A Streetcar Named Desire

A Streetcar Named 'Desire'

" "A Streetcar Named 'Desire'" is one of the most recognised plays in

theatrical cinema, lately. I saw it very recently, when the production

was held in the prestigious "National Theatre," Central London. There

is also the 'classic hit' movie which is based upon the play. It was

first written and produced in 1951 and has the same title. During that

period, people were not allowed to mention anything involving sexual

or racist discrimination, and as this was one of the major laws, some

scenes in the movie were adapted, deliberately.

The first item on the stage, which abruptly caught my attention, was

that it revolved. I was getting excited as I had never seen one of

these before, but when the show commenced, it came to my realisation

that the four to five different stage settings had a similar

atmosphere to each other. It was the kind of surrounding you would

find in a loud, disruptive, filthy and rough town. It seemed as if the

neighbourhood wasn't quiet and peaceful, because people were sitting

on benches, talking freely on the spiral staircase and their

lifestyles appeared happy enough in Elysian Fields, a small (possibly

fictional) town in the state of New Orleans, U.S.A. Coming to think of

it, it reminds me that the fake American accent was exaggerated and

easy to recognise - it was imitated very poorly!

The first scene began with a famous Hollywood actress - Glenn Close -

who plays the leading role of "Blanche Du Bois". She was a young woman

who had run-away from her home, "Belle Reve" in Laurel (Mississippi),

because her past had degraded her badly in the local community.

Blanche decides to visit her younger sister, "Stella Kowalski", (Essie

Davis) who lives with her husband, "Stanley Kowalski" (Iain Glen).

However, Blanche does not personally know Stanley, but when she does,

things begin to go haywire in the ground floor apartment. THIS is

where the conflict starts, the reason being that Blanche's history

involves prostitution. It has a major link to Stella and Stanley's

relationship, and the key theme of sexuality is successfully

transmitted in "Streetcar", just as the respected playwright,

Tennessee Williams - born on March 26th 1911 - intended to do so.

In this play, I thought that the number of characters was restricted,

so the audience tended to focus on each actor's personality and

behaviour (within their role) more than they would normally. The

audience generally consisted of middle-aged and above adults, although

there was a minority of youngsters, too.

Stella Kowalski is a man who is out of control with his wife and his