother. Their final scene, confronting each other across the stage, is utterly gripping, each character made intensely alive.
Chook Sibtain makes Stanley deeply human. He has his moment of dignity declaring himself all-American. And this giant’s tenderness with his wife is ever-present beneath the roaring exterior, emphasising the play’s influence on Look Back in Anger. Emily Nagle quietly asserts Stella’s practicality, combining Dubois and Kowalski ways. As Blanche is led away Stella, Stanley and their baby cling together; the old America replaced by the new.
Negro Woman/Nurse: Laurietta Essien.
Eunice Hubbel: Sarah Groarke.
Stanley Kowalski: Chook Sibtain.
Harold Mitchell: Adam Shipway.
Stella Kowalski: Emily Nagle.
Blanche DuBois: Katherine Tozer.
Steve Hubbel: Ryan McCluskey.
Pablo/Mexican Flower-Seller: Javier Marzan.
Young Collector/Sailor: Lewis Matthews.
Doctor: Matt Devereaux.
Director: Patrick Sandford.
Designer: Robin Don.
Lighting: David W Kidd.
Sound: Rob Jones.
Fight co-ordinator: Paul Benzing.
Assistant director: Johhn Matthew Ward.
2008-05-26 15:48:50