Presented by Next Stage Theatre Company
Sunday 6th - Thursday 10th August 8:00pm
Matinee Tuesday 8th August 2:30pm
Matinee Thursday 10th August 2:30pm
Tennessee Williams’ masterpiece set in the jazz-soaked streets of New Orleans is a powerful and iconic portrayal of love, lust and loneliness.
The fragile Blanche comes to stay with her sister Stella and husband Stanley. Amazed at their frugal lifestyle and Stella's dependence on her chauvinistic husband, Blanche is seemingly unaware of the unsettling affect her presence has upon the couple.
Drawn like a moth to a flame Blanche is both attracted and repelled by Stanley. She watches as he and his friends play poker during the hot New Orleans nights, and Stella grows big with Stanley's child. But, in a city of winners and losers, it is Blanche who ultimately pays the highest stake of all.
Since its inception in 1994 Next Stage Theatre Company has achieved an enviable reputation for its interpretations of Tennessee Williams’ works. On this, the company’s 12th visit, Next Stage is delighted to bring A Streetcar Named Desire to The Minack stage. It will be the first time that this iconic American masterpiece – heralded as one of the “greatest plays of the twentieth century” – has been produced at The Minack.
Review by Jenni Balow
A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE by TENNESSEE WILLIAMS
NEXT STAGE THEATRE COMPANY
AT THE MINACK
Desperate anxiety, insecurity and frustration creates an almost touchable tension in the heat of a cramped New Orleans apartment where there is not a drop of Southern comfort, despite the liquor that fuels the lives of its unhappy occupants.
Small wonder that this searing drama had never been performed at the Minack before the brave decision by director and set designer Ann Ellison and the Next Stage Theatre Company from Bath, to put on this close to three hour long production in the open air.
They were rewarded by fair weather for the opening night, missing the ravages of Storm Antoni by a matter of hours.
And their audience was instantly engaged by the stage presence of Hayley Fitton-Cook playing the nervy, neurotic, self-absorbed Blanche DuBois, who makes an entrance dressed immaculately in cream silk, contrasting with the scruffiness of the big city apartment, the scream of the streetcar brakes, and the dubious characters in the adjoining jazz bar.
She's so prim and proper in her little-girl white gloves, so determinedly classy, with a sexy Southern belle drawl, but she is constantly checking her make-up in a mirror - is she also looking for the cracks in her character and past, that will surely emerge?
It might be a role made in heaven, but it demands so much of its actor, who rarely leaves the stage, and must run through every emotion, from joy to the utter despondency of her fragile mental health.
Hayley manages it with an impressive stamina and sureness that matches the mood of this production. It simmers. The actions speak for themselves.
Tennessee Williams wrote this masterpiece in 1947, and it later became one of the most acclaimed films in history, with the then virtually unknown Marlon Brando starring alongside Vivien Leigh.
The latest West End revival of the play starred Paul Mescal, playing the angry Stanley, husband of Blanche's sister Stella. He has one or two shortcomings involving late night drinking and poker. Nevertheless, the two have rubbed along fairly well, until "visiting royalty" creates a taught relationship triangle.
In this production, Mayur Bhatt might be playing a brute, but his sensitivity between the violent outbursts is touching, and Perrine Maillot, very convincing as the long-suffering Stella, adds much-needed emotional balance to the incendiary household.
The atmosphere might be heavy, but Kes Joffe as a charity collector who finds himself being seduced by a much-older woman, gives a delightfully diffident performance to make us smile.
He also steps into the 1940s Four Deuces bar to join the musicians, pianist Christine Anderson, guitarist and vocalist Martin Allsop and first-timer and singer Tiana James, who quicken the increasingly brooding atmosphere with the jazz and blues standards that made the French Quarter famous at the time.
They could have been given a higher profile and more of the spotlight - they deserved it.
Jonathan Taft is sincere in his role as the would-be suitor, Mitch, who is prepared to suffer the whims and fantasies of Blanche, up to a point, and Claire Rumball and Lucas Sunderland as the noisy neighbours, complete the cast with Judy Brett, and Brian Fisher who also built the set screen and railings.
Blanche's trunk, full of delicious feather boas, furs and floaty frocks was assembled by Vanessa Bishop and Bristol Costume Services, all lit by Kris Nuttall, with sound by Toby Lewis-Atwell.
The wisdom of staging such a long and demanding drama in a theatre that is so open to the elements will be debated, but it does deliver, given fair winds and following seas during this capricious summer.
Jenni Balow - Minack Reviewer
Dress Rehearsal Photos
