How will you spend your Thanksgiving break?
The Sydney Theatre Company's new production of "A Streetcar Named Desire" at the Brooklyn Academy of Music leaves much to be desired. While parts of the Tennessee Williams classic are innovative and refreshing, most of it falls flat.
Cate Blanchett is the big draw here, starring as one of the great female characters of theater, Blanche DuBois. Liv Ullmann, legendary Norwegian actress and muse of Ingmar Bergman, directs this version, which was first shown in Sydney and last month in Washington, D.C. Some of those Aussie accents slip through here and there amid the intended mix of Southern and American inflections.
Ullmann makes Blanche the undeniable center of the action, which is understandable: Blanchett is a commanding presence on both the stage and screen. But her portrayal of Blanche lacks the desperation and delusion of the traditional character; she's too relatable and self-aware, even when she's shaking with frailty.
"Streetcar" is the tale of a fallen woman who has lost everything, including her childhood home ("Belle Rêve," a Mississippi plantation) and her dignity. Blanche comes with nothing but a trunk full of clothes, jewelry and some papers to her sister Stella's cramped home (Stella is played by the charismatic Robin McLeavy) in the French Quarter of late-1940s New Orleans. She is a pretty but fading Southern belle presenting herself as high-minded and refined — a cover that poorly conceals her alcoholism and tarnished sexual past.
Blanche doesn't fit in well in her squalid new surroundings. She clashes with Stella's working-class Polish-American husband Stanley Kowalski (Joel Edgerton), who's all animal magnetism and festering brutality. Stella is attracted to and even turned on by his abusive behavior, but the intense sexual chemistry on which their relationship is based is lacking here.
A major problem with this production is that Stanley is woefully miscast. Edgerton has mastered the violent part of the character, made painfully and acutely obvious by the play's thrilling climax, but he lacks Marlon Brando's charisma and does a poor impersonation.
Ullmann and set designer Ralph Myers must be commended for envisioning and creating a place completely devoid of romanticism. Rather than the original production's modest but pretty courtyard, this production features a cramped apartment. It makes Blanche look and feel even more out of place, widening the gap between her illusions and her reality.
Ulllmann, keeping with her centralization of Blanche, cuts out the play's final lines and leaves the audience with the heartbreaking punch of her ultimate fate. This takes away from a key aspect of Stella's relationship with Stanley, and the reality to which everyone must return. Blanche is undoubtedly a fascinating character, but the integrity of the play should not be ignored; the original ending enhances the themes laid out within. It's a disappointing conclusion to a disappointing production, one that is as wrapped up in its imaginary importance as Blanche is in her illusions.
"A Streetcar Named Desire" runs through Dec. 20 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Harvey Theater (30 Lafayette Ave.). Tickets are sold out, but partial view seats may be available and can be obtained by calling 718.636.4100.
