A Streetcar Named Desire (review)

The 2010 Writers' Theatre revival of A Streetcar Named Desire, presented in the Chicago suburb of Glencoe, arrived on the scene in the immediate afterglow of the critically acclaimed and soldout limited US run of the Sydney Theatre Company's production of the play starring Cate Blanchett as Blanche DuBois. The Sydney production, directed by Liv Ullmann, was universally praised, and critics particularly singled out Blanchett's performance as revelatory and nearly definitive. With Ullmann's direction and Blanchett's performance appearing on everyone's "Best of 2009" lists, the production generated tremendous media attention and enthusiastic talk of an extended Broadway run, in part because of the artistic name recognition of its collaborators and the significance of its hosting theatres: the Brooklyn Academy of Music and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Given the intense critical and commercial success of this production, it seemed unlikely that the 2010 season would produce yet another revival of Streetcar that would be of such significance.

Enter David Cromer, the celebrated Chicago-based director. Cromer, who has built a reputation for staging intelligent and insightful interpretations of twentieth-century American plays, including Thornton Wilder's Our Town and Elmer Rice's The Adding Machine—to name only two of his most acclaimed revivals recently presented in New York—returned to Chicago and the Writers' Theatre, with which he has long been affiliated, to reexamine the Williams classic. Cromer's Streetcar, cast with first-rate Chicago actors, kept its focus on the play while artfully introducing unexpected though thoroughly welcome elements of theatrical simplicity. The contrast with the touring Sydney revival, which did not play in Chicago, was striking. While both productions showcased Williams's exquisite poetic language and compelling dramaturgy and provided nuanced interpretations of the character of Blanche Dubois, the simplicity of Cromer's staging created a sense of intimacy that is nearly impossible with large-scale productions of the play. Cromer's scaled-down Streetcar provided a more concentrated theatrical experience for the audience.

The first theatrically innovative moment in Cromer's production occurred when we entered the theatre. Cromer staged Streetcar in a three-quarter theatre in the round. In order to enter the space, one needed to pass through the Kowalskis' bathroom. Audiences walked through the door and into Stanley and Stella's apartment before being seated. The realistic set-to-scale design replicated a cramped two-room row apartment. The offstage bathroom led directly into a small bedroom, which itself was off the kitchen area. It was impossible not to feel intrusive both in terms of the actors' performing space and the characters' living quarters. Set designer Collette Pollard effectively decorated the space to convey the historical period, local environment, and class status of the occupants. The basic yellow and steel Formica table, Stanley's military-like standing locker, the naked lightbulbs, the flimsy curtain separating the two small rooms—each of these design choices provoked Blanche's initial shock at Stella's current living situation: "Only Poe! Only Mr. Edgar Allen Poe!—could do it justice!" The low ceiling gave the sense that Steve and Eunice, the upstairs neighbors, were literally right on top of them.

The production's soundscape, which included the audience's own rumblings, made the 108-seat theatre an extension of the neighborhood of Elysian Fields. Throughout the production, we heard what the characters heard: the screeching sound of the train, the jazz-tinged music of the French Quarter, the endless hum of neighbors and passersby. My friend Riley and I happened to be seated in the first row, directly in front of the bed, which was only inches away from our seats. If the presence of the upstairs neighbors was often heard or assumed, it seemed that Riley and I were the neighbors next door. This intrusion into personal space made it seem like it wasn't just Blanche who was crowding the tight Kowalski household—we in the audience were also. Likewise, the proximity of the actors to the audience in the...