A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE

 

A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams. 

Directed by Anne Somes. Associate director Dr. Cate Clelland. Set design. Dr. Cate Clelland and Ron Abrahams. Costume design Fiona Leach. Lighting design Craig Muller. Sound design Neville Pye. Stage manager Maggie Hawkins. Sound and lighting operator Maggie Hawkins. Vocal and dialect coach Sarah Chalmers. Intimacy coordinator Karen Vickery. Marketing direcvtor Olivia Wenholz. Promotional photography. Janelle McMenamin. Production photography Jane Duong. Free Rain Theatre Company. ACT HUB. June 20-29

 

Reviewed by Peter Wilkins

 

Meaghan Stewart as Stella. Tim Stiles as Steve, Lachlan Elderton as Pablo,Alex Hoskisson as Stanley,
Lachlan Ruffy as Mitch, Amy Kowalczuk as Blanche in A Streetcar Named Desire

Director Anne Somes and Associate director Dr. Cate Clelland’s casting of Free Rain’s A Streetcar Named Desire is nothing short of inspired.  Tennessee Williams is the actor’s playwright, penetrating the very soul and psyche of his characters. His writing probes the psychology of his characters, exposing their nature with such stark realism that we are transfixed by Blanche Dubois’ agonizing vulnerability, sister Stella’s innocent love and loyalty and Stanley Kowalski’s disturbing brutishness. In Free Rain’s superbly staged production of Williams’s masterpiece every moment draws forth the tensions that are exposed by Blanche’s arrival at the New Orleans home of her sister and Stella’s American born Polish husband. From the very moment that Amy Kowalczuk enters the stage we sense a fragility, a cautious trepidation that hints at an inner fear as she approaches the tenement Hers is a performance of such extraordinary complexity, spiralling into a vortex of delusion, alcoholism and self-destruction. Kowalczuk traverses Blanche’s desperate search for love and kindness to escape the loneliness that consumes her and which she seeks to expunge in the arms of Stanley’s poker-playing friend Mitch (played with sensitivity by Lachlan Ruffy). As Blanche seeks absolution from the guilt she feels at her gay husband’s suicide, so too does Williams seek to absolve himself of the guilt-ridden responsibility for his sister’s suicide. It is a guilt, drowned in alcohol and escaped by lies and illusion that can only be resolved by Blanche’s committal to an institution. Kowalczuk’s final descent is riveting, gut wrenching and possessed of pathos and we are left consumed with empathy for Blanche’s cruel fate. Kowalczuk’s Blanche is like a fiery comet blazing across Canberra’s theatrical sky.

Amy Kowalczuk as Blanche Dubois, Meaghan Stewart as Stella Kowalski

Meaghan Stewart’s performance of Stella perfectly captures the sister’s conflicting allegiance to the elder sister she loves and the common husband she adores. Stewart, usually associated with more brittle edged roles has in this sensitively nuanced performance demonstrated her versatility and honest interpretation of Stella’s foil to Blanche’s neurosis.  She too is drawn irrevocably into the conflicts that disrupt the earlier balanced and simple circumstances of her life. Her grief at Blanche’s removal at the end of the play, which she has instigated is heart breaking. Stewart excels at playing the guilt of her action and her eventual choice between her husband and child and her sister’s welfare.

Marlon Brando’s wail of remorse as he cries “Stella!” for forgiveness has been immortalized on film and in the western theatrical canon. It is the moment when Williams shows us that even this brutish, bestial man fights against his vulnerable nature. In Free Rain’s production Alex Hoskisson presents a performance that is compelling, dangerous and unpredictably volatile. Hoskisson’s brooding anger at the poker table as he loses at cards is a time bomb that can only be released in an explosive outburst of rage against any weakness. Hoskisson’s performance as Stanley is titanic. He is a creature of the flesh, instinctive, impulsive, both violent when aroused and sexually animalistic, untamed and almighty. “I am the king” he screams. And yet, Hoskisson captures the innate intelligence of Stanley with devastating consequence when he uncovers the truth of Blanche’s fantasies and the entitlement proscribed by the Napoleonic Code in the state of Louisiana. The hold that Hoskisson has on his audience is magnetic. We wait in curious anticipation for Stanley’s reaction, shocked by his violence against Stella and repulsed by his rape of Blanche.

Alex Hoskisson as Stanley. Meaghan Stewart as Stella

A Streetcar Named Desire is essentially a saga revolving around three family members. We are inextricably entwined in the performances of Kowalczuk’s Blanche, Stewart’s Stella and Hoskisson’s Stanley. However, Williams is too good a writer to ignore the characters that contribute to the drama that unfolds in Stanley and Stella’s plain New Orleans apartment. Every character is drawn by Williams to outline aspects of the three major characters’ story. Lachlan Ruffy’s Mitch is pivotal to Blanche’s prospect of salvation and inevitable decline. He is unwittingly her real life saviour who also condemns her to her damnation. Ruffy plays Mitch with naïve honesty that makes the character even more significant in the derailment of Blanche’s streetcar of desire to the track followed by the other streetcar Cemeteries.

Somes and Clelland have created an ensemble where every role is significant in contributing to Blanche’s final destination. Apartment owners Steve Hubbel (Tim Stiles) and Eunice Hubbel (Sarah Hull) are plain folk living out the lives of ordinary people – honest, hard-working and part of Stella and Stanley’s world. Pablo Gonzalez (Lachlan Elderton) offers a brief glimpse of New Orleans’ Latin American society. James Morgan gives a gauche performance as the young collector for the Evening Star who awkwardly confronts Blanche’s seductive wiles. The multicultural nature of the community is also depicted in the performances of Rina Onorato as the Mexican woman and Rica Oyollo and Mercy Lelei alternate in the role of a Negro woman. David Bennett and Olivia Wenholz arrive at the close of the play as the doctor and matron to take Blanche away. This tragic conclusion to Blanche’s  journey provides ironic comfort as she says “I have always relied on the kindness of strangers” leaving a wailing sister and the normal resumption of the usual poker game.

A Streetcar Named Desire is a tragedy of a time when there was no care for mental health sufferers or domestic abuse victims.  Free Rain’s illuminating and powerful production reminds us of the advances made since Blanche was committed and Stanley lashed out in anger. It is also Williams’s desperate plea for understanding, compassion and a better life. Free Rain’s production of A Streetcar Named Desire at ACT HUB stands tall upon the shoulders, professional and amateur that have gone before. I write this on the day that its all too brief season comes to a unanimously praised close. I can only hope that Free Rain’s highlight of Canberra’s theatrical year will be revived in the not too distant future  for all Canberra theatregoers to see.