A Streetcar Named Desire

A Streetcar Named Desire
By Tennessee Williams. Black Swan State Theatre Company. Directed by Kate Cherry. Heath Ledger Theatre, State Theatre Centre of Western Australia, Perth, WA, 15 Mar to 6 Apr, 2014

Such is the buzz around A Streetcar Named Desire, that excellent ticket sales have led to the scheduling of additional shows, even before the official opening night

Importing leading actors from the eastern states always carries an element of controversy, but in the case of Sigrid Thornton playing the central role of Blanche Dubois, it would certainly be justified. Her performance is beautiful and she gives her all to the performance, looking quite spent by the curtain call. Utterly captivating, her multi-layered performance overrides any suggestion of stunt casting and the show would be worth seeing for her performance alone.

Excellent performances too in the other major roles. Jo Morris is a really likeable Stella Kowalski and her torn loyalties between her sister and husband is superbly played, Luke Hewitt is great as Harold Mitchell, love interest for Blanche and Nathaniel Dean is a strong and interesting Stanley.

The supporting roles range from "blink and you miss them" to reasonable size, but all are nicely cast and very well played.

Creatively, this is a beautifully designed production. Set and costume designer Christina Smith has created a set that manages to feel cramped and shabby on the generous Heath Ledger stage, using the full height of the stage, while her costumes tell stories about every character. Matt Scott's lighting superbly captures evenings in Louisiana, while Ben Collins' sound design incorporated the jazz tones of a lone saxophonist (the designer himself), an interesting infusion of mood and place.

This production does feel a little languid and at times the pace seemed a little slow. This could be the combined effect of lengthened southern vowels, the hypnotic effect of nicely recreating a New Orleans summer and the fact that this is a very long play, but it did run a little longer than advertised, so it probably is running a little slower than ideal. Also, while the accents were superbly recreated, it was obvious that some audience members were having trouble understanding everything, especially when there were added challenges such as underscoring or streetcar noise.

A Streetcar Named Desireis a nicely polished and very well acted production that deserves its warm reception and popularity.

Kimberley Shaw

Images: (top) Alison van Reeken, Rhoda Lopez, Luke Hewitt, Steve Turner, Benj D'Addario and Sigrid Thornton & (lower) Sigrid Thornton in A Streetcar Named Desire. Photos by Gary Marsh

Subscribe to our E-Newsletter, buy our latest print edition or find a Performing Arts book at Book Nook.