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鬲乇丕賲賵丕蹖蹖 亘賴 賳丕賲 賴賵爻
The Pulitzer Prize and Drama Critics Circle Award winning play鈥攔eissued with an introduction by Arthur Miller (Death of a Salesman and The Crucible), and Williams鈥� essay 鈥淭he World I Live In.鈥�
It is a very short list of 20th-century American plays that continue to have the same power and impact as when they first appeared鈥�57 years after its Broadway premiere, Tennessee Williams鈥� A Streetcar Named Desireis one of those plays. The story famously recounts how the faded and promiscuous Blanche DuBois is pushed over the edge by her sexy and brutal brother-in-law, Stanley Kowalski. Streetcar launched the careers of Marlon Brando, Jessica Tandy, Kim Hunter, and Karl Malden, and solidified the position of Tennessee Williams as one of the most important young playwrights of his generation, as well as that of Elia Kazan as the greatest American stage director of the 鈥�40s and 鈥�50s.
It is a very short list of 20th-century American plays that continue to have the same power and impact as when they first appeared鈥�57 years after its Broadway premiere, Tennessee Williams鈥� A Streetcar Named Desireis one of those plays. The story famously recounts how the faded and promiscuous Blanche DuBois is pushed over the edge by her sexy and brutal brother-in-law, Stanley Kowalski. Streetcar launched the careers of Marlon Brando, Jessica Tandy, Kim Hunter, and Karl Malden, and solidified the position of Tennessee Williams as one of the most important young playwrights of his generation, as well as that of Elia Kazan as the greatest American stage director of the 鈥�40s and 鈥�50s.
156 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1947
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About the author
Tennessee Williams
653听books3,554听followersThomas Lanier Williams III, better known by the nickname Tennessee Williams, was a major American playwright of the twentieth century who received many of the top theatrical awards for his work. He moved to New Orleans in 1939 and changed his name to "Tennessee," the state of his father's birth.
Raised in St. Louis, Missouri, after years of obscurity, at age 33 he became famous with the success of The Glass Menagerie (1944) in New York City. This play closely reflected his own unhappy family background. It was the first of a string of successes, including A Streetcar Named Desire (1947), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955), Sweet Bird of Youth (1959), and The Night of the Iguana (1961). With his later work, he attempted a new style that did not appeal to audiences. His drama A Streetcar Named Desire is often numbered on short lists of the finest American plays of the 20th century, alongside Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey into Night and Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman.
Much of Williams' most acclaimed work has been adapted for the cinema. He also wrote short stories, poetry, essays and a volume of memoirs. In 1979, four years before his death, Williams was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame.
From Wikipedia
Raised in St. Louis, Missouri, after years of obscurity, at age 33 he became famous with the success of The Glass Menagerie (1944) in New York City. This play closely reflected his own unhappy family background. It was the first of a string of successes, including A Streetcar Named Desire (1947), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955), Sweet Bird of Youth (1959), and The Night of the Iguana (1961). With his later work, he attempted a new style that did not appeal to audiences. His drama A Streetcar Named Desire is often numbered on short lists of the finest American plays of the 20th century, alongside Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey into Night and Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman.
Much of Williams' most acclaimed work has been adapted for the cinema. He also wrote short stories, poetry, essays and a volume of memoirs. In 1979, four years before his death, Williams was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame.
From Wikipedia
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 8,481 reviews
February 11, 2023
BLAAAAANCHE!
Pregnant Stella DuBois and common Stanley Kowalski live a tumultuous yet content and passionate life in a shabby two-room flat in New Orleans. That is until one day Stella鈥檚 older sister Blanche unexpectedly arrives with her belongings to spend some time. Her refined manners and extravagant personality hides more than it shows; something is off, and soon frictions begin to arise. Her troublesome past is not done with her yet.
I have to admit I originally wanted to read 鈥楢 street cat named Bob鈥�, but ultimately decided it was best to at least know first the origin of the pun. I do not regret it. An outstandingly dramatic short theatre play by master Tennessee Williams, justly deserving of the Pulitzer Prize. Not exactly a favorite, none of the characters are likable, and some parts are very hard to digest; yet there are some very powerful moments, tension, and a story that is more than memorable. Its legendary fame is not earned without reason. Recommendable, maybe even very.
Still remaining, the movie (1951)
-----------------------------------------------
PERSONAL NOTE :
[1947] [107p] [Theatre] [3.5] [Recommendable]
["STELLLAHHHHH!"] [鈥淭here鈥檚 so much-so much confusion in the world.鈥漖
-----------------------------------------------
隆叠尝础础础础础狈颁贬贰!
Embarazada Stella DuBois y com煤n Stanley Kowalski viven una tumultuosa pero contenta y apasionada vida en un precario departamento de dos habitaciones en Nueva Orleans. Esto es hasta que un d铆a Blanche, la hermana mayor de Stella, inesperadamente llega con sus pertenencias para pasar un tiempo. Su refinada forma de ser y su personalidad extravagante esconde mucho m谩s de lo que muestra; algo no cierra, y pronto las fricciones empiezan a surgir. Su problem谩tico pasado todav铆a no termin贸 con ella.
Debo admitir que originalmente quer铆a leer 鈥楿n gato callejero llamado Bob鈥�, pero al final decid铆 que lo mejor era al menos conocer el origen de la broma. No me arrepiento. Una sobresaliente dram谩tica corta obra de teatro por el maestro Tennessee William, justamente merecedora del Premio Pulitzer. No exactamente un favorito, ninguno de los personajes es entra帽able, y algunas partes son muy dif铆ciles de digerir; pero hay algunos momentos muy poderosos, tensi贸n, y una historia m谩s que memorable. Su legendaria fama no fue ganada sin raz贸n. Recomendable, tal vez muy.
Queda pendiente, la pel铆cula (1951)
-----------------------------------------------
NOTA PERSONAL :
[1947] [107p] [Teatro] [3.5] [Recomendable]
["!STELLLAHHHHH!"] [鈥淗ay tanta-tanta confusi贸n en el mundo.鈥漖
-----------------------------------------------
Pregnant Stella DuBois and common Stanley Kowalski live a tumultuous yet content and passionate life in a shabby two-room flat in New Orleans. That is until one day Stella鈥檚 older sister Blanche unexpectedly arrives with her belongings to spend some time. Her refined manners and extravagant personality hides more than it shows; something is off, and soon frictions begin to arise. Her troublesome past is not done with her yet.
I have to admit I originally wanted to read 鈥楢 street cat named Bob鈥�, but ultimately decided it was best to at least know first the origin of the pun. I do not regret it. An outstandingly dramatic short theatre play by master Tennessee Williams, justly deserving of the Pulitzer Prize. Not exactly a favorite, none of the characters are likable, and some parts are very hard to digest; yet there are some very powerful moments, tension, and a story that is more than memorable. Its legendary fame is not earned without reason. Recommendable, maybe even very.
Still remaining, the movie (1951)
-----------------------------------------------
PERSONAL NOTE :
[1947] [107p] [Theatre] [3.5] [Recommendable]
["STELLLAHHHHH!"] [鈥淭here鈥檚 so much-so much confusion in the world.鈥漖
-----------------------------------------------
隆叠尝础础础础础狈颁贬贰!
Embarazada Stella DuBois y com煤n Stanley Kowalski viven una tumultuosa pero contenta y apasionada vida en un precario departamento de dos habitaciones en Nueva Orleans. Esto es hasta que un d铆a Blanche, la hermana mayor de Stella, inesperadamente llega con sus pertenencias para pasar un tiempo. Su refinada forma de ser y su personalidad extravagante esconde mucho m谩s de lo que muestra; algo no cierra, y pronto las fricciones empiezan a surgir. Su problem谩tico pasado todav铆a no termin贸 con ella.
Debo admitir que originalmente quer铆a leer 鈥楿n gato callejero llamado Bob鈥�, pero al final decid铆 que lo mejor era al menos conocer el origen de la broma. No me arrepiento. Una sobresaliente dram谩tica corta obra de teatro por el maestro Tennessee William, justamente merecedora del Premio Pulitzer. No exactamente un favorito, ninguno de los personajes es entra帽able, y algunas partes son muy dif铆ciles de digerir; pero hay algunos momentos muy poderosos, tensi贸n, y una historia m谩s que memorable. Su legendaria fama no fue ganada sin raz贸n. Recomendable, tal vez muy.
Queda pendiente, la pel铆cula (1951)
-----------------------------------------------
NOTA PERSONAL :
[1947] [107p] [Teatro] [3.5] [Recomendable]
["!STELLLAHHHHH!"] [鈥淗ay tanta-tanta confusi贸n en el mundo.鈥漖
-----------------------------------------------
May 23, 2018
Whoa.
I did not consume this play as I was intended to. I mean, honestly, you're not supposed to read a play. Tell that to any high school English teacher ever, but still. Tennessee Williams didn't write this like "Hopefully in sixty years a girl will read this alone in her room in one sitting so she can fulfill her goal of reading a classic every month." That's not his ideal.
That being said.
THIS MADE ME FEEL SO MUCH.
A play is supposed to be acted, obviously. Reading it leads to a less emotional rendering, with less full characters, in an imagined version of what is supposed to be a concrete setting. It's a lesser experience - like reading a screenplay. (Cough cough, f*ck you JK Rowling, cough.)
And still this was incredible! Blanche and Stella and Mitch were heart-rending. There's so much tension here, and the revelations and the moments of climax and action are just unreal. I don't even know what to say beyond whoa.
Guess I should've stopped this review after the first word.
Bottom line: FANTASTIC FANTASTIC FANTASTIC. This reading-a-classic-a-month thing is the best thing I'm doing this year.
I did not consume this play as I was intended to. I mean, honestly, you're not supposed to read a play. Tell that to any high school English teacher ever, but still. Tennessee Williams didn't write this like "Hopefully in sixty years a girl will read this alone in her room in one sitting so she can fulfill her goal of reading a classic every month." That's not his ideal.
That being said.
THIS MADE ME FEEL SO MUCH.
A play is supposed to be acted, obviously. Reading it leads to a less emotional rendering, with less full characters, in an imagined version of what is supposed to be a concrete setting. It's a lesser experience - like reading a screenplay. (Cough cough, f*ck you JK Rowling, cough.)
And still this was incredible! Blanche and Stella and Mitch were heart-rending. There's so much tension here, and the revelations and the moments of climax and action are just unreal. I don't even know what to say beyond whoa.
Guess I should've stopped this review after the first word.
Bottom line: FANTASTIC FANTASTIC FANTASTIC. This reading-a-classic-a-month thing is the best thing I'm doing this year.
December 20, 2018
鈥淗e is of medium height, about five feet eight or nine, and strongly,鈥╟ompactly built. Animal joy in his being is implicit in all his movements and attitudes. Since 鈥╡arliest manhood the center of his life has been pleasure with women, the giving and taking of it,鈥� not with weak indulgence, dependency, but with the power and pride of a richly feathered male鈥╞ird among hens. Branching out from this complete and satisfying center are all the auxiliary 鈥╟hannels of his life, such as his heartiness with men, his appreciation of rough humor, his love of 鈥╣ood drink and food and games, his car, his radio, everything that is his, that bears his emblem of 鈥╰he gaudy seed-bearer. He sizes women up at a glance, with sexual classifications, crude images 鈥╢lashing into his mind and determining the way he smiles at them.鈥�
Stanley Kowalski is the male equivalent of Faulkner鈥檚 Dewey Dell who proclaims 鈥淚 feel like a wet seed wild in the hot blind earth鈥�. Here is raw, primal, lustful sexuality that pulses and seduces a reader (or audience).
鈥沦迟别濒濒-濒补丑丑丑丑丑!鈥欌赌�
The poker scene was made famous by Brando鈥檚 performance and Kazan鈥檚 brilliant direction, but before the 1951 award-winning film was Tennessee Williams鈥� masterful scene of primitive love and attraction.
鈥淚鈥檝e always depended on the kindness of strangers鈥�
Blanche DuBois is an archetypal feminine tragic figure on the literary scale with Hemingway鈥檚 Lady Brett. But whereas Brett is the domineering, tyrannical alpha female, Blanche鈥檚 contribution to our dramatic culture is of the damaged, broken woman, heir to an inheritance that is literally and metaphorically lost.
Tennessee Williams New Orleans play, with the 鈥渂lue piano鈥� and polka music playing in the background is one our most powerful dramas.
A must read, but like all plays, it must also be seen.
** 2018 - I watched the 1951 film recently and was again amazed at the theatrical tension the play produces, especially when acted out by such talented actors. Interestingly, and sadly, Vivian Leigh, who suffered from bipolar disorder, later in life had trouble distinguishing her real life from that of her character Blanche DuBois. Also, Leigh was paid more than Brando for her performance. Both had previously played these roles on the stage.
Stanley Kowalski is the male equivalent of Faulkner鈥檚 Dewey Dell who proclaims 鈥淚 feel like a wet seed wild in the hot blind earth鈥�. Here is raw, primal, lustful sexuality that pulses and seduces a reader (or audience).
鈥沦迟别濒濒-濒补丑丑丑丑丑!鈥欌赌�
The poker scene was made famous by Brando鈥檚 performance and Kazan鈥檚 brilliant direction, but before the 1951 award-winning film was Tennessee Williams鈥� masterful scene of primitive love and attraction.
鈥淚鈥檝e always depended on the kindness of strangers鈥�
Blanche DuBois is an archetypal feminine tragic figure on the literary scale with Hemingway鈥檚 Lady Brett. But whereas Brett is the domineering, tyrannical alpha female, Blanche鈥檚 contribution to our dramatic culture is of the damaged, broken woman, heir to an inheritance that is literally and metaphorically lost.
