Most people will know Tennessee Williams’ play “A Streetcar
Named Desire” from the film starring Marlon Brando as the sexually overpowering
Stanley Kowalski. But Sasha Paul’s
production for Dramatic Productions at Poole Lighthouse Studio shifts the audience’s
sympathies back to that of his sister-in-law, the delusional, mentally fragile
Blance Dubois. In this production
Kowalski is played with a grown up, intelligent intensity by Leigh Hayward that
distances him admirably from the brutish Brando image and, while there is yet much
chemistry to be explored between him and Blanche, last night there was enough
simmering tension to make this relationship begin to pop and spin. The setting of the piece, the lower working
class area of New Orleans adds to the heat and tension and the whole cast works
hard to underline this atmosphere of claustrophobic intensity particularly the
ebullient Tara Dominick as Eunice, Celeste Engel as Missy and the members of
Stanley’s poker school:Jamie Hill, Sean Pogmore and Steve McCarten who plays
the disappointed Mitch with an effective puzzlement .
But at the heart of the play is the character of Blanche. Nicole
Faraday portrays her to aching effect with a desperation that shows the lines
under the makeup of the woman fast approaching middle age and with a hinterland
of failed marriage and a long trail of affairs. This part is one of the great challenges
for an actress in portraying a woman who is in such denial about her past that
we in the audience cannot decide whether she is an accomplished liar or completely
mad and Nicole drags us through that experience with consummate skill. The
final scene in which she is led off to an asylum is chillingly gripping. The other protagonist is Blanche’s sister and
Stanley’s wife Stella played here with spirit by Emma Stephens. This is another challenging role as Stella has
to appear timid and supportive whilst providing enough reality and power to
balance the fizzing emotions of the rest of the characters. Her wretchedness at the denouement is
heartbreaking.
The cast took a little while to get going and, initially,
some of the vocal production was not crisp enough in the unforgiving acoustic
of the Studio but once it was underway this production had the power to shock. Sasha has assembled a hard working and
effective ensemble including stalwarts Frank Holden and Julia Savill delivering
fine cameos as the Doctor and Nurse who come to lead Blanche away and Peter
Fellows as the Young Collector. In these
straitened times we will see fewer of the classics that require this size cast and
Dramatic Productions must be congratulated for tackling this big play head on.
One thing we should all do is to urge the Lighthouse
management to launch an appeal for a refurbishment of the studio. The ghastly, noisy bleachers are
uncomfortable and disturbing to the action, the echoing wooden stage floor is
not suitable for professional plays. And
we all know the back stage is simply not good enough.
From Wednesday 12th October to Saturday 15th at 7.30 with
matinees on Thursday and Saturday at 2.30.
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