Rebecca Byrne | RATING: 3/5 STARS
Tennessee William’s cult classic play, ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ was revived on Monday night by the Scottish Rapture Theatre at East Kilbride Village Theatre.
The play follows the troubled Southern Belle, Blanche DuBois (Gina Isaac) as she leaves her small town in Mississippi after losing her childhood home, her teaching job and her status. She arrives in cosmopolitan New Orleans to move in with her sister Stella (Julia Taudevin). She soon encounters Stella’s husband, Stanley Kowalski – interestingly portrayed by black actor Joseph Black. Unrefined and impolite, Stanley intimidates Blanche and sees through her dainty and innocent exterior. Blanche’s flirtatious nature generates problems for Stella and Stanley, who already have a tumultuous and volatile relationship. Stanley’s growing hatred towards Blanche is partly fuelled by the aristocratic old-America she represents. Stanley views himself as a working class citizen, a part of the new and diverse America, whereas Blanche is solely an artefact of an extinct social class system.
The proximity of the three central characters, heightens tensions and fuels confrontation between each of them. Blanche immediately evokes the suspicion of Stanley, as he accuses Blanche of swindling both he and Stella out of their inheritance, Belle Reve. Stanley and Blanche’s hatred towards one another quickly cultivates, leading to the unmasking of their true characters. Stanley, a brutish man so filled with class resentment that he seeks to destroy and dismantle Blanche’s character and psyche. And Blanche, an ageing debutante so fragile and insecure that Stanley’s insufferable presence drives her into lunacy.
Gina Isaac’s ‘Blanche DuBois’ lit up the stage of an otherwise mediocre performance. Her character, an emotionally unstable woman, unable to face up to reality is portrayed excellently by Isaac. Giving a raw and emotional performance, she convinces the audience of her every word and poignantly displays the crippling effects of ill mental health and extreme self-consciousness.
Interestingly, Director Michael Eman cast two black males to portray the roles of Stanley and Mitch. This clever decision added another edge to the already gritty play and added an extra racial slant to Blanche’s elitist and prejudiced rants towards her brother- in-law as she refers to him in animalistic terms, calling him an ‘ape’ and a ‘pig’.
Although Isaac’s Blanche filled the stage with sentiment and energy, the other characters let down the play with strained accents and empty performances. At times, certain characters failed to convey a great deal of emotion and in scenes where anger and fear should have been displayed, the atmosphere was light and almost comical. The classic scene in which Stanley cries out for Stella felt completely forced and fake. Furthermore, the penultimate scene in which Stanley rapes Blanche should have been hard-hitting and emotional – whereas it completely lacked tension and emotion.
Overall, Gina Isaac gave a dazzling performance and Eman’s set, music and lighting were exceptional. Despite a few unauthentic and unemotional performances, the play effectively captured Tennessee William’s classic drama.
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