Tennessee Williams New Orleans play, with the 鈥渂lue piano鈥� and polka music playing in the background is one our most powerful dramas.
A must read, but like all plays, it must also be seen.
** 2018 - I watched the 1951 film recently and was again amazed at the theatrical tension the play produces, especially when acted out by such talented actors. Interestingly, and sadly, Vivian Leigh, who suffered from bipolar disorder, later in life had trouble distinguishing her real life from that of her character Blanche DuBois. Also, Leigh was paid more than Brando for her performance. Both had previously played these roles on the stage.
October 23, 2022
is a play set in New Orleans, from a period of social realism that could be described as a modern tragedy. The play follows two main protagonists, Blanche, and Stanley, husband of Blanche's sister Stella in a complex domestic conflict. The play is set in a period post-Great depression, describing the clash of social classes in new American society where previous segregation in wiped out by the Great depression and divided are forced to merge and live side by side. Stanley is a Polish self-made man, part of the working-class, while Blanche is a descendant of landowners in the Old South, so the tension between them is magnified by their social incompatibilities.
The psychological dichotomy between Blanche and Stella further intensifies the tension that culminates in the tragic act that causes Blanche's demise.
Looking through the lens of Jungian psychology Blanche is a typical representation of archetypal immature, wounded feminine. She is unable to cope with reality and truth, therefore, uses illusion, lies, and manipulation of seduction to get to her goal, which is marriage. In the idealized view of marriage, she wants a man to shield and save her from the reality of the loss and death of her husband, which she is incapable to handle by herself. Emotionally dependent, her regulation of feelings is so immature it is almost unexisting, obvious in her hysteric overreactions. Blanch is also unable to process her grief and address properly the mourning over her dead husband. Her sexuality is completely unconscious and ambivalent, acted out in two extremes, one of chastity and sexual repression and one of promiscuity in drunken sex with younger men, reflecting the fixation in the tragedy of her husband's death. She uses sexuality as another form of escapism from unpleasant, but in the process loses her family fortune, destroys her reputation and chance to live a respectful life she longs for.
"After the death of Allan- intimacies with strangers was all I seemed able to fill my heart with..."
Her inability to see the truth, adjust to reality and accept personal and social changes is the fatal flaw of the character that leads her to a tragic end.
Stanley, on the other hand, is a representation of archetypal immature masculine. He could be perceived as confident but is in fact arrogant and dependent on his tyranny. Stanley unconsciously sees Blanche as a threat to his power structure. He is judgemental, projective, and shames and belittles Blache with 鈥渢ruth鈥�. In his 鈥渜uest for absolute truth鈥�, he is equally deceitful as Blanche, as he uses the truth as another arsenal of weaponry of intimidation to assert control. He also does not shy away from using physical force on women as he has no capacity to regulate emotions and not act it out in a neurotic and violent way. He has something animalistic about him and his sexuality, once described by Blanch as 鈥漛rutal desire鈥�. He uses not only phallic power as a weapon to dominate and suppress the feminine, both in his wife Stella and even more so in Blanche. His sexuality is maybe not as unconscious as Blanche's, but equally destructive, as he does not use sexuality to escape reality as Blanch, but to bend reality to his will. Stanley's quest, in which he, in the end, succeeds is to destroy Blanche and cause her demise, and his motivation is unconscious hatred towards the feminine and everything else Blanche is symbolically representing.
Stanley and Blanche are equally driven by the desire that leads to destruction. Trapped in a cycle of violence and lust, both corrupted, immature, toxic, wounded and embedded in internal chaos and madness. The real inequality becomes evident in the difference with which society and their environment treat Blanche and Stanely. Blanche's flaws and madness make her unmarriable, and she is stripped of her worth and dignity, her reputation and sanity are destroyed. She ends up isolated and abandoned by all, even by her sister. In the culmination of her pain , she is put away in the mental institution and stigmatized once and for all as unstable and mentally ill.
Stanley's pathology, on the other hand, is not noticed at all by society. He remains well integrated, respected and loved man in the community, even though he beats and rapes women. He is not stripped of his reputation or dignity and continues his life as a married man with a child, even though his acts of destruction are far more insane and morally corrupted than Blanche's. The rights of being someone's partner in marriage and procreate are not taken away from him as they are from Blanche. He is not put in a mental institution and no one perceives him as mad or mentally unstable. This reinforces Foucault's very obvious suggestion that mental illness and 鈥渕adness鈥� are socially constructed.
The lack of sexual repression and free expression of desire which is in Stanley perceived as expectable and acceptable are in Blanche punished most extremely. That shows societal hypocrisy and gender discrepancy, distorted and unjust views on male and female sexuality, tailored to control women and suppress them in the free expression of their sexuality on the collective scale. Men oftentimes get to be unapologetically sexual while women rarely have that luxury without being stripped of their value and dignity.
Blanche and Stanley could be both easily diagnosed with personality disorder, and they both act out deep psychological pathology but one of them will be stigmatized by society, and one of them will even be accepted as normal, and even be praised by some for his strong masculinity. This is how gender inequality works, a lot of times it is not easily detected or perceived, hidden in the shadows of reaction patterns we are sometimes not even aware of.
The psychological dichotomy between Blanche and Stella further intensifies the tension that culminates in the tragic act that causes Blanche's demise.
Looking through the lens of Jungian psychology Blanche is a typical representation of archetypal immature, wounded feminine. She is unable to cope with reality and truth, therefore, uses illusion, lies, and manipulation of seduction to get to her goal, which is marriage. In the idealized view of marriage, she wants a man to shield and save her from the reality of the loss and death of her husband, which she is incapable to handle by herself. Emotionally dependent, her regulation of feelings is so immature it is almost unexisting, obvious in her hysteric overreactions. Blanch is also unable to process her grief and address properly the mourning over her dead husband. Her sexuality is completely unconscious and ambivalent, acted out in two extremes, one of chastity and sexual repression and one of promiscuity in drunken sex with younger men, reflecting the fixation in the tragedy of her husband's death. She uses sexuality as another form of escapism from unpleasant, but in the process loses her family fortune, destroys her reputation and chance to live a respectful life she longs for.
"After the death of Allan- intimacies with strangers was all I seemed able to fill my heart with..."
Her inability to see the truth, adjust to reality and accept personal and social changes is the fatal flaw of the character that leads her to a tragic end.
Stanley, on the other hand, is a representation of archetypal immature masculine. He could be perceived as confident but is in fact arrogant and dependent on his tyranny. Stanley unconsciously sees Blanche as a threat to his power structure. He is judgemental, projective, and shames and belittles Blache with 鈥渢ruth鈥�. In his 鈥渜uest for absolute truth鈥�, he is equally deceitful as Blanche, as he uses the truth as another arsenal of weaponry of intimidation to assert control. He also does not shy away from using physical force on women as he has no capacity to regulate emotions and not act it out in a neurotic and violent way. He has something animalistic about him and his sexuality, once described by Blanch as 鈥漛rutal desire鈥�. He uses not only phallic power as a weapon to dominate and suppress the feminine, both in his wife Stella and even more so in Blanche. His sexuality is maybe not as unconscious as Blanche's, but equally destructive, as he does not use sexuality to escape reality as Blanch, but to bend reality to his will. Stanley's quest, in which he, in the end, succeeds is to destroy Blanche and cause her demise, and his motivation is unconscious hatred towards the feminine and everything else Blanche is symbolically representing.
Stanley and Blanche are equally driven by the desire that leads to destruction. Trapped in a cycle of violence and lust, both corrupted, immature, toxic, wounded and embedded in internal chaos and madness. The real inequality becomes evident in the difference with which society and their environment treat Blanche and Stanely. Blanche's flaws and madness make her unmarriable, and she is stripped of her worth and dignity, her reputation and sanity are destroyed. She ends up isolated and abandoned by all, even by her sister. In the culmination of her pain , she is put away in the mental institution and stigmatized once and for all as unstable and mentally ill.
Stanley's pathology, on the other hand, is not noticed at all by society. He remains well integrated, respected and loved man in the community, even though he beats and rapes women. He is not stripped of his reputation or dignity and continues his life as a married man with a child, even though his acts of destruction are far more insane and morally corrupted than Blanche's. The rights of being someone's partner in marriage and procreate are not taken away from him as they are from Blanche. He is not put in a mental institution and no one perceives him as mad or mentally unstable. This reinforces Foucault's very obvious suggestion that mental illness and 鈥渕adness鈥� are socially constructed.
The lack of sexual repression and free expression of desire which is in Stanley perceived as expectable and acceptable are in Blanche punished most extremely. That shows societal hypocrisy and gender discrepancy, distorted and unjust views on male and female sexuality, tailored to control women and suppress them in the free expression of their sexuality on the collective scale. Men oftentimes get to be unapologetically sexual while women rarely have that luxury without being stripped of their value and dignity.
Blanche and Stanley could be both easily diagnosed with personality disorder, and they both act out deep psychological pathology but one of them will be stigmatized by society, and one of them will even be accepted as normal, and even be praised by some for his strong masculinity. This is how gender inequality works, a lot of times it is not easily detected or perceived, hidden in the shadows of reaction patterns we are sometimes not even aware of.
October 5, 2016
It is the steamy summer in New Orleans in the late 1940s. Old war buddies have gone to their weekly bowling league after work. Meanwhile, young brides pass the time in their two flat apartment while waiting for their husbands to return. It is amidst this backdrop that begins Tennessee Williams' classic play, A Streetcar Named Desire, which still stands the test of time today and became a classic film featuring Marlon Brando and Jessica Tandy. This steamy play ran the gamut of human emotions, and for this I rate it 4 stars.
Tennessee Williams introduced the world to characters who have become archetypes for the post-war 1940s. Stella Kowalski, a young bride expecting her first child, who is very much in love with her husband and submits to his every want and need. Her husband, Stanley Kowalski, a war veteran working in a supply company to provide for his wife, and still feeling the need to gather with the men bowling or playing poker after work. Harold Mitchell "Mitch" the bachelor son who looks after his sickly mother. And, of course, the sultry Blanche DuBois, Stella's sister of an undetermined age, the independent, modern woman, who also has a myriad of problems.
Blanche DuBois, fresh off of another failure, has taken a streetcar named Desire to spend the summer with Stella and Stanley Kowalski in their one bedroom apartment. Heightened sexually whereas Stella is submissive, there is obvious tension between Blanche and Stanley from the beginning, with Stella acting as a go between. Not only is there tension, Stanley immediately sees beyond Blanche's gaudy clothes and jewelry and sets out to investigate her past. With only a sheet separating their living arrangements in a sweltering summer, the tension continues to escalate throughout the play.
As Stanley discovers layer upon layer of Blanche's past, Stella is forced to choose between her dominate husband and sister. While very much in love with her husband, as she points out, she still feels a loyalty to her sister and to her past. She is appalled when her husband reveals that Blanche compromised her role as high school English teacher to engage in inappropriate relationships with her students. If this play had taken place thirty years later, I can believe that Stella would have done some digging of her own to clear Blanche's name. Yet, it is clear that Stella's loyalties lie with her husband, and that what makes the denouement of the play all the more shocking for me, as I am sure it did for many others as well.
Tennessee Williams went on to have a hall of fame career as a playwright, including the classics Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and The Glass Menagerie, which have been performed hundreds if not thousands of times over the years. He also was ahead of his time in Desire by discussing social issues such as homosexual relationships, domestic violence and a woman's monetary independence from her husband. While not my absolute favorite play, A Streetcar Named Desire introduced classic characters, and I look forward to seeing them portrayed on film.
Tennessee Williams introduced the world to characters who have become archetypes for the post-war 1940s. Stella Kowalski, a young bride expecting her first child, who is very much in love with her husband and submits to his every want and need. Her husband, Stanley Kowalski, a war veteran working in a supply company to provide for his wife, and still feeling the need to gather with the men bowling or playing poker after work. Harold Mitchell "Mitch" the bachelor son who looks after his sickly mother. And, of course, the sultry Blanche DuBois, Stella's sister of an undetermined age, the independent, modern woman, who also has a myriad of problems.
Blanche DuBois, fresh off of another failure, has taken a streetcar named Desire to spend the summer with Stella and Stanley Kowalski in their one bedroom apartment. Heightened sexually whereas Stella is submissive, there is obvious tension between Blanche and Stanley from the beginning, with Stella acting as a go between. Not only is there tension, Stanley immediately sees beyond Blanche's gaudy clothes and jewelry and sets out to investigate her past. With only a sheet separating their living arrangements in a sweltering summer, the tension continues to escalate throughout the play.
As Stanley discovers layer upon layer of Blanche's past, Stella is forced to choose between her dominate husband and sister. While very much in love with her husband, as she points out, she still feels a loyalty to her sister and to her past. She is appalled when her husband reveals that Blanche compromised her role as high school English teacher to engage in inappropriate relationships with her students. If this play had taken place thirty years later, I can believe that Stella would have done some digging of her own to clear Blanche's name. Yet, it is clear that Stella's loyalties lie with her husband, and that what makes the denouement of the play all the more shocking for me, as I am sure it did for many others as well.
Tennessee Williams went on to have a hall of fame career as a playwright, including the classics Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and The Glass Menagerie, which have been performed hundreds if not thousands of times over the years. He also was ahead of his time in Desire by discussing social issues such as homosexual relationships, domestic violence and a woman's monetary independence from her husband. While not my absolute favorite play, A Streetcar Named Desire introduced classic characters, and I look forward to seeing them portrayed on film.
February 2, 2022
A Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams
A Streetcar Named Desire is a 1947 play written by American playwright Tennessee Williams that received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1948.
