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Tuesday, June 28, 2005
An up and down ‘Streetcar’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
THEATER REVIEW: “A Streetcar Named Desire.” Through Aug. 6.
When Stanley and Stella retire to bed, they paw and pant on a giant white mattress that dominates the stage, if not the whole world of the play.
When Blanche lures the shy paper boy into her sister’s apartment, she draws him forth like a flame sucking all the oxygen out of the room. “You make my mouth water,” she tells him in a state of ecstasy that foreshadows her undoing.
But we’re sorry to tell you, honey lamb, that Georgia Shakespeare’s take on the suggestively titled, sexually charged “A Streetcar Named Desire” is not nearly as provocative as these titillating scenes might suggest.
You’ll probably need a stronger tonic than lemon Coke “with plenty of crushed ice” to brace you for director Karen Robinson’s frustratingly uneven treatment of Williams’ 1947 tragedy about the passion and brutality of the human heart. Though it pays off in the end, you might find yourself sitting through the first act wondering why the drama feels so remote, the humor so strained and the essential music of the whole affair so understated.
Carolyn Cook finds the erotic side of Blanche, and the heartbreak, but she’s never as funny as she should be in the crucial early scenes, which open, strangely enough, with Stella (Courtney Patterson) and Stanley (Daniel May) taking turns galloping offstage.
To her credit, Patterson brings out the strength of Stella —- and her conflicts. This is a woman who has to defend Blanche from the brutish Stanley, then acquiesce in putting her sister away. Patterson imbues her character with a mixture of courage and compassion that’s genuinely affecting.
Also impressive are Allen O’Reilly (as Mitch) and Crystal Dickinson and Brandon Dirden as upstairs couple Eunice and Steve. O’Reilly summons the sweetness and loneliness of Mitch (though I wish he’d stop saying “Mudder” for “Mother”). As the young newsboy, Stanton Nash overcomes the awkwardness of his character’s situation with forward-leaning curiosity and desire.
For all his greatness, Williams is not a fail-safe writer, and a bad production of “Streetcar” can turn into hysteria and caricature. So on the one hand, you applaud this ensemble for exerting some control, but on the other, you find yourself wishing for more. Cook’s failure to exploit the juicy role of Blanche left me wondering more about the director’s choices than the actress’s.
And what about Stanley Kowalski’s famous animal magnetism and his plaintive cries for Stel-laaaaa? May can curl his mouth into a snarl, but he’s a bit too likable for the part. Betcha didn’t think that about Brando.
Some of the design decisions were just as perplexing. Though Williams requires the scenery to be at once intimate and panoramic, Leslie Taylor’s sets seemed to recede into the vast emptiness of the space. Liz Lee’s lighting was often so murky you couldn’t see the actors’ faces, and Clay Benning’s jazz-club soundscape didn’t always match the downbeat sadness of Williams’ language.
In the end, this “Streetcar” isn’t so much a failure as a disappointment. As Blanche whiles away the time in the bathtub like the Marquis de Sade, we glimpse her arms through the gauzy set, and we hear her terror in the way she sings. But only rarely in this teasing production do we feel the steam.
THE VERDICT: Too smooth a ride.
THE 411: “A Streetcar Named Desire.” 8 p.m. today-Wednesday. 8 p.m. Saturday and other dates through Aug. 6. In repertory with “The Comedy of Errors” and “The Cherry Orchard,” which opens July 8. $10-$35. Georgia Shakespeare, Conant Performing Arts Center, Oglethorpe University, 4484 Peachtree Road, Atlanta. 404-264-0020, www.gashakespeare.org.
