Gray 1
Dorian Gray
Mr. Davis
Theatre I, 5th hour
4 May 2019
Play Report #1
Title: A Streetcar Named Desire
Author: Tennessee Williams
List of Characters: Negro Woman, Eunice Hubbell, Stanley Kowalski, Stella Kowalski, Steve Hubbell, Harold Mitchell (Mitch), Mexican Woman, Blanche Dubois, Pablo Gonzales, A Young Collector, Nurse, Doctor, non speaking roles.
Setting: The setting of the play takes place mainly in the two rooms of the Kowalski apartment in the French Quarter of New Orleans; spring, summer, and early fall sometime in the 1950’s. The setting consists of a bedroom on stage left, which has very worn looking old furniture. To the left side of the bedroom are two steps leading up to a door, which is a bathroom and a curtained doorway that is a closet. There is a living room right of center stage, also containing furniture which has seen better days. An imaginary wall separates the bedroom and living room. Upstage, near center, a draw curtain is suspended beneath a broken fanlight in an arch above the doorway that joins the rooms. Upstage right, in the living room, a low door opens upon a roofless porch. Just to the right of the door, a spiral staircase leads to an apartment above. To the right of the spiral stairs and porch, an alleyway leads up to the street, which runs behind the tow rooms of the apartment. It can be seen when lighted through the back walls of the apartment. Music, notably jazz and piano, play a major role in setting the scene for various characters.
Theme: The author’s message is about escaping one’s past. Tennessee Williams is trying to illustrate that people, even when they try to run away and forget the past, which they cannot succeed at. Running from one’s past causes their world to become haunted and full of pain and despair. It is only through kindness and support that individuals can overcome their past and move onto a new life.
Williams also give a strong theme about the value of money. This play is about a woman who has tried to fill the “holes” in her life with material goods, men, and alcohol. There is a moral message about even after great loss, we must learn to fill our holes with thing that will help, not hurt us.
Plot: The play begins in a small New Orleans apartment building as Stanley Kowalski has gone bowling with his buddies. His wife, Stella, has gone along to watch. Not long after she leaves, Stella’s sister, Blanche, arrives for a visit, armed with boxes of fine clothing and jewelry and scoffing at the Kowalski’s rather humble home. Stella soon returns; both sisters seemed thrilled to see one another again. We soon learn that Blanche has lost the old homestead in Laurel, which has added on to her stress. Blanche is nervous, flighty, stressed, irritable, and seems to find comfort in alcohol. We also learn that Stella is pregnant.
Blanche decides to stay with her sister and brother-in-law for a while, and this is when the trouble begins. Blanche and Stanley are practically at one another’s throats almost every day, and Blanche turns her nose up at her sister’s friends, husband, home, and everything else. At the poker game, Blanche meets Mitch, and falls for him. This relationship continues to the point where the subject of marriage comes up, mostly to please Mitch’s dying mother.
The action rises as the truth about Blanche comes out. She has “visions” from the past, alcohol abuse, passion for younger (much younger) men, and a worry that she caused the death of her first lover at the age of sixteen. As Stanley grows increasingly impatient with Blanche, he decides to tell Mitch everything he has learned about her, lies and all. Mitch then stands Blanche up at her birthday dinner, where Stanley gives Blanche a bust ticket back home as a gift.
The play concludes as Stella goes into labor and is taken to a hospital, and Blanche and Stanley get into one last fight where Stanley rapes Blanche. When Stella comes home, Blanche is preparing to leave with a “millionaire from Texas” whom she claims has invited her on a cruises. When the doorbell rings, a doctor and nurse from a mental institution come to take Blanche away instead.
Subplots:
1. Stella’s pregnancy.
2. Blanche’s fascination for younger men.
3. Mitch’s dying mother
Recommendation: Although this is considered a classic tragedy of American theatre, I do not believe this play would be well received by the Waynesville audience due to the sexual overtones, particularly if a high school group presented it. However, I enjoyed reading it and thought it was an excellent script, which would be challenging and fun to perform as a college, community theatre, or professional production.