The play opened on Broadway on December 3, 1947, and closed on December 17, 1949, in the Ethel Barrymore Theatre. The Broadway production was directed by Elia Kazan and starred Jessica Tandy, Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, and Kim Hunter. The London production opened in 1949 with Bonar Colleano, Vivien Leigh, and Renee Asherson and was directed by Laurence Olivier.
The drama A Streetcar Named Desire is often regarded as among the finest plays of the 20th century, and is considered by many to be Williams' greatest. After the loss of her family home, Belle Reve, to creditors, Blanche DuBois travels from the small town of Laurel, Mississippi, to the New Orleans French Quarter to live with her younger, married sister, Stella, and brother-in-law, Stanley Kowalski.
Blanche is in her thirties and, with no money, she has nowhere else to go. Blanche tells Stella that she has taken a leave of absence from her English-teaching position because of her nerves (which is later revealed to be a lie). Blanche laments the shabbiness of her sister鈥檚 two-room flat. She finds Stanley loud and rough, eventually referring to him as "common". Stanley, in return, does not care for Blanche's manners and dislikes her presence. ...
鬲丕乇蹖禺 賳禺爻鬲蹖賳 禺賵丕賳卮: 賲丕賴 賳賵丕賲亘乇 爻丕賱2003賲蹖賱丕丿蹖
毓賳賵丕賳: 丕鬲賵亘賵爻蹖 亘賴 賳丕賲 賴賵爻貨 賳賵蹖爻賳丿賴: 鬲賳爻蹖 賵蹖賱蹖丕賲夭貨 賲鬲乇噩賲: 賲乇噩丕賳 亘禺鬲 賲蹖賳賵貨 鬲賴乇丕賳貙 賲蹖賳賵貙 爻丕賱1381貨 丿乇159氐貨 卮丕亘讴9649056386貨 賲賵囟賵毓 丿丕爻鬲丕賳賴丕蹖 賳賵蹖爻賳丿诏丕賳 丕蹖丕賱丕鬲 賲鬲丨丿賴 丌賲乇蹖讴丕 - 爻丿賴 20賲
賳賲丕蹖卮賳丕賲賴 蹖 芦丕鬲賵亘賵爻蹖 亘賴 賳丕賲 賴賵爻禄 丿乇 蹖丕夭丿賴 倬乇丿賴貨 亘賴 毓賳賵丕賳 亘賴鬲乇蹖賳 賳賲丕蹖卮賳丕賲賴 蹖 爻丿賴 蹖 亘蹖爻鬲賲 賲蹖賱丕丿蹖貙 亘賴 卮賲丕乇 丕爻鬲貨 芦亘賱丕賳卮 丿賵亘賵丕禄貙 倬爻 丕夭 丕夭 丿爻鬲 丿丕丿賳 禺丕賳賴 蹖 禺丕賳賵丕丿诏蹖 禺賵蹖卮貙 丕夭 卮賴乇 讴賵趩讴 芦亘賱 乇蹖禄 丿乇 芦賲蹖 爻蹖 爻蹖 倬蹖禄貙 亘賴 賲丨賱賴 丕蹖 芦賮乇丕賳爻賵蹖禄貙 丿乇 芦賳蹖賵丕賵乇賱卅丕賳禄 爻賮乇 賲蹖讴賳丿貙 鬲丕 亘丕 禺賵丕賴乇 讴賵趩讴鬲乇 賵 丿丕乇丕蹖 禺丕賳賵丕丿賴 蹖 禺賵丿 芦丕爻鬲賱丕禄貙 賵 卮賵賴乇 丕賵 芦丕爻鬲賳賱蹖 讴賵丕賱爻讴蹖禄 夭賳丿诏蹖 讴賳丿貨 芦亘賱丕賳卮禄 丿乇 丿賴賴 蹖 爻蹖 夭賳丿诏蹖 禺賵丿 丕爻鬲貙 賵 倬賵賱蹖 賳丿丕乇丿貙 丕賵 噩丕蹖 丿蹖诏乇蹖 賴賲 亘乇丕蹖 乇賮鬲賳 賳丿丕乇丿貨 芦亘賱丕賳卮禄 亘賴 芦丕爻鬲賱丕禄 賲蹖诏賵蹖丿貙 讴賴 亘賴 丿賱蹖賱 丕毓氐丕亘卮 (亘賴 丿乇賵睾)貙 丕夭 賲賯丕賲 丌賲賵夭卮蹖 禺賵丿 賲乇禺氐蹖 诏乇賮鬲賴 丕爻鬲貨 芦亘賱丕賳卮禄 丕夭 禺丕賳賴 蹖 讴賵趩讴 賵 丿賵 丕鬲丕賯賴 蹖 芦丕爻鬲賱丕禄貙 丕亘乇丕夭 賳丕卮丕丿蹖 賲蹖讴賳丿貨 丕賵 芦丕爻鬲賳賱蹖禄 乇丕貙 倬乇爻乇 賵 氐丿丕 賵 禺卮賳 賲蹖亘蹖賳丿貙 賵 爻乇丕賳噩丕賲 丕夭 丕賵貙 亘賴 毓賳賵丕賳 賮乇丿蹖 倬爻鬲 賵 毓丕賲蹖 賳丕賲 賲蹖亘乇丿貨 丕賲丕 芦丕爻鬲賳賱蹖禄 亘賴 乇賮鬲丕乇賴丕蹖 芦亘賱丕賳卮禄貙 丕賴賲蹖鬲蹖 賳賲蹖丿賴丿貙 賵賱蹖 丕夭 丨囟賵乇 丕賵 賳蹖夭 亘蹖夭丕乇 丕爻鬲貨 ...貨
丕夭 丕蹖賳 讴鬲丕亘 芦丕賱蹖丕 讴丕夭丕賳禄貙 賮蹖賱賲蹖 亘丕 亘丕夭蹖 芦賵蹖賵蹖賳 賱蹖禄 賵 芦賲丕乇賱賵賳 亘乇丕賳丿賵禄 爻丕禺鬲賴 丕爻鬲貨 讴賴 丿乇 爻丕賱1951賲蹖賱丕丿蹖 亘賴 賳賲丕蹖卮 丿乇丌賲丿賴貨 芦亘賱丕賳卮 丿蹖 亘賵蹖爻 (賵蹖賵蹖賳 賱蹖)禄 丿乇丿爻乇賴丕蹖蹖 丿丕卮鬲賴貙 丕賵 倬爻 丕夭 丕禺乇丕噩 丕夭 賲丿乇爻賴鈥� 丕蹖 讴賴 丿乇 丌賳 鬲丿乇蹖爻 賲蹖讴乇丿賴貙 亘乇丕蹖 丿蹖丿丕乇 禺賵丕賴乇卮 芦丕爻鬲賱丕 (讴蹖賲 賴丕賳鬲乇)禄 賵 卮賵賴乇 禺賵丕賴乇卮 芦丕爻鬲賳賱蹖 讴賵賵丕賱爻讴蹖 (賲丕乇賱賵賳 亘乇丕賳丿賵)禄 賲蹖鈥屫辟堌� 芦丕爻鬲賳賱蹖禄 讴賴 蹖讴 賯賲丕乇亘丕夭 丕爻鬲貙 賵 丕夭 亘丿賵 賵乇賵丿 芦亘賱丕賳卮禄貙 爻乇 賳丕爻丕夭诏丕乇蹖 亘丕 賵蹖 乇丕 賲蹖诏匕丕乇丿貙 賵 丕夭 胤乇蹖賯 蹖讴蹖 丕夭 丿賵爻鬲丕賳卮貙 丕夭 诏匕卮鬲賴贁 芦亘賱丕賳卮禄 亘丕禺亘乇 賲蹖鈥屫促堌� 賵 ...貨
賳賯卮鈥屬囏�: 芦賲丕乇賱賵賳 亘乇丕賳丿賵 丿乇 賳賯卮 丕爻鬲賳賱蹖 讴賵賵丕賱爻讴蹖禄貨 芦賵蹖賵蹖賳 賱蹖 丿乇 賳賯卮 亘賱丕賳卮 丿蹖 亘賵蹖爻禄貨 芦讴蹖賲 賴丕賳鬲乇 丿乇 賳賯卮 丕爻鬲賱丕 讴賵賵丕賱爻讴蹖禄貨 芦讴丕乇賱 賲丕賱丿賳 丿乇 賳賯卮 賴丕乇賵賱丿 賲蹖卮賱禄貨 芦乇賵丿蹖 亘丕賳丿 丿乇 賳賯卮 丕爻鬲蹖賵 賴丕亘賱禄貨 芦賳蹖讴 丿賳蹖爻 丿乇 賳賯卮 倬丕亘賱賵 诏賵賳夭丕賱爻禄貨
鬲丕乇蹖禺 亘賴賳诏丕賲 乇爻丕賳蹖 23/11/1399賴噩乇蹖 禺賵乇卮蹖丿蹖貨 12/11/1400賴噩乇蹖 禺賵乇卮蹖丿蹖貨 丕. 卮乇亘蹖丕賳蹖
A Streetcar Named Desire is a 1947 play written by American playwright Tennessee Williams that received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1948.
The play opened on Broadway on December 3, 1947, and closed on December 17, 1949, in the Ethel Barrymore Theatre. The Broadway production was directed by Elia Kazan and starred Jessica Tandy, Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, and Kim Hunter. The London production opened in 1949 with Bonar Colleano, Vivien Leigh, and Renee Asherson and was directed by Laurence Olivier.
The drama A Streetcar Named Desire is often regarded as among the finest plays of the 20th century, and is considered by many to be Williams' greatest. After the loss of her family home, Belle Reve, to creditors, Blanche DuBois travels from the small town of Laurel, Mississippi, to the New Orleans French Quarter to live with her younger, married sister, Stella, and brother-in-law, Stanley Kowalski.
Blanche is in her thirties and, with no money, she has nowhere else to go. Blanche tells Stella that she has taken a leave of absence from her English-teaching position because of her nerves (which is later revealed to be a lie). Blanche laments the shabbiness of her sister鈥檚 two-room flat. She finds Stanley loud and rough, eventually referring to him as "common". Stanley, in return, does not care for Blanche's manners and dislikes her presence. ...
