Review: Streetcar Named Desire in Cape Town, beautiful and stirring, excellent production of a brilliant play

Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire, first performed December 3, 1947, on Broadway is his most popular and most performed play. A stunning production is being staged by LAMTA in Cape Town at Theatre on the Bay, August 14 to 24, 2024 and stars award winning actress Emily Child as the lead Blanche DuBois and LAMTA students. Direction is by Chris Weare and design by Niall Griffin. LAMTA is the Luitingh Alexander Musical Theatre Academy. The raison d’être for LAMTA is as a musical theatre academy and here they have delivered a powerful production of A Streetcar Named Desire which is powered by the acting smarts of the students. There is music, live music performance (Alessia Gironi on sax and Amy Bright on clarinet) and three songs, sung beautifully a capella by Sasha Duffy. It is difficult to believe that this is a student production. Bravo to director Weare, Child as Blanche and the creative team, led by Griffin.

A Streetcar is set in the period after the War II. In the late 1940s, there was a sense of people re-calibrating their lives and this is key to Chris Weare’s positioning of the narrative. It resonates now – post pandemic- when we – and particularly young people are re-calibrating their lives. (See programme note). A Streetcar Named Desire is brimming with symbolism. As a portent of what is to come, in the beginning we see a breathless Blanche arrive at the home of her younger sister Stella in New Orleans in the French Quarter and gasps: “They told me to take a streetcar named Desire, and then transfer to one called Cemeteries and ride six blocks and get off at Elysian Fields.” Elysian Fields refers to the land of the dead in Greek mythology. Cemeteries is self-explanatory. Williams is telling us that this is tragedy. It is not going to end well but instead of being shrouded in death, this production is charged with the vitality of life, with a visceral energy which goes beyond the pinging of symbols. If you are not cognisant of the symbolism, it doesn’t matter.

Niall Griffin’s set design is beautiful with lush textures, conjuring up a charming decaying genteel poverty. Griffin: “Large wrap around balconies, towering wooden shutters and rich worn wooden floors.” These rooms on the French Quarter of New Orleans are far removed from the family plantation in Laurel in the South of Blanche and Stella. Belle Reeve is French for beautiful dream and Blanche desperately wants to hold onto that although Stella has made her peace with the past. New Orleans becomes a nightmare for Blanche but the pace is tempered by the youthful energy of the cast. It is hot and steamy. Sex, love and desire is in the air as everyone exists cheek by cheek in the quarter. They are to use a cliché, looking to re-invent themselves. The sound effects (Anton Luitingh and Chris Weare) conjures up the proximity of bodies, close to each other as the sound coils around the actors;  whistling of the trams and street noise. It is a vivid portrait of this world where dreams are being chased – and love.

Griffin’s design is masterful – with elements of abstraction and realism so that we can see through into the home. There is no wall between the interior and exterior but at the same time, the space is demarcated cleverly by Weare who has the actors spatially keeping to perimeters of outside and inside. A Streetcar can get messy and visually busy as there is so much happening. The street traffic, Stanley and his buddies playing poker, neighbors interrupting, the side plot with the romantic liaison between Blanche and Mitch but the set design and direction keeps each narrative deftly on track. There are no audio-visual effects, distracting from the action. It is theatre of the mind with physically charged performance taking centre stage. I love that.

In addition to the set, design Griffin has done the lighting, props and costumes. The costumes are his homage to New Orleans. He says: “The same year Streetcar was set and written, Christian Dior launched his first collection: the “New Look”, one of the most iconic moments in fashion history.  With my love and obsession with Dior plus the fact that Blanche DuBois (the female lead) being one of the most iconic female characters of stage and screen, is a character obsessed with fashion, I decided to merge the two icons by paying homage to Dior with Blanches’ bespoke costumes.” The costumes are alluring – with tailored nipped in waists, expertly fabricated shoes and coiffured hair (fabulous wigs by Griffin and Frances Moerdyk). The symbolism and references to Dior and the New Look is good to know but it doesn’t make this production stuffy. The wardrobe looks like it could be now – vintage/thrift store – just add white sneakers. It does not coming across as a staid post WW II period piece.

The cast is impressive.  For the most post the LAMTA students get the accents right and all them dive deep into the characters. Emily Child as Blanche is a knockout – as the unhinged Blanche who is flummoxed by everything that has happened to her and tries to construct a narrative which she can live with and delude herself into believing. I like it that Child never relinquishes her sense of dignity and purpose of Blanche. Blanche may have lost it, but she is not silly or ridiculous. It is convenient to shunt her into an asylum- a sad indictment on women who don’t toe the line and the inability of society to deal with mental health. This is Child’s first time playing the role and it is astounding to watch her as she brings so much tenderness and longing to Blanche in her delusions to be whole and her tenuous grip on reality.

Child’s co-performers are exceptional – way beyond what one would expect from students in their 20s as they bring gravitas, nuance and depth to their characters Dylan Janse van Rensburg plays Stanley Kowalski and Sarah Wolhunter plays Stella Kowalski. Van Rensburg channels some Marlon Brando and Jack Nicholson but makes this role his own as Stanley who is a thug in his treatment of women. He wants to be king of his castle: “…Every man’s a king – and I’m the King around here, and don’t you forget it”. Violence is his currency. Van Rensburg drapes his long limbs menacingly over the others – leering info their body space. The play resonates on terms of gender base violence with Stella plonked between the two narcissistic people in her life – her husband and sister. Wolhunter brings tremendous empathy to Stella as she huddles, protecting her unborn baby from her violent husband.

Towards the end Blanche, admits: “I don’t want realism. I want magic! Yes, yes, magic! I try to give that to people. I misrepresent things to them. I don’t tell the truth, I tell what ought to be truth. And if that is sinful, then let me be damned for it!” This production of A Streetcar is magical – with the glittering lights of the French Quarter beckoning; tailored Dior inspired stylish costumes, music as a refrain, lingering with the promise of romance and love in a hub where everything is possible as dreams are pursued.. Ahh, I love the wistful songs of the period, sung by Sasha Duffy: When The Saints Go Marching In (Louis Armstrong), A Kiss To Build A Dream On (Louis Armstrong) and St Louis Blues composed by W. C. Handy. I love, love LAMTA’s A Streetcar Named Desire. It is beautiful and stirring theatre – an excellent production of a brilliant play – which entertains and comes across as very contemporary and relatable.

✳ Featured image: Dylan Janse van Rensburg as Stanley Kowalski and Emily Child as Blanche DuBois in LAMTA’s production of ennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire,Theatre on the Bay, Camps Bay, Cape Town, August 14 to 24, 2024. Pic by Claude Bernado.