Written by Tennessee Williams
By Melbourne Theatre Company
At Playhouse Theatre, Arts Centre Melbourne until 17 August 2024
Reviewer: Kate Herbert
Stars: ***&1/2
This review is published only on this blog. I’ll present a radio review on Arts Weekly on 3MBS on Sat 20 July 2024. KH
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| Nikki Shiels A Streetcar Named Desire - Photo Pia Johnson |
Anne-Louise Sarks’ production for MTC alters the tone and temperature of the play from its most common interpretations. Blanche Dubois is the core of the play as she descends into mental chaos. In this production, Nikki Shiels’ compelling performance of this challenging role is nuanced and complex and Shiels uses the musicality of her vocal range to shift Blanche’s emotional temperature.
Blanche is a former privileged Southern belle who suffered the loss of her formerly wealthy family’s home after the profligate spending of her male relatives.
She is deeply disturbed, fearful and lives behind a veil of lies, embellishments and self-deception, representing herself as a proper, cultured, educated, sober and chaste lady. In reality, she exists in a cloud of booze, genteel poverty and secret ‘intimacies’ with strangers.
When Blanche escapes her hometown and her damaged reputation to live with her married sister Stella (Michelle Lim Davidson) in a shabby two-room apartment in New Orleans, her world comes crashing down and she descends into delusion and a total mental breakdown by the end of the play. Her exit is one of the most famous lines from the play: “I have always relied on the kindness of strangers.”
Blanche may be a Southern belle with delicate sensibilities, but she has fallen far from her own standards in order to survive in a world outside her control. Shiels’ Blanche is more overtly and consciously manipulative and controlling than the usual interpretation of the character.
The ending of the play loses its tragic focus when Blanche walks out of the flat under her own steam, determined and in control rather than delusional and shattered. She is depicted as fearful of Stanley after he sexually assaults her, which is reasonable and real. However, to be true to Williams’ play, Blanche could be far more broken, having lost her grip on reality.
The casting of certain roles works against the play’s intentions at times: Blanche’s benign suitor, Mitch (Steve Mouzakis), describes himself as 6ft 1in, 270 pounds and muscled, but the actor is the opposite; Mark Leonard Winter captures Stanley’s roughness and toughness, but he is less imposing, lusty and overpowering and his boyish buoyancy works against the sense of danger in the man; Davidson’s Stella could be more sensual, passionate and doting to make sense of her obsession with Stanley and her blindness to his faults.
There could be a stronger sense of the passion between Stella and Stanley, the sweltering heat and claustrophobic quality in the apartment and more clarity and tragedy in Blanches’ escalating delusions.
The upstairs neighbours appear frequently in windows, giving some sense of the claustrophobic environment of Stella and Stanley’s flat, but they distract from the main narrative. The appearance of a guitarist/singer upstairs is a bizarre inclusion, and the wandering woman in mourning is another oddity.
Despite its drawbacks, this is an interesting production that relies heavily on Shiels’ compelling portrayal of Blanche Dubois.
By: Kate Herbert.
CAST
Gee
Gee / Nurse
Gabriella Barbagallo
Young Collector / Doctor Kaya Byrne
Stella Michelle Lim Davidson
Pablo Stephen Lopez
Mitch Steve Mouzakis
Flower Seller Veronica Pena Negrette
Blanche Nikki Shiels
Eunice Katherine Tonkin
Stanley Mark Leonard Winter
Steve Gareth Yuen
CREATIVE TEAM
Director Anne-Louise Sarks
Set & Costume Designer Mel Page
Lighting Designer Niklas Pajanti
Music Stefan Gregory
Intimacy Coordinator Amy Cater
Voice & Dialect Coach Geraldine Cook-Dafner
Fight Director Nigel Poulton
Assistant Director Joe Paradise Lui
Assistant Set & Costume Designer Bianca Pardo
Stage Manager Pippa Wright
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