鬲丕乇蹖禺 賳禺爻鬲蹖賳 禺賵丕賳卮: 賲丕賴 賳賵丕賲亘乇 爻丕賱2003賲蹖賱丕丿蹖
毓賳賵丕賳: 丕鬲賵亘賵爻蹖 亘賴 賳丕賲 賴賵爻貨 賳賵蹖爻賳丿賴: 鬲賳爻蹖 賵蹖賱蹖丕賲夭貨 賲鬲乇噩賲: 賲乇噩丕賳 亘禺鬲 賲蹖賳賵貨 鬲賴乇丕賳貙 賲蹖賳賵貙 爻丕賱1381貨 丿乇159氐貨 卮丕亘讴9649056386貨 賲賵囟賵毓 丿丕爻鬲丕賳賴丕蹖 賳賵蹖爻賳丿诏丕賳 丕蹖丕賱丕鬲 賲鬲丨丿賴 丌賲乇蹖讴丕 - 爻丿賴 20賲
賳賲丕蹖卮賳丕賲賴 蹖 芦丕鬲賵亘賵爻蹖 亘賴 賳丕賲 賴賵爻禄 丿乇 蹖丕夭丿賴 倬乇丿賴貨 亘賴 毓賳賵丕賳 亘賴鬲乇蹖賳 賳賲丕蹖卮賳丕賲賴 蹖 爻丿賴 蹖 亘蹖爻鬲賲 賲蹖賱丕丿蹖貙 亘賴 卮賲丕乇 丕爻鬲貨 芦亘賱丕賳卮 丿賵亘賵丕禄貙 倬爻 丕夭 丕夭 丿爻鬲 丿丕丿賳 禺丕賳賴 蹖 禺丕賳賵丕丿诏蹖 禺賵蹖卮貙 丕夭 卮賴乇 讴賵趩讴 芦亘賱 乇蹖禄 丿乇 芦賲蹖 爻蹖 爻蹖 倬蹖禄貙 亘賴 賲丨賱賴 丕蹖 芦賮乇丕賳爻賵蹖禄貙 丿乇 芦賳蹖賵丕賵乇賱卅丕賳禄 爻賮乇 賲蹖讴賳丿貙 鬲丕 亘丕 禺賵丕賴乇 讴賵趩讴鬲乇 賵 丿丕乇丕蹖 禺丕賳賵丕丿賴 蹖 禺賵丿 芦丕爻鬲賱丕禄貙 賵 卮賵賴乇 丕賵 芦丕爻鬲賳賱蹖 讴賵丕賱爻讴蹖禄 夭賳丿诏蹖 讴賳丿貨 芦亘賱丕賳卮禄 丿乇 丿賴賴 蹖 爻蹖 夭賳丿诏蹖 禺賵丿 丕爻鬲貙 賵 倬賵賱蹖 賳丿丕乇丿貙 丕賵 噩丕蹖 丿蹖诏乇蹖 賴賲 亘乇丕蹖 乇賮鬲賳 賳丿丕乇丿貨 芦亘賱丕賳卮禄 亘賴 芦丕爻鬲賱丕禄 賲蹖诏賵蹖丿貙 讴賴 亘賴 丿賱蹖賱 丕毓氐丕亘卮 (亘賴 丿乇賵睾)貙 丕夭 賲賯丕賲 丌賲賵夭卮蹖 禺賵丿 賲乇禺氐蹖 诏乇賮鬲賴 丕爻鬲貨 芦亘賱丕賳卮禄 丕夭 禺丕賳賴 蹖 讴賵趩讴 賵 丿賵 丕鬲丕賯賴 蹖 芦丕爻鬲賱丕禄貙 丕亘乇丕夭 賳丕卮丕丿蹖 賲蹖讴賳丿貨 丕賵 芦丕爻鬲賳賱蹖禄 乇丕貙 倬乇爻乇 賵 氐丿丕 賵 禺卮賳 賲蹖亘蹖賳丿貙 賵 爻乇丕賳噩丕賲 丕夭 丕賵貙 亘賴 毓賳賵丕賳 賮乇丿蹖 倬爻鬲 賵 毓丕賲蹖 賳丕賲 賲蹖亘乇丿貨 丕賲丕 芦丕爻鬲賳賱蹖禄 亘賴 乇賮鬲丕乇賴丕蹖 芦亘賱丕賳卮禄貙 丕賴賲蹖鬲蹖 賳賲蹖丿賴丿貙 賵賱蹖 丕夭 丨囟賵乇 丕賵 賳蹖夭 亘蹖夭丕乇 丕爻鬲貨 ...貨
丕夭 丕蹖賳 讴鬲丕亘 芦丕賱蹖丕 讴丕夭丕賳禄貙 賮蹖賱賲蹖 亘丕 亘丕夭蹖 芦賵蹖賵蹖賳 賱蹖禄 賵 芦賲丕乇賱賵賳 亘乇丕賳丿賵禄 爻丕禺鬲賴 丕爻鬲貨 讴賴 丿乇 爻丕賱1951賲蹖賱丕丿蹖 亘賴 賳賲丕蹖卮 丿乇丌賲丿賴貨 芦亘賱丕賳卮 丿蹖 亘賵蹖爻 (賵蹖賵蹖賳 賱蹖)禄 丿乇丿爻乇賴丕蹖蹖 丿丕卮鬲賴貙 丕賵 倬爻 丕夭 丕禺乇丕噩 丕夭 賲丿乇爻賴鈥� 丕蹖 讴賴 丿乇 丌賳 鬲丿乇蹖爻 賲蹖讴乇丿賴貙 亘乇丕蹖 丿蹖丿丕乇 禺賵丕賴乇卮 芦丕爻鬲賱丕 (讴蹖賲 賴丕賳鬲乇)禄 賵 卮賵賴乇 禺賵丕賴乇卮 芦丕爻鬲賳賱蹖 讴賵賵丕賱爻讴蹖 (賲丕乇賱賵賳 亘乇丕賳丿賵)禄 賲蹖鈥屫辟堌� 芦丕爻鬲賳賱蹖禄 讴賴 蹖讴 賯賲丕乇亘丕夭 丕爻鬲貙 賵 丕夭 亘丿賵 賵乇賵丿 芦亘賱丕賳卮禄貙 爻乇 賳丕爻丕夭诏丕乇蹖 亘丕 賵蹖 乇丕 賲蹖诏匕丕乇丿貙 賵 丕夭 胤乇蹖賯 蹖讴蹖 丕夭 丿賵爻鬲丕賳卮貙 丕夭 诏匕卮鬲賴贁 芦亘賱丕賳卮禄 亘丕禺亘乇 賲蹖鈥屫促堌� 賵 ...貨
賳賯卮鈥屬囏�: 芦賲丕乇賱賵賳 亘乇丕賳丿賵 丿乇 賳賯卮 丕爻鬲賳賱蹖 讴賵賵丕賱爻讴蹖禄貨 芦賵蹖賵蹖賳 賱蹖 丿乇 賳賯卮 亘賱丕賳卮 丿蹖 亘賵蹖爻禄貨 芦讴蹖賲 賴丕賳鬲乇 丿乇 賳賯卮 丕爻鬲賱丕 讴賵賵丕賱爻讴蹖禄貨 芦讴丕乇賱 賲丕賱丿賳 丿乇 賳賯卮 賴丕乇賵賱丿 賲蹖卮賱禄貨 芦乇賵丿蹖 亘丕賳丿 丿乇 賳賯卮 丕爻鬲蹖賵 賴丕亘賱禄貨 芦賳蹖讴 丿賳蹖爻 丿乇 賳賯卮 倬丕亘賱賵 诏賵賳夭丕賱爻禄貨
鬲丕乇蹖禺 亘賴賳诏丕賲 乇爻丕賳蹖 23/11/1399賴噩乇蹖 禺賵乇卮蹖丿蹖貨 12/11/1400賴噩乇蹖 禺賵乇卮蹖丿蹖貨 丕. 卮乇亘蹖丕賳蹖
April 4, 2016
4.5 stars
Tragic, raw, and suffused with striking imagery and symbolism, this play is a must-read and now one that I must also see. Williams does a tremendous job of evoking the atmosphere of New Orleans during the 1940's 鈥� the music, the heat, the people. The prose is lyrical and truly astonishing at times. I felt as if I were a participant in each and every scene.
"The sky that shows around the dim white building is a peculiarly tender blue, almost a turquoise, which invests the scene with a kind of lyricism and gracefully attenuates the atmosphere of decay. You can almost feel the warm breath of the brown river beyond the river warehouses with their faint redolences of bananas and coffee."
The vibrant and luckless Blanche DuBois arrives on a streetcar named "Desire" to inhabit the cramped and close quarters of her sister Stella and her husband, Stanley Kowalski. Blanche's duplicitous nature makes for an intriguing character study. The quiet and reserved Stella is the complete opposite of her sister. She shares a passionate relationship with Stanley who is perfectly characterized by Williams:
"Animal joy in his being is implicit in all his movements and attitudes. Since earliest manhood the center of his life has been pleasure with women, the giving and taking of it, not with weak indulgence, dependently, but with the power and pride of a richly feathered male bird among hens."
The atmosphere immediately turns stifling and the tension quickly escalates as the three lives intersect and collide. Unfamiliar with this play, I was surprised at the heavy themes, in particular those of domestic violence and mental illness. This play felt very real and human, extremely powerful and ultimately quite heartbreaking.
Tragic, raw, and suffused with striking imagery and symbolism, this play is a must-read and now one that I must also see. Williams does a tremendous job of evoking the atmosphere of New Orleans during the 1940's 鈥� the music, the heat, the people. The prose is lyrical and truly astonishing at times. I felt as if I were a participant in each and every scene.
"The sky that shows around the dim white building is a peculiarly tender blue, almost a turquoise, which invests the scene with a kind of lyricism and gracefully attenuates the atmosphere of decay. You can almost feel the warm breath of the brown river beyond the river warehouses with their faint redolences of bananas and coffee."
The vibrant and luckless Blanche DuBois arrives on a streetcar named "Desire" to inhabit the cramped and close quarters of her sister Stella and her husband, Stanley Kowalski. Blanche's duplicitous nature makes for an intriguing character study. The quiet and reserved Stella is the complete opposite of her sister. She shares a passionate relationship with Stanley who is perfectly characterized by Williams:
"Animal joy in his being is implicit in all his movements and attitudes. Since earliest manhood the center of his life has been pleasure with women, the giving and taking of it, not with weak indulgence, dependently, but with the power and pride of a richly feathered male bird among hens."
The atmosphere immediately turns stifling and the tension quickly escalates as the three lives intersect and collide. Unfamiliar with this play, I was surprised at the heavy themes, in particular those of domestic violence and mental illness. This play felt very real and human, extremely powerful and ultimately quite heartbreaking.
March 1, 2025
I first read "A Streetcar Named Desire" when I was a kid. It is my favorite play, and I've read it and taught it several times. I have watched the classic 1951 film many times over a 20+ year span.
This recent adult rereading of "Streetcar" felt like getting gut-punched. It is a nasty, nasty story of lust, mental instability, and metaphor of a changing South, rapidly industrializing manufacturing companies from the North.
It's a seminal work in Southern Literary Renaissance- the Southern Gothic, and a harrowing story of lost love. Blanche, Stella, Stanley and Mitch will forever be in the minds of those who read this deeply, dark play of lust, violence, of sexuality and hypocrisy. It is both an unsettling metaphor, and a reminder of harsh reality.
For those who have never read the play, it's the story of fading Mississippi Southern Belle and former English teacher, the iconic Blanche DuBois who has lost everything. With nowhere else to go, she finds herself at her sister Stella鈥檚 and her brutish, yet highly sexually charged brother-in law, Stanley Kowalski's mercy in a squalid New Orleans apartment.
Blanche's flighty persona and pathological lies about her sordid past is too much for Stanley to bear- and he sets out to destroy her reputation because of his need to control the situation. Especially his ideas of realism and fantasy are the opposite of Blanche鈥檚, with Stella and his friend Mitch caught in the middle of their battle of wits.
Blanche states, "I don't want realism, I want magic" defiantly as she attempts to hold on to her dignity, and from here, after all her secrets are revealed, including her ill-fated marriage to Allan Gray, and her questionable relationship with one of her former students- all lead to a haunting, cruel fate.
The play is filled with bitter dialogue that will haunt the reader, as Blanche utters "I've always depended on the kindness of strangers".
The 1951 definitive film adaptation starring Vivien Leigh and Marlon Brando is equally devastating as the play itself. Their indelible performances live on as the flighty, and devastating Blanche; while Brando of course stole hearts with his heart-stopping, shirtless, and animalistic performance.
Kim Hunter and Karl Malden also lent fine support as Stella and Mitch, and like Ms. Leigh, and except for Mr. Brando, all won Academy Awards for their performances.
Postscript:
I also feel incredibly privileged I got to see Cate Blanchett perform Streetcar at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in what I call one of the five best performances I have ever seen live, which was a touring production from the Sydney Theater Company back in 2009.
Her Blanche has become embedded in my brain- and I was glad she was able to play a variation of Blanche in Woody Allen's film "Blue Jasmine".
During the three hours I spent watching Ms. Blanchett duel with Joel Edgerton鈥檚 Stanley, the ghosts of Leigh and Brando were quietly held off on the wings of the theater. It was directed with sensitivity and harrowing clarity by Liv Ullman.
2025 postscript: I once again saw this play at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in a production directed by Rebecca Frecknall.
Starring Patsy Ferran as Blanche and it boy of the moment, Paul Mescal as Stanley- it is a thoughtful production that gives Blanche and Stella鈥檚 relationship center stage, and the decisions as women they made in order to survive.
It鈥檚 a more contemporary vision that was quite dazzling in its execution and this time, Stanley takes a backseat.
If you are in New York right now till the middle of March 2025, run to see this production of Streetcar.
This recent adult rereading of "Streetcar" felt like getting gut-punched. It is a nasty, nasty story of lust, mental instability, and metaphor of a changing South, rapidly industrializing manufacturing companies from the North.
It's a seminal work in Southern Literary Renaissance- the Southern Gothic, and a harrowing story of lost love. Blanche, Stella, Stanley and Mitch will forever be in the minds of those who read this deeply, dark play of lust, violence, of sexuality and hypocrisy. It is both an unsettling metaphor, and a reminder of harsh reality.
For those who have never read the play, it's the story of fading Mississippi Southern Belle and former English teacher, the iconic Blanche DuBois who has lost everything. With nowhere else to go, she finds herself at her sister Stella鈥檚 and her brutish, yet highly sexually charged brother-in law, Stanley Kowalski's mercy in a squalid New Orleans apartment.
Blanche's flighty persona and pathological lies about her sordid past is too much for Stanley to bear- and he sets out to destroy her reputation because of his need to control the situation. Especially his ideas of realism and fantasy are the opposite of Blanche鈥檚, with Stella and his friend Mitch caught in the middle of their battle of wits.
Blanche states, "I don't want realism, I want magic" defiantly as she attempts to hold on to her dignity, and from here, after all her secrets are revealed, including her ill-fated marriage to Allan Gray, and her questionable relationship with one of her former students- all lead to a haunting, cruel fate.
The play is filled with bitter dialogue that will haunt the reader, as Blanche utters "I've always depended on the kindness of strangers".
The 1951 definitive film adaptation starring Vivien Leigh and Marlon Brando is equally devastating as the play itself. Their indelible performances live on as the flighty, and devastating Blanche; while Brando of course stole hearts with his heart-stopping, shirtless, and animalistic performance.
Kim Hunter and Karl Malden also lent fine support as Stella and Mitch, and like Ms. Leigh, and except for Mr. Brando, all won Academy Awards for their performances.
Postscript:
I also feel incredibly privileged I got to see Cate Blanchett perform Streetcar at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in what I call one of the five best performances I have ever seen live, which was a touring production from the Sydney Theater Company back in 2009.
Her Blanche has become embedded in my brain- and I was glad she was able to play a variation of Blanche in Woody Allen's film "Blue Jasmine".
During the three hours I spent watching Ms. Blanchett duel with Joel Edgerton鈥檚 Stanley, the ghosts of Leigh and Brando were quietly held off on the wings of the theater. It was directed with sensitivity and harrowing clarity by Liv Ullman.
2025 postscript: I once again saw this play at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in a production directed by Rebecca Frecknall.
Starring Patsy Ferran as Blanche and it boy of the moment, Paul Mescal as Stanley- it is a thoughtful production that gives Blanche and Stella鈥檚 relationship center stage, and the decisions as women they made in order to survive.
It鈥檚 a more contemporary vision that was quite dazzling in its execution and this time, Stanley takes a backseat.
If you are in New York right now till the middle of March 2025, run to see this production of Streetcar.
May 7, 2018
Okay, first of all, may I just say:
you should see the movie before you read the book.
The thing about this play is that it absolutely relies on tension. And that tension is absolutely there in a quality rendition of this show. But it is not conveyed on page.
