By Janelle Faignant
ARTS CORRESPONDENT
If you think you know Tennessee Williams’ play “A Streetcar Named Desire,” a forthcoming production of the legendary drama asks you to reconsider.
The story of fragile, worn and desperate Southern belle Blanche DuBois, who moves to New Orleans to live with her sister, Stella, and her brutish brother-in-law Stanley, in a small, dingy apartment and the clashes that ensue won Williams a Pulitzer Prize. The film version and its notorious portrayal of Stanley by Marlon Brando is well-known, but it is rarely presented on stage.
“Most people will stay away from ‘Streetcar’ because it’s a lot to take on,” explained Linda Treash, executive director of BarnArts, who is also directing the production.
BarnArts, a nonprofit arts organization in Barnard, is presenting ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ at the Grange Theatre in South Pomfret April 1-10.
“I strongly encouraged the (actors) to not watch the movie and not feel any response to the iconic presentations of the characters, but to find their own version,” Treash said.
It sounds almost impossible but Williams wrote comprehensive and telling details in his play as a guidepost, down to the faint smell of banana and coffee in the air. And that Blanche’s character has “something about her uncertain manner (and) white clothes that suggests a moth.”
“He really transformed playwrights the way he wrote his stage directions,” Treash said. “The way he conceived of the experience of reading a play was novel at the time. The level of detail that’s in the script is … really interesting for a playwright to execute that level of control (and) vision.”
“As an actor, that is so interesting because there’s so much room to explore, but there’s also so much material to work with that you feel informed about the character,” said Erin Bennett, who plays Stella. She called the play “an amazing example of real, whole characters created with just words.”
“Stella is a great example,” Bennett said. “She has so much going on internally and we are able to recognize this even though the things (she) actually says on stage are mundane, like the beer bottles left in the kitchen, and who’s going to get the car fixed.”
Actor Aaron Hodge, who plays Stanley, said by email, “It’s a bucket-list role for any male actor.”
“On top of that,” he said, “there is such a large shadow over the role of Stanley Kowalski that makes it enticing to give it your own spin, and to defy expectations the audience may have. It is perhaps the most iconic play in American theater. It’s like being an architect and asked to renovate the Taj Mahal. You don’t say no.”
Treash also wanted to present the play in the context of the “Me Too” movement, and said, “We’ve talked about what our 2022 point of view is, and we are kind of straddling 2022 and the 1950s how it’s being presented. In one of the scenes one character is manhandling one of the women and (we were) deciding what we wanted that to look like from our now-perspective.”
“This is his most famous work, and it’s really important because it gets really deeply at human nature,” Treash added.
“Desire, it says it all,” Hodge said. “Everyone’s cards are on the table. The primal nature of human sexuality and the rationalizations we pose to humanize our reptilian brain are on full display. It’s a steamy, physical performance that is meant to shake the audience into recognizing these opposing dynamics.”
“It’s a difficult story with difficult people who do difficult things, but it’s so fun,” Bennett added. “It’s such a fun challenge as a performer, and we’re having a great time, which is a funny thing.
You have to do such hard scenes and say such cruel things to each other but it’s a blast.”
“My hope would be that we’re able to present it in a way that people don’t come in with preconceived notions,” Bennett said. “The story is kind of about dealing with our preconceived notions of certain people, who have certain levels of education, or come from certain places or dress a certain way. It’s all about our judgments of each other. I would want an audience member to come in as if seeing this for the first time — this is the one and only production of “A Streetcar Named Desire” — that would be the best way to watch it.”
“Forget the film,” Hodge added. “Come see the performance.”
janellefaignant @gmail.com
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