Regina Little Theatre - A Streetcar Named Desire

Past performances: A Streetcar Named Desire

A Streetcar Named Desire
By Tennessee Williams

Directed by Murray Hugel
Show dates: October 16-19, 2002

Cast		Production Team
Actor	Role	Team Member	Role

Synopsis of play
This is one of Tennessee Williams' most famous plays and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1947. In 1951, it was adapted an Oscar winning classic starring Marlon Brando and Vivien Leigh. It is without a doubt one of the most staged plays in this century, due to it's raw emotional power.

It explores the character of Blance Dubois, a woman whose relationship to others is defined by her own "Sourhtern Belle" fantasies. She moves to New Orleans and lives with her sister, Stella, and Stella's husband, Stanley. While she pretends to be someone she is not, Stanley is far less tolerant than his wife about Blanche's airs. Indeed, during the play, Blanche herself exclaims: "I don't want realism, I want magic."

But Stanley Kowalski's macho strutting and sexuality is far too "real" for Blanche. She tries to get Stella to leave her husband because Blanche believes that her beautiful and pregnant sister is too refined for him. But Stella, despite being abused by her husband, refused to leave. Their relationship is based on a strong sexual attraction, something that Blanche finds both disturbing and fascinating.

In the meantime, Blance dates one of Stanley's friends, Mitch. He still lives with his mother and is grateful for the attention a woman as charming as Blanche is willing to give him. Their relationship is good, however, when Stanley plays detective and does some dirt-digging on his sister-in-law. When he ends up passing the sordid details regarding Blanche's real life on to Mitch, he ends their relationship.

Blanche tries to escape her sister's home by desperately trying to contact a wealthy man who once was her boyfriend. Because she doesn't have his phone number or address, this becomes just another one of her empty obsessions.

To make this turn of events even more heart-rending for Blanche, she had confessed to Mitch that her late husband killed himself after she discovered him having sex with another man. She never recovered from the isolation and depression she suffered since that betrayal.

Stanley is only too happy to revel that Blanche is not as innocently refined as she would like people to believe. In fact, back home she was the town tramp, residing in a seedy hotel.

Blanche's drinking increases and she mentally descends into a state of depression. When Stella goes into labour and Stanley and Blanche are alone in the cramped apartment, they have an argument. Stanley takes advantage of his sister-in-law's fragile state, and she is unable to fight him off.

When Blance reveals to Stella what Stanley has done, Stella refuses to believe her and decides that her sister needs care at a mental institution. She breaks down, however, when she witnesses Blanche's reaction to yet another betrayal, this time at her sister's hands.

It's too late, and Stanley leads Stella off to give her the only kind of comfort of which he's capable.