Likewise, most of Blanche鈥檚 character is in her nuance, in the subtext of each scene where she acts nervous and worried and in how she is framed and in her fear and turmoil. In a character like this, a character full of ambiguity and hurt and angst, how could an on-page rendition be so sympathetic? How could she gain your sympathies despite her flaws?
The answer is that she doesn鈥檛. Until you see the movie and she breaks your fucking heart.
Honestly, I think there is a lot to be said about this play and its connection to the downfall of Southern white life [wow, we have read about that a lot in AP Lit this year]. There is also a lot to be said about its occasionally-weird gay subtext - there鈥檚 some explicit textthat the movie cuts because homophobia, but also the fact that this is essentially a love triangle between a woman鈥檚 husband and her sister? Which is something the movie plays up, um, kind of a lot. [There鈥檚 a scene framing the two sisters as Hollywood lovers and it is weird.]
Also, I鈥檇 like to point you all to the comment underneath this status stating that Stanley is a caricature of a straight man and Tenesee Williams just doesn鈥檛 understand straight men, because holy shit, that is the funniest thing I have ever read.
But honestly, I think explaining the subtext wouldn鈥檛 be the best decision either for spoiler purposes [a lot of the thematic stuff is pretty easy to understand] or for my mental health [I am running off far too little sleep and I don鈥檛 think this review is coherent, probably.] What I will say is that you should see the movie, and then read the play and compare the two, and that I really liked this. It made no impact on me when I read it, but it's worth the watch.
Likewise, most of Blanche鈥檚 character is in her nuance, in the subtext of each scene where she acts nervous and worried and in how she is framed and in her fear and turmoil. In a character like this, a character full of ambiguity and hurt and angst, how could an on-page rendition be so sympathetic? How could she gain your sympathies despite her flaws?
The answer is that she doesn鈥檛. Until you see the movie and she breaks your fucking heart.
Honestly, I think there is a lot to be said about this play and its connection to the downfall of Southern white life [wow, we have read about that a lot in AP Lit this year]. There is also a lot to be said about its occasionally-weird gay subtext - there鈥檚 some explicit text
Also, I鈥檇 like to point you all to the comment underneath this status stating that Stanley is a caricature of a straight man and Tenesee Williams just doesn鈥檛 understand straight men, because holy shit, that is the funniest thing I have ever read.
But honestly, I think explaining the subtext wouldn鈥檛 be the best decision either for spoiler purposes [a lot of the thematic stuff is pretty easy to understand] or for my mental health [I am running off far too little sleep and I don鈥檛 think this review is coherent, probably.] What I will say is that you should see the movie, and then read the play and compare the two, and that I really liked this. It made no impact on me when I read it, but it's worth the watch.
August 30, 2019
"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 the truth"鈥擝lanche DuBois
One of the great plays of the American theater, probably the very best Tennessee Williams play, acted first on Broadway by Marlon Brando (Stanley Kowalski), Kim Hunter (Stella Kowalski), and Blanche DuBois (Jessica Tandy), and it is riveting. I listened to a version of it with James Farentino as Stanley and Rosemary Harris as Blanche, also very good. More disturbing than I ever recalled, passionate, shocking, sad, full of sizzling southern summer heat and sweat and desire:
Marlon Brando yelling 鈥淪tella!鈥�:
Stanley is an animal, a sexual animal, "uncouth," works hard, bowls, play cards, drinks hard, married to Stella, who was formerly from a more "genteel," upper-class family. Blanche arrives after having lost her inheritance, the estate Belle Reve, having been fired as a teacher (for a "dalliance" with a student), and recently kicked out of a low-rent tenement house , but she arrives to visit/stay with her sister and brother-in-law dressed as the southern belle she once was, trying to convince them and her friends (and maybe herself) of the illusion that she never quite left her fine 鈥渃ultured鈥� life. It is tempting to think of this play as a commentary on American masculinity/sexuality, class, of the struggle between the 鈥渞efined鈥� Southern aristocracy and the 鈥渂arbaric鈥� working class, and there鈥檚 some evidence for all that:
Stanley and Blanche meet:
but the play, visceral, lyrical, tragic, deeply sad (and I warn you now for a second time, in a couple places disturbing), pushes back against any easy definitions or interpretations:
Blanche DuBois, at the end, 鈥淚 have always relied on the kindness of strangers鈥�:
The image you are left with is Blanche, a woman in financial ruins鈥攈er beautiful young husband had turned out to be gay, she lost her inheritance, she'd been a victim of scandal, and now she is simply trying to seek help from her sister, out of options. She's a single woman without property, she's fragile and vulnerable, she's aging and her attraction to men (crucial in this time because she has no money) is fading, she's possessed by delusions of grandeur, and yet she possesses some strength, some spirit you admire more than just pity, as she fights for a place in an often threatening male world that blames her for her vulnerability.
And seeing it is always better, of course, but I recommend seeing the Brando film version, of course. Amazing literary experience that will never leave you.
One of the great plays of the American theater, probably the very best Tennessee Williams play, acted first on Broadway by Marlon Brando (Stanley Kowalski), Kim Hunter (Stella Kowalski), and Blanche DuBois (Jessica Tandy), and it is riveting. I listened to a version of it with James Farentino as Stanley and Rosemary Harris as Blanche, also very good. More disturbing than I ever recalled, passionate, shocking, sad, full of sizzling southern summer heat and sweat and desire:
Marlon Brando yelling 鈥淪tella!鈥�:
Stanley is an animal, a sexual animal, "uncouth," works hard, bowls, play cards, drinks hard, married to Stella, who was formerly from a more "genteel," upper-class family. Blanche arrives after having lost her inheritance, the estate Belle Reve, having been fired as a teacher (for a "dalliance" with a student), and recently kicked out of a low-rent tenement house , but she arrives to visit/stay with her sister and brother-in-law dressed as the southern belle she once was, trying to convince them and her friends (and maybe herself) of the illusion that she never quite left her fine 鈥渃ultured鈥� life. It is tempting to think of this play as a commentary on American masculinity/sexuality, class, of the struggle between the 鈥渞efined鈥� Southern aristocracy and the 鈥渂arbaric鈥� working class, and there鈥檚 some evidence for all that:
Stanley and Blanche meet:
but the play, visceral, lyrical, tragic, deeply sad (and I warn you now for a second time, in a couple places disturbing), pushes back against any easy definitions or interpretations:
Blanche DuBois, at the end, 鈥淚 have always relied on the kindness of strangers鈥�:
The image you are left with is Blanche, a woman in financial ruins鈥攈er beautiful young husband had turned out to be gay, she lost her inheritance, she'd been a victim of scandal, and now she is simply trying to seek help from her sister, out of options. She's a single woman without property, she's fragile and vulnerable, she's aging and her attraction to men (crucial in this time because she has no money) is fading, she's possessed by delusions of grandeur, and yet she possesses some strength, some spirit you admire more than just pity, as she fights for a place in an often threatening male world that blames her for her vulnerability.
And seeing it is always better, of course, but I recommend seeing the Brando film version, of course. Amazing literary experience that will never leave you.
March 4, 2021
The audiobook was phenomenal鈥�
an absolute joy to listen to. It put energy into my steps on these hilly trails.
I鈥檓 still here hiking 鈥� but I finished this faster than my hike.
It鈥檚 an audible original, a free download for Audible members...
but I still have more hiking to go.
A terrific theatre production .... The actors were fantastic
The sounds and special effects gave this play the emotional integrity that this play deserves.
HUGE THANKS... to you, Anne!!!
Great way to start my morning!!!
an absolute joy to listen to. It put energy into my steps on these hilly trails.
I鈥檓 still here hiking 鈥� but I finished this faster than my hike.
It鈥檚 an audible original, a free download for Audible members...
but I still have more hiking to go.
A terrific theatre production .... The actors were fantastic
The sounds and special effects gave this play the emotional integrity that this play deserves.
HUGE THANKS... to you, Anne!!!
Great way to start my morning!!!
March 2, 2016
It's the late 1940's and I could visualize the setting of the New Orleans French Quarter (love it) and hear the jazzy blues music playing thru the window as Tennessee Williams brings to life the characters of a very well-built Stanley, his better-half Stella, and her delusional, whiskey-drinking southern belle of a sister Blanche who is in town for an "extended" visit.
With two women and one hot-tempered, suspicious man in a dinky one bedroom flat, trouble starts brewing at the onset and never lets up until the ill-fated end.
"Whoever you are.......I have always counted on the kindness of strangers."
As a first time read for me, the story behind A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE was a complete surprise as were the multitude of controversial subject matters often understated in presentation throughout the play, but still.......
A powerful and emotional drama. Loved it! (need to get my hands on a copy of the film version with Brando and Leigh.....fast)
October 17, 2017
鈥淭hey 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鈥�
There is a certain high you feel when you read a classic. It's not one that can be repeatable or interchangeable. It attaches on to you and if it's good enough. It might never leave your system.
Enter, our setting: New Orleans in the late 1940s, post second world war and the American Dream is thick in the atmosphere. Jazz and sex and booze and gambling run wild on the streets.
Enter, our characters: Stanley Kowalski, Stella and Blanche DuBois. All three damaged and broken. All three deliciously raptured in our plot.
Enter, our Story: Their worlds are about to take a 360 degree turn when emotion, the summer heat, lust, manipulation, cleverness but mostly desire come alive and off the pages written by Tennessee Williams.
_______________
Touch
Anyone who picks up A Streetcar Named Desire knows they are going to be in for a story beyond the story. The writing screams hidden metaphors, and imagery that makes you want to dance with Blanche, play poker with Stanley, cry with Stella and be apart of the gang under New Orleans moon.
The story was palpable. It felt like I could touch the characters hearts and minds and it would be okay because they would let me, because Tennessee crafted the story in a way that those who are patient and would allow the characters to touch your hearts... It could work the other way around too.
Smell
There's a certain warmth you have when you come down to your moms cooking or it's Saturday morning and you can smell breakfast downstairs.
The atmosphere that surrounded me throughout reading this script was electric, it smelt like warm bread and then changed to whiskey-filled game nights. There was never a still moment in the world we step foot in.
Taste
There are so many different types of desire and lust. I could taste all of them in this play. It was as if each had a distinct flavour and every-time a conflict occurred in the plotline, I felt it.
I think the manner that Williams approached many different aspects and issues in this book was so strong and relative to the time that this play was published in. This was a time when being in the LGBT community was considered a crime that could be punished and a psychological disease that could be treated. This was a time when being a 'southern belle' was the only way to be accepted as a woman. This was a time when domestic abuse was considered normal and just part of the marriage.
I could go on and on and list the different themes that this story approached, but I'm just going say that there was not a single tasteless moment in this play. It may have been bitter, or sweet or even sour. But never tasteless.
Hear
New Orleans in the 1940's and this novel both have the same tune that plays back. The Blue Piano, the jazz, the love, the instability, the desire. It was a melody that played back and played loud through and through.
Their was a powerful voltage that rang through the soundtrack, and it was like every-time you get close you get an electric shock that makes you alive inside and even though you know it's bad to like it. You want more.
Sound like a high yet?
See
When you think of desire, what comes inside your head?
There is a certain high you feel when you read a classic. It's not one that can be repeatable or interchangeable. It attaches on to you and if it's good enough. It might never leave your system.
Enter, our setting: New Orleans in the late 1940s, post second world war and the American Dream is thick in the atmosphere. Jazz and sex and booze and gambling run wild on the streets.
Enter, our characters: Stanley Kowalski, Stella and Blanche DuBois. All three damaged and broken. All three deliciously raptured in our plot.
Enter, our Story: Their worlds are about to take a 360 degree turn when emotion, the summer heat, lust, manipulation, cleverness but mostly desire come alive and off the pages written by Tennessee Williams.
_______________
Touch
Anyone who picks up A Streetcar Named Desire knows they are going to be in for a story beyond the story. The writing screams hidden metaphors, and imagery that makes you want to dance with Blanche, play poker with Stanley, cry with Stella and be apart of the gang under New Orleans moon.
The story was palpable. It felt like I could touch the characters hearts and minds and it would be okay because they would let me, because Tennessee crafted the story in a way that those who are patient and would allow the characters to touch your hearts... It could work the other way around too.
Smell
There's a certain warmth you have when you come down to your moms cooking or it's Saturday morning and you can smell breakfast downstairs.
The atmosphere that surrounded me throughout reading this script was electric, it smelt like warm bread and then changed to whiskey-filled game nights. There was never a still moment in the world we step foot in.
Taste
There are so many different types of desire and lust. I could taste all of them in this play. It was as if each had a distinct flavour and every-time a conflict occurred in the plotline, I felt it.
I think the manner that Williams approached many different aspects and issues in this book was so strong and relative to the time that this play was published in. This was a time when being in the LGBT community was considered a crime that could be punished and a psychological disease that could be treated. This was a time when being a 'southern belle' was the only way to be accepted as a woman. This was a time when domestic abuse was considered normal and just part of the marriage.
I could go on and on and list the different themes that this story approached, but I'm just going say that there was not a single tasteless moment in this play. It may have been bitter, or sweet or even sour. But never tasteless.
Hear
New Orleans in the 1940's and this novel both have the same tune that plays back. The Blue Piano, the jazz, the love, the instability, the desire. It was a melody that played back and played loud through and through.
Their was a powerful voltage that rang through the soundtrack, and it was like every-time you get close you get an electric shock that makes you alive inside and even though you know it's bad to like it. You want more.
Sound like a high yet?
See
When you think of desire, what comes inside your head?
August 12, 2013
There's a sort of invisible thread from Madame Bovary to A Streetcar Named Desire, which in its route gets tied up in a hot whorehouse and wraps vainly around the cosmetics section of a pharmacy in the Southern United States before knotting at its terminus in New Orleans. I find it almost criminal how often people mistake Blanche duBois' whimsy for female frailty, for I think she is an almost unnaturally strong character; far, far moreso than her timid sister Stella. Perhaps it is because her foil, and diametric opposite, Stanley is so much so the iron casting of masculine strength and violence, that make Blanche seem to the reader/viewer so relatively weak. But the play is dominated by the very different strengths of these enormous characters: Stanley's violent force and Blanche's imaginative power.
Blanche, like her French-bourgeois predecessor, Emma Bovary, has an old fashioned ideal of romance which she cannot reconcile with her amorous experiences. Unlike Emma, Blanche has a much more sordid history, and as a result has become the battleground between her vain illusions and her knowing disillusionment. Having fallen in love with a gay boy in her youth, who subsequently died, she sought love in the many men of the local army camp, living a prostitute's kind of life, and even had an affair with a young male student, until she lost her family estate, Belle Reve (presumably from "belle r锚ve," french for "beautiful dream" - and appropriately a common name for sanitariums, along with belle vue) which she lost to debtors. Blanche's world: her home, her job, her love (or search therefor), everything, she loses, and flees her soiled reputation to live with her sister Stella and her husband Stanley Kowalski. She has a passionate imagination, which is her last remaining crutch of her fragile sanity:
The story of Stella and Stanley is a time-creep of the opposite orientation: Stella is made aware of the dangers and disturbances of a future with Stanley by the mistreatment of her sister. Stella sheds her luxurious tears at the the curtain close as a rueful acknowledgement of the tension between reality and illusion. While she cannot fully believe Blanche's story, she cannot bring herself to fully deny it either. Her vision of Stanley, of her sister, and of her life spread out ahead of her are forever changed by what has transpired. Though she stays with Stanley, her relationship with him is tainted with something of mistrust and fear.
Illusion in the play, the main funhouse mirror, is the illusion of appearance. Everything has a surface and an interior, and there is a struggle, a contradiction, between the veneer of appearance and the truth of substance. Blanche becomes obsessed with her appearance, rather than reconciling herself with the maelstrom of emotion and fear which boils beneath the surface, she suffocates her own Self by the feint play of her made-up appearance. She has an imagination which approaches prolepsis in its improvisational fervor. She always has a lie, a fraud, a gloss-over for the truth which is black inside of her. She is fearful of the light, which not only shows her aging appearance, signs of aging she she cannot cover-up, but is also symbolic for the truths which are rising like slag to the surface, revealing the cold worn metal beneath. What she cannot escape is that the world does not have the magic which she seeks, the most powerful force around her is truth, and it is truth which she feels she needs to escape. The tension between truth and "magic" eventually destroys her psyche.
For Stanley, escape, illusion, is obtained through vice: drinking, gambling, domestic abuse and violence. His fears of incompetence and undeserving are evaded through his violent actions, which both evade questioning yet also show his hand. He is mirrored man to Blanche, and she the revealing pier-glass to him. Because they are so opposed, they reveal the truths in each other's characters. Stanley's violence is incompatible with Blanche's romantic visions of the world, particularly her vision of men. In Stanley she seems a savage character, almost like the stock ruffian of a Spanish romance, but one which is violent even to her, which is violent in its uncovering of her secrets: one which is deliberately cruel. This deliberate cruelty on the part of Stanley is something which Blanche finds "the only thing not forgivable" and the only thing which has the true power to shatter her war-worn illusions. For Stanley, Blanche represents the world which shares his wife, but which he fears has a stronger, atavistic claim on her. He can never offer Stella money or blissful security, he can never offer her culture. Blanche is the very manifestation of these ideals, and her romantic vision of the world is alluring to all around her, her imaginative power is a danger to Stanley's marriage, because it is a reminded to him and to Stella of the kind of life which they can never have with each other.
Blanche, like her French-bourgeois predecessor, Emma Bovary, has an old fashioned ideal of romance which she cannot reconcile with her amorous experiences. Unlike Emma, Blanche has a much more sordid history, and as a result has become the battleground between her vain illusions and her knowing disillusionment. Having fallen in love with a gay boy in her youth, who subsequently died, she sought love in the many men of the local army camp, living a prostitute's kind of life, and even had an affair with a young male student, until she lost her family estate, Belle Reve (presumably from "belle r锚ve," french for "beautiful dream" - and appropriately a common name for sanitariums, along with belle vue) which she lost to debtors. Blanche's world: her home, her job, her love (or search therefor), everything, she loses, and flees her soiled reputation to live with her sister Stella and her husband Stanley Kowalski. She has a passionate imagination, which is her last remaining crutch of her fragile sanity:
鈥淚 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 the truth. And it that's sinful, then let me be damned for it!鈥�Her desperation for romance, for magic, in her life is the only avenue remaining for her escape. That's what Streetcar Names Desire is about: escape. Escape from the shameful past, drinking to escape from the dully painful present, and escape from the violent future. Blanche eventually retreats fully into her own self-delusions of romantic escape when her past creeps unexpectedly into the present.
The story of Stella and Stanley is a time-creep of the opposite orientation: Stella is made aware of the dangers and disturbances of a future with Stanley by the mistreatment of her sister. Stella sheds her luxurious tears at the the curtain close as a rueful acknowledgement of the tension between reality and illusion. While she cannot fully believe Blanche's story, she cannot bring herself to fully deny it either. Her vision of Stanley, of her sister, and of her life spread out ahead of her are forever changed by what has transpired. Though she stays with Stanley, her relationship with him is tainted with something of mistrust and fear.
Illusion in the play, the main funhouse mirror, is the illusion of appearance. Everything has a surface and an interior, and there is a struggle, a contradiction, between the veneer of appearance and the truth of substance. Blanche becomes obsessed with her appearance, rather than reconciling herself with the maelstrom of emotion and fear which boils beneath the surface, she suffocates her own Self by the feint play of her made-up appearance. She has an imagination which approaches prolepsis in its improvisational fervor. She always has a lie, a fraud, a gloss-over for the truth which is black inside of her. She is fearful of the light, which not only shows her aging appearance, signs of aging she she cannot cover-up, but is also symbolic for the truths which are rising like slag to the surface, revealing the cold worn metal beneath. What she cannot escape is that the world does not have the magic which she seeks, the most powerful force around her is truth, and it is truth which she feels she needs to escape. The tension between truth and "magic" eventually destroys her psyche.
For Stanley, escape, illusion, is obtained through vice: drinking, gambling, domestic abuse and violence. His fears of incompetence and undeserving are evaded through his violent actions, which both evade questioning yet also show his hand. He is mirrored man to Blanche, and she the revealing pier-glass to him. Because they are so opposed, they reveal the truths in each other's characters. Stanley's violence is incompatible with Blanche's romantic visions of the world, particularly her vision of men. In Stanley she seems a savage character, almost like the stock ruffian of a Spanish romance, but one which is violent even to her, which is violent in its uncovering of her secrets: one which is deliberately cruel. This deliberate cruelty on the part of Stanley is something which Blanche finds "the only thing not forgivable" and the only thing which has the true power to shatter her war-worn illusions. For Stanley, Blanche represents the world which shares his wife, but which he fears has a stronger, atavistic claim on her. He can never offer Stella money or blissful security, he can never offer her culture. Blanche is the very manifestation of these ideals, and her romantic vision of the world is alluring to all around her, her imaginative power is a danger to Stanley's marriage, because it is a reminded to him and to Stella of the kind of life which they can never have with each other.
"They told me to take a street-car named Desire, and transfer to one called Cemeteries, and ride six blocks and get off at鈥擡lysian Fields!"Desire and death: the only ways to reach paradise!
March 3, 2021
This is not a narrated play but an exceptional theater production performed for Audible. The director, Robert O'Hara, and the actors knew there would be no audience for their scheduled play due to the pandemic so they performed it for Audible. And what a performance it was! The experience was intimate and intense. Between the sound effects and the superb acting I felt like I was at the theater and could "see" the play in my mind. The interpretations of the roles were slightly different though still remained true to the classic version. Audra McDonald (6 time Tony winner) was incredible as Blanche DuBois; bold and forthright instead of fragile, she amused and chilled and then broke my heart in the final scene. I loved Carla Gugino as a warm and level-headed Stella. And Ariel Shafir was an incredibly powerful Stanley, alternately charismatic, repulsive, sexual and terrifying.
Bravo!
There is an interesting interview with the director after the performance.
Bravo!
There is an interesting interview with the director after the performance.
April 7, 2017
亘賱丕賳卮: 趩胤賵乇 鬲賵賳爻鬲蹖 丿蹖卮亘 亘乇诏乇丿蹖 丕蹖賳噩丕責 趩乇丕 亘丕蹖爻 亘丕賴丕卮 禺賵丕亘蹖丿賴 亘丕卮蹖責
丕爻鬲賱丕:丕賲丕 亘丕賱丕禺乇賴 蹖讴 趩蹖夭賴丕卅蹖 賴爻鬲 讴賴 丿乇 鬲丕乇蹖讴蹖 亘蹖賳 夭賳 賵 賲乇丿 丕鬲賮丕賯 賲蹖 丕賮鬲賴 貙亘胤賵乇蹖 讴賴 賴乇趩蹖夭 丿蹖诏賴 乇賵 亘蹖 丕賴賲蹖鬲 賲蹖讴賳賴
亘賱丕賳卮:丕蹖賳 讴賴 丿丕乇蹖 賲蹖诏蹖 賴賵爻 賵丨卮蹖 賵 倬爻鬲蹖 丕爻鬲.賮賯胤 賴賵爻貨
丕爻賲 賴賲賵賳 丕鬲賵亘賵爻 倬乇 爻乇賵氐丿丕卅蹖 讴賴 賲乇鬲亘丕 丕夭 丕蹖賳 禺蹖丕亘賵賳 亘賴 丕賵賳 禺蹖丕亘賵賳 賲蹖乇賴
亘毓囟蹖 讴鬲丕亘賴丕 卮丕賴讴丕乇賳丿
趩賵賳 亘丕 鬲賲丕賲 讴乇丿賳 賵 亘爻鬲賳 讴鬲丕亘 貙賴賳賵夭 丿乇 匕賴賳鬲 賵乇賯 賲蹖禺賵乇賳丿
賳賴 丕蹖賳讴賴 讴鬲丕亘 亘賴 爻亘讴 爻蹖丕賱 匕賴賳 賵 睾蹖乇 禺胤蹖 亘丕卮丿 亘賱讴賴 丿乇 胤賵賱 讴鬲丕亘貙 丕賮讴丕乇鬲 丿丕卅賲丕 丿乇 丨丕賱 鬲睾蹖蹖乇 亘賵丿賴 丕賳丿
亘毓丿 禺賵丕賳丿賳 賳賲丕蹖卮賳丕賲賴貙 賮蹖賱賲卮 乇丕 丿蹖丿賲 賵 丿賵亘丕乇賴 匕賴賳賲 丿乇诏蹖乇 丨賱丕噩蹖 卮禺氐蹖鬲 賴丕 卮丿
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卮禺氐蹖鬲 賴丕蹖 丕氐賱蹖 丿丕爻鬲丕賳:亘賱丕賳卮 - 丕爻鬲賱丕(禺賵丕賴乇 亘賱丕賳卮)-丕爻鬲丕賳賱蹖(卮賵賴乇 丕爻鬲賱丕) 賵
(賲蹖趩 (毓丕卮賯 亘賱丕賳卮
鬲賳爻蹖 賵蹖賱蹖丕賲夭 丕亘鬲丿丕 卮禺氐蹖鬲 賴丕蹖 丿丕爻鬲丕賳卮 乇丕 丿乇 噩賻賵蹖 丌乇丕賲 賳卮丕賳 賲蹖 丿賴丿 賵 亘毓丿 讴賲 讴賲 趩丕卮賳蹖 禺卮賵賳鬲 賵 賴賵爻 乇丕 亘賴 丌賳 賲蹖 丕賮夭丕蹖丿 賵 鬲賲丕賲 丌賳趩賴 丿乇 賲賵乇丿 卮禺氐蹖鬲 賴丕 诏賲丕賳 亘乇丿賴 亘賵丿蹖 賴賲賴 讴賲 乇賳诏 賲蹖 卮賵賳丿 賵 乇賳诏蹖 丿蹖诏乇 賲蹖 诏蹖乇賳丿
丕夭 亘賱丕賳卮 亘丿鬲 賲蹖 丕蹖丿 賵 亘毓丿 胤乇賮卮 乇丕賲蹖 诏蹖乇蹖 賵 丨鬲蹖 丕夭 亘蹖趩丕乇诏蹖 丕卮 讴賲 賲蹖 賲丕賳丿
...诏乇蹖賴 丕鬲 亘诏蹖乇丿 賵 亘丕夭
丕夭 丕爻鬲丕賳賱蹖 賴賲 賴賲蹖賳胤賵乇
丕賱亘鬲賴 诏乇蹖賴 亘乇丕蹖 丕爻鬲丕賳賱蹖 乇丕 賮乇丕賲賵卮 讴賳蹖丿
:)
亘賱丕賳卮 賵 丕爻鬲丕賳賱蹖 禺賵丕賴 賳丕禺賵丕賴 亘丕蹖丿 丿卮賲賳 賴賲 卮賵賳丿 蹖讴蹖 賴賳賵夭 丕夭 丕氐丕賱鬲 禺賵蹖卮 丿賲 賲蹖 夭賳丿 賵 丿蹖诏乇蹖 亘賴 賴蹖趩 賯丕賳賵賳蹖 讴賴 乇蹖卮賴 丿乇 诏匕卮鬲賴 丿丕卮鬲賴 亘丕卮丿 倬丕蹖亘賳丿 賳蹖爻鬲 丨鬲蹖 賲丨乇賲丕鬲
丕蹖賳 噩丕賲毓賴 賳丕亘爻丕賲丕賳 賵丌卮賮鬲賴 丕夭 賱丨丕馗 丕禺賱丕賯蹖 乇丕 丿乇 賳丕胤賵乇 丿卮鬲 賵 乇丕賳賳丿賴 鬲丕讴爻蹖 賴賲 賲蹖 亘蹖賳蹖賲
亘賱丕賳卮 诏匕卮鬲賴 丕蹖 鬲賱禺 丿丕乇丿 賵 诏丕賴 賵 亘蹖诏丕賴 亘乇丕蹖卮 鬲丿丕毓蹖 賲蹖 卮賵丿 賵 乇賳噩 賲蹖 亘乇丿.诏匕卮鬲賴 賴丕蹖 鬲賱禺 倬乇 丕夭 賲乇丿丕賳 亘丿貙 倬卮鬲 爻乇卮 鬲賱賳亘丕乇 卮丿賴 丕賳丿
丕爻鬲賱丕 亘賴 丕爻鬲丕賳賱蹖 賲蹖诏賵蹖丿: 鬲賵 亘賱丕賳卮 乇賵賲賵賯毓 丿禺鬲乇蹖卮 賳丿蹖丿蹖.賴蹖趩讴爻貙 賴蹖趩讴爻 亘賴 丕賳丿丕夭賴 丕賵賳 禺賵卮 賯賱亘 賵 禺賵卮 亘丕賵乇 賳亘賵丿 丕賲丕 丌丿賲賴丕卅蹖 賲孬賴 鬲賵 丕夭卮 爻賵亍丕爻鬲賮丕丿賴 讴乇丿賳 賵 賲噩亘賵乇卮 讴乇丿賳 毓賵囟 卮賴
亘賱丕賳卮 亘丕 丿蹖丿賳 賲乇丿丕賳 賳賯卮 亘丕夭蹖 賲蹖 讴賳丿 鬲丕 蹖讴蹖 丕夭 丌賳 賴丕 乇丕 亘賮乇蹖亘丿 賵 亘乇丕蹖 禺賵丿卮 倬賳丕賴诏丕賴蹖 亘蹖丕亘丿.丕賵 丕夭 乇賵卮賳丕蹖蹖 亘蹖夭丕乇 丕爻鬲 趩賵賳 氐賵乇鬲卮 乇丕 賳賲蹖 倬賵卮丕賳丿 賵
!! 爻賳 賵丕賯毓蹖 丕卮 乇丕 賳卮丕賳 賲蹖 丿賴丿 .賴乇乇賵夭 禺丿丕 丿賵卮 丌亘 丿丕睾 賲蹖 诏蹖乇丿
賲蹖趩 丿蹖卮亘 亘噩夭 蹖讴 賲丕趩 趩蹖夭蹖 诏蹖乇卮 賳蹖賵賲丿賴.賲賳 賮賯胤 亘賴卮 賲丕趩 丿丕丿賲.賲蹖禺丕賲 丕丨鬲乇丕賲 賲賳賵 賳诏賴 丿丕乇賴 賵 賲乇丿賴丕 趩蹖夭蹖 乇賵 讴賴 丌爻丕賳 诏蹖乇 亘蹖丕丿 丿賵爻 賳丿丕乇賳.丕夭 胤乇賮 丿蹖诏賴 夭賵丿 爻乇丿 賲蹖卮賳貙亘禺氐賵氐 丕诏賴 爻賳 丿禺鬲乇賴 亘蹖卮鬲乇 丕夭 爻蹖 爻丕賱 亘丕卮賴.丕賵賳丕 禺蹖丕賱 賲蹖讴賳賳 丿禺鬲乇蹖 讴賴 爻賳卮 丕夭 爻蹖 爻丕賱 鬲噩丕賵夭 讴乇丿 亘丕蹖丿 丿乇卮賵 亘匕丕乇賴 賵 賲賳 賳賲蹖禺丕賲 丕蹖賳胤賵乇
! 卮賴.丕賱亘鬲賴 賲蹖趩 賳賲蹖丿賵賳賴-賲賳 爻賳 丨賯蹖賯蹖 禺賵丿賲賵 亘賴卮 賳诏賮鬲賲
卮丕蹖丿 丿乇 噩丕賲毓賴 丕蹖 讴賴 馗丕賴乇 丕蹖賳 賴賲賴 丕賴賲蹖鬲 乇丕 丿丕乇丿 賳賯卮 亘丕夭蹖 讴乇丿賳 乇丕 丕噩亘丕乇蹖 賳丕賲蹖丿 賵 亘鬲賵丕賳 鬲亘乇卅賴 丕卮 讴乇丿貙賵賱蹖 鬲賲爻禺乇 讴乇丿賳 賲蹖趩貙 亘丕 诏賮鬲賳 噩賲賱賴 夭蹖乇 亘賴 賮乇丕賳爻賵蹖貙 趩蹖夭 丿蹖诏乇蹖 賲蹖 诏賵蹖丿
賲賳 賲丕丿丕賲 讴丕賲賱蹖丕 賴爻鬲賲 賵 鬲賵 丌乇賲丕賳丿
!賲蹖 禺賵丕賴蹖 丕賲卮亘 亘丕 賲賳 亘禺賵丕亘蹖責 賳賲蹖 賮賴賲蹖 趩蹖 賲蹖诏賲 責 丌賴貙 亘爻蹖 丕賮爻賵爻
賲丕丿丕賲 讴丕賲賱蹖丕 丕孬乇 丕賱讴爻丕賳丿乇 丿賵賲丕(倬爻乇)貙丿丕爻鬲丕賳 夭賳蹖 亘丿讴丕乇賴 亘賵丿 讴賴 亘丕 毓卮賯 禺丕賱氐丕賳賴 丌乇賲丕賳丿貙 丿诏乇诏賵賳 賲蹖卮賵丿.亘賱丕賳卮 亘賴 夭亘丕賳 賮乇丕賳爻賵蹖 -讴賴 賲蹖趩 丕賳 乇丕 賳賲蹖 賮賴賲丿-禺賵丿 乇丕 賲丕丿丕賲 讴丕賲賱蹖丕 賲蹖 賳丕賲賳丿 丕賲丕 丿乇 胤賵賱 丿丕爻鬲丕賳 亘丕 夭亘丕賳 丕賳诏賱蹖爻蹖 禺賵丿 乇丕 夭賳蹖 倬丕讴 賵鬲賳賴丕 賵 卮讴爻鬲 禺賵乇丿賴 毓卮賯 賳卮丕賳 賲蹖丿賴丿 鬲丕 賲蹖趩 乇丕 毓丕卮賯 禺賵丿 讴賳丿
蹖讴蹖 丕夭 丿賵爻鬲丕賳卮 丕爻鬲丕賳賱蹖 亘乇丕蹖 禺賳丿丕賳丿賳 噩賲毓 倬賵讴乇亘丕夭丕賳貙 噩賵讴蹖 鬲毓乇蹖賮 賲蹖讴賳丿 讴賴
: 賳賲丕蹖丕賳诏乇 乇賵丨蹖賴 賴賵爻 胤賱亘蹖 丕蹖賳 噩賲毓 丕爻鬲
倬蹖乇賲乇丿 丿賴丕鬲蹖 倬卮鬲 禺賵賳卮 賳卮爻鬲賴 亘賵丿 亘乇丕蹖 噩賵噩賴 賴丕 丿賵賳 賲蹖 倬丕卮蹖丿.蹖讴賲乇鬲亘賴 氐丿丕蹖 賯丿 賯丿 賲蹖丕丿 賵 蹖讴 賲乇睾 丿賵賳 賵乇趩蹖賳 倬蹖丿丕卮 賲蹖卮賴貙蹖賴 禺乇賵爻 賴賲 诏匕丕卮鬲賴 丿賳亘丕賱卮
丕賲丕 鬲丕 禺乇賵爻 趩卮賲卮 亘賴 倬蹖乇賲乇丿賴 賲蹖 丕賮鬲賴 賵 賲蹖亘蹖賳賴 讴賴 丿賵賳 賲蹖 倬丕卮賴 賲乇睾賴 乇賵 賵賱 賲蹖讴賳賴 賵 卮乇賵毓 賲蹖讴賳賴 亘賴 丿賵賳 賵乇趩蹖丿賳.倬蹖乇賲乇丿賴 讴賴 丕蹖賳賵 賲蹖亘蹖賳賴 賲蹖诏賴
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丕爻鬲丕賳賱蹖 爻賱胤丕賳 賴賵爻 丕爻鬲 賵 丨鬲蹖 卮丕蹖丿 丿賱爻賵夭蹖 丕卮 亘乇丕蹖 丿賵爻鬲卮 "賲蹖趩" 亘乇丕蹖 丕乇囟丕蹖 賴賵爻 禺賵丿 亘賵丿賴 鬲丕 乇賯蹖亘 乇丕 丨匕賮 讴賳丿 賵 禺賵丿 亘賴 亘賱丕賳卮 丿爻鬲 蹖丕亘丿
丕賵 禺乇賵爻 丕爻鬲 賵 蹖讴 禺乇賵爻 賳賴 丕夭 賲乇睾 鬲毓乇蹖賮 賲蹖 讴賳丿 賵 賳賴 亘丕 丌賳 賱丕爻 賲蹖夭賳丿 賵 賮賯胤 賴賵爻卮 乇丕 丿乇 趩賳丿 賱丨馗賴 亘賴 賴乇 乇丕賴蹖 卮丿賴 賮乇賵 賲蹖 賳卮丕賳丿
丕賵 亘賴 亘賱丕賳卮 賲蹖 诏賵蹖丿: 鬲毓丕乇賮 亘賴 夭賳 賴丕 丿乇亘丕乇賴 賯蹖丕賮賴 卮賵賳 噩夭賵 賲夭禺乇賮丕鬲賴貙賲賳 賴蹖趩 夭賳蹖 乇賵 賳丿蹖丿賲 讴賴 賯亘賱 丕蹖賳讴賴 亘賴卮 亘诏賳貙禺賵丿卮 賳丿賵賳賴 禺賵卮诏賱賴 蹖丕 賳賴.亘毓囟蹖 賴丕卮賵賳 賴賲 夭蹖丕丿蹖 賵丕爻賴 禺賵丿卮賵賳 丕乇夭卮 賯丕卅賱賳
卮禺氐蹖鬲 爻丕夭卮 倬匕蹖乇 丕爻鬲賱丕 丿乇 丕蹖賳 睾賵睾丕 賳爻亘鬲 亘賴 亘賱丕賳卮 賵 丕爻鬲丕賳賱蹖 夭蹖丕丿 亘賴 趩卮賲 賳賲蹖 丌蹖丿.賵蹖 丿賯蹖賯丕 卮亘蹖賴 賲乇睾蹖 丕爻鬲 讴賴 丿乇 亘乇丕亘乇 讴鬲讴 賴丕 賵 禺蹖丕賳鬲 賴丕 賵 賲爻鬲蹖 賴丕蹖 禺乇賵爻 鬲爻賱蹖賲 賲蹖 卮賵丿
賵 丕蹖賳 鬲爻賱蹖賲 倬匕蹖乇蹖 丿乇 噩賲賱丕鬲 丕賵賱 乇蹖賵蹖賵 讴賴 賲蹖 诏賵蹖丿 賴賲賴 丕蹖賳 趩蹖夭賴丕 丿乇 卮亘 賵 賴賲 丌睾賵卮蹖 亘丕 丕爻鬲丕賳賱蹖 賮乇丕賲賵卮 賲蹖 卮賵賳丿 讴丕賲賱丕 賲卮賴賵丿 丕爻鬲
氐丿 乇丨賲鬲 亘賴 丕蹖賵賳丕賳爻 (夭賳 賴賲爻丕蹖賴) 讴賴 亘丕 卮賳蹖丿賳 禺蹖丕賳鬲 賴丕蹖 賴賲爻乇卮 丨丿丕賯賱 趩賳丿 馗乇賮蹖
!!! 賲蹖 卮讴賳丿 丕賲丕 亘丕夭 亘丕蹖丿 丕蹖賳 禺蹖丕賳鬲 賴丕 乇丕 賮乇丕賲賵卮 讴賳丿
卮丕蹖丿 鬲賳賴丕 卮禺氐蹖鬲 賲蹖趩 丕爻鬲 讴賴 賲蹖 鬲賵丕賳 丿賵爻鬲卮 丿丕卮鬲.賲乇丿蹖 讴賴 丕夭 賲丕丿乇 倬蹖乇 賵 賲乇蹖囟卮 賲乇丕賯亘鬲 賲蹖讴賳丿 丕賲丕 賴蹖趩 禺亘乇蹖 丕夭 倬丿乇 賵 賲丕丿乇 丕爻鬲丕賳賱蹖 賵 丿賵爻鬲丕賳 丿蹖诏乇卮 賳蹖爻鬲.亘丕 丕蹖賳讴賴 賲蹖趩 賲蹖賱 噩賳爻蹖 夭蹖丕丿蹖 亘賴 亘賱丕賳卮 丿丕乇丿 賵 賮乇氐鬲卮 賴賲 倬蹖卮 賲蹖 丌蹖丿 鬲噩丕賵夭 賳賲蹖 讴賳丿
丕爻鬲賱丕:丕賲丕 亘丕賱丕禺乇賴 蹖讴 趩蹖夭賴丕卅蹖 賴爻鬲 讴賴 丿乇 鬲丕乇蹖讴蹖 亘蹖賳 夭賳 賵 賲乇丿 丕鬲賮丕賯 賲蹖 丕賮鬲賴 貙亘胤賵乇蹖 讴賴 賴乇趩蹖夭 丿蹖诏賴 乇賵 亘蹖 丕賴賲蹖鬲 賲蹖讴賳賴
亘賱丕賳卮:丕蹖賳 讴賴 丿丕乇蹖 賲蹖诏蹖 賴賵爻 賵丨卮蹖 賵 倬爻鬲蹖 丕爻鬲.賮賯胤 賴賵爻貨
丕爻賲 賴賲賵賳 丕鬲賵亘賵爻 倬乇 爻乇賵氐丿丕卅蹖 讴賴 賲乇鬲亘丕 丕夭 丕蹖賳 禺蹖丕亘賵賳 亘賴 丕賵賳 禺蹖丕亘賵賳 賲蹖乇賴
亘毓囟蹖 讴鬲丕亘賴丕 卮丕賴讴丕乇賳丿
趩賵賳 亘丕 鬲賲丕賲 讴乇丿賳 賵 亘爻鬲賳 讴鬲丕亘 貙賴賳賵夭 丿乇 匕賴賳鬲 賵乇賯 賲蹖禺賵乇賳丿
賳賴 丕蹖賳讴賴 讴鬲丕亘 亘賴 爻亘讴 爻蹖丕賱 匕賴賳 賵 睾蹖乇 禺胤蹖 亘丕卮丿 亘賱讴賴 丿乇 胤賵賱 讴鬲丕亘貙 丕賮讴丕乇鬲 丿丕卅賲丕 丿乇 丨丕賱 鬲睾蹖蹖乇 亘賵丿賴 丕賳丿
亘毓丿 禺賵丕賳丿賳 賳賲丕蹖卮賳丕賲賴貙 賮蹖賱賲卮 乇丕 丿蹖丿賲 賵 丿賵亘丕乇賴 匕賴賳賲 丿乇诏蹖乇 丨賱丕噩蹖 卮禺氐蹖鬲 賴丕 卮丿
...
卮禺氐蹖鬲 賴丕蹖 丕氐賱蹖 丿丕爻鬲丕賳:亘賱丕賳卮 - 丕爻鬲賱丕(禺賵丕賴乇 亘賱丕賳卮)-丕爻鬲丕賳賱蹖(卮賵賴乇 丕爻鬲賱丕) 賵
(賲蹖趩 (毓丕卮賯 亘賱丕賳卮
鬲賳爻蹖 賵蹖賱蹖丕賲夭 丕亘鬲丿丕 卮禺氐蹖鬲 賴丕蹖 丿丕爻鬲丕賳卮 乇丕 丿乇 噩賻賵蹖 丌乇丕賲 賳卮丕賳 賲蹖 丿賴丿 賵 亘毓丿 讴賲 讴賲 趩丕卮賳蹖 禺卮賵賳鬲 賵 賴賵爻 乇丕 亘賴 丌賳 賲蹖 丕賮夭丕蹖丿 賵 鬲賲丕賲 丌賳趩賴 丿乇 賲賵乇丿 卮禺氐蹖鬲 賴丕 诏賲丕賳 亘乇丿賴 亘賵丿蹖 賴賲賴 讴賲 乇賳诏 賲蹖 卮賵賳丿 賵 乇賳诏蹖 丿蹖诏乇 賲蹖 诏蹖乇賳丿
丕夭 亘賱丕賳卮 亘丿鬲 賲蹖 丕蹖丿 賵 亘毓丿 胤乇賮卮 乇丕賲蹖 诏蹖乇蹖 賵 丨鬲蹖 丕夭 亘蹖趩丕乇诏蹖 丕卮 讴賲 賲蹖 賲丕賳丿
...诏乇蹖賴 丕鬲 亘诏蹖乇丿 賵 亘丕夭
丕夭 丕爻鬲丕賳賱蹖 賴賲 賴賲蹖賳胤賵乇
丕賱亘鬲賴 诏乇蹖賴 亘乇丕蹖 丕爻鬲丕賳賱蹖 乇丕 賮乇丕賲賵卮 讴賳蹖丿
:)
亘賱丕賳卮 賵 丕爻鬲丕賳賱蹖 禺賵丕賴 賳丕禺賵丕賴 亘丕蹖丿 丿卮賲賳 賴賲 卮賵賳丿 蹖讴蹖 賴賳賵夭 丕夭 丕氐丕賱鬲 禺賵蹖卮 丿賲 賲蹖 夭賳丿 賵 丿蹖诏乇蹖 亘賴 賴蹖趩 賯丕賳賵賳蹖 讴賴 乇蹖卮賴 丿乇 诏匕卮鬲賴 丿丕卮鬲賴 亘丕卮丿 倬丕蹖亘賳丿 賳蹖爻鬲 丨鬲蹖 賲丨乇賲丕鬲
丕蹖賳 噩丕賲毓賴 賳丕亘爻丕賲丕賳 賵丌卮賮鬲賴 丕夭 賱丨丕馗 丕禺賱丕賯蹖 乇丕 丿乇 賳丕胤賵乇 丿卮鬲 賵 乇丕賳賳丿賴 鬲丕讴爻蹖 賴賲 賲蹖 亘蹖賳蹖賲
亘賱丕賳卮 诏匕卮鬲賴 丕蹖 鬲賱禺 丿丕乇丿 賵 诏丕賴 賵 亘蹖诏丕賴 亘乇丕蹖卮 鬲丿丕毓蹖 賲蹖 卮賵丿 賵 乇賳噩 賲蹖 亘乇丿.诏匕卮鬲賴 賴丕蹖 鬲賱禺 倬乇 丕夭 賲乇丿丕賳 亘丿貙 倬卮鬲 爻乇卮 鬲賱賳亘丕乇 卮丿賴 丕賳丿
丕爻鬲賱丕 亘賴 丕爻鬲丕賳賱蹖 賲蹖诏賵蹖丿: 鬲賵 亘賱丕賳卮 乇賵賲賵賯毓 丿禺鬲乇蹖卮 賳丿蹖丿蹖.賴蹖趩讴爻貙 賴蹖趩讴爻 亘賴 丕賳丿丕夭賴 丕賵賳 禺賵卮 賯賱亘 賵 禺賵卮 亘丕賵乇 賳亘賵丿 丕賲丕 丌丿賲賴丕卅蹖 賲孬賴 鬲賵 丕夭卮 爻賵亍丕爻鬲賮丕丿賴 讴乇丿賳 賵 賲噩亘賵乇卮 讴乇丿賳 毓賵囟 卮賴
亘賱丕賳卮 亘丕 丿蹖丿賳 賲乇丿丕賳 賳賯卮 亘丕夭蹖 賲蹖 讴賳丿 鬲丕 蹖讴蹖 丕夭 丌賳 賴丕 乇丕 亘賮乇蹖亘丿 賵 亘乇丕蹖 禺賵丿卮 倬賳丕賴诏丕賴蹖 亘蹖丕亘丿.丕賵 丕夭 乇賵卮賳丕蹖蹖 亘蹖夭丕乇 丕爻鬲 趩賵賳 氐賵乇鬲卮 乇丕 賳賲蹖 倬賵卮丕賳丿 賵
!! 爻賳 賵丕賯毓蹖 丕卮 乇丕 賳卮丕賳 賲蹖 丿賴丿 .賴乇乇賵夭 禺丿丕 丿賵卮 丌亘 丿丕睾 賲蹖 诏蹖乇丿
賲蹖趩 丿蹖卮亘 亘噩夭 蹖讴 賲丕趩 趩蹖夭蹖 诏蹖乇卮 賳蹖賵賲丿賴.賲賳 賮賯胤 亘賴卮 賲丕趩 丿丕丿賲.賲蹖禺丕賲 丕丨鬲乇丕賲 賲賳賵 賳诏賴 丿丕乇賴 賵 賲乇丿賴丕 趩蹖夭蹖 乇賵 讴賴 丌爻丕賳 诏蹖乇 亘蹖丕丿 丿賵爻 賳丿丕乇賳.丕夭 胤乇賮 丿蹖诏賴 夭賵丿 爻乇丿 賲蹖卮賳貙亘禺氐賵氐 丕诏賴 爻賳 丿禺鬲乇賴 亘蹖卮鬲乇 丕夭 爻蹖 爻丕賱 亘丕卮賴.丕賵賳丕 禺蹖丕賱 賲蹖讴賳賳 丿禺鬲乇蹖 讴賴 爻賳卮 丕夭 爻蹖 爻丕賱 鬲噩丕賵夭 讴乇丿 亘丕蹖丿 丿乇卮賵 亘匕丕乇賴 賵 賲賳 賳賲蹖禺丕賲 丕蹖賳胤賵乇
! 卮賴.丕賱亘鬲賴 賲蹖趩 賳賲蹖丿賵賳賴-賲賳 爻賳 丨賯蹖賯蹖 禺賵丿賲賵 亘賴卮 賳诏賮鬲賲
卮丕蹖丿 丿乇 噩丕賲毓賴 丕蹖 讴賴 馗丕賴乇 丕蹖賳 賴賲賴 丕賴賲蹖鬲 乇丕 丿丕乇丿 賳賯卮 亘丕夭蹖 讴乇丿賳 乇丕 丕噩亘丕乇蹖 賳丕賲蹖丿 賵 亘鬲賵丕賳 鬲亘乇卅賴 丕卮 讴乇丿貙賵賱蹖 鬲賲爻禺乇 讴乇丿賳 賲蹖趩貙 亘丕 诏賮鬲賳 噩賲賱賴 夭蹖乇 亘賴 賮乇丕賳爻賵蹖貙 趩蹖夭 丿蹖诏乇蹖 賲蹖 诏賵蹖丿
賲賳 賲丕丿丕賲 讴丕賲賱蹖丕 賴爻鬲賲 賵 鬲賵 丌乇賲丕賳丿
!賲蹖 禺賵丕賴蹖 丕賲卮亘 亘丕 賲賳 亘禺賵丕亘蹖責 賳賲蹖 賮賴賲蹖 趩蹖 賲蹖诏賲 責 丌賴貙 亘爻蹖 丕賮爻賵爻
賲丕丿丕賲 讴丕賲賱蹖丕 丕孬乇 丕賱讴爻丕賳丿乇 丿賵賲丕(倬爻乇)貙丿丕爻鬲丕賳 夭賳蹖 亘丿讴丕乇賴 亘賵丿 讴賴 亘丕 毓卮賯 禺丕賱氐丕賳賴 丌乇賲丕賳丿貙 丿诏乇诏賵賳 賲蹖卮賵丿.亘賱丕賳卮 亘賴 夭亘丕賳 賮乇丕賳爻賵蹖 -讴賴 賲蹖趩 丕賳 乇丕 賳賲蹖 賮賴賲丿-禺賵丿 乇丕 賲丕丿丕賲 讴丕賲賱蹖丕 賲蹖 賳丕賲賳丿 丕賲丕 丿乇 胤賵賱 丿丕爻鬲丕賳 亘丕 夭亘丕賳 丕賳诏賱蹖爻蹖 禺賵丿 乇丕 夭賳蹖 倬丕讴 賵鬲賳賴丕 賵 卮讴爻鬲 禺賵乇丿賴 毓卮賯 賳卮丕賳 賲蹖丿賴丿 鬲丕 賲蹖趩 乇丕 毓丕卮賯 禺賵丿 讴賳丿
蹖讴蹖 丕夭 丿賵爻鬲丕賳卮 丕爻鬲丕賳賱蹖 亘乇丕蹖 禺賳丿丕賳丿賳 噩賲毓 倬賵讴乇亘丕夭丕賳貙 噩賵讴蹖 鬲毓乇蹖賮 賲蹖讴賳丿 讴賴
: 賳賲丕蹖丕賳诏乇 乇賵丨蹖賴 賴賵爻 胤賱亘蹖 丕蹖賳 噩賲毓 丕爻鬲
倬蹖乇賲乇丿 丿賴丕鬲蹖 倬卮鬲 禺賵賳卮 賳卮爻鬲賴 亘賵丿 亘乇丕蹖 噩賵噩賴 賴丕 丿賵賳 賲蹖 倬丕卮蹖丿.蹖讴賲乇鬲亘賴 氐丿丕蹖 賯丿 賯丿 賲蹖丕丿 賵 蹖讴 賲乇睾 丿賵賳 賵乇趩蹖賳 倬蹖丿丕卮 賲蹖卮賴貙蹖賴 禺乇賵爻 賴賲 诏匕丕卮鬲賴 丿賳亘丕賱卮
丕賲丕 鬲丕 禺乇賵爻 趩卮賲卮 亘賴 倬蹖乇賲乇丿賴 賲蹖 丕賮鬲賴 賵 賲蹖亘蹖賳賴 讴賴 丿賵賳 賲蹖 倬丕卮賴 賲乇睾賴 乇賵 賵賱 賲蹖讴賳賴 賵 卮乇賵毓 賲蹖讴賳賴 亘賴 丿賵賳 賵乇趩蹖丿賳.倬蹖乇賲乇丿賴 讴賴 丕蹖賳賵 賲蹖亘蹖賳賴 賲蹖诏賴
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丕爻鬲丕賳賱蹖 爻賱胤丕賳 賴賵爻 丕爻鬲 賵 丨鬲蹖 卮丕蹖丿 丿賱爻賵夭蹖 丕卮 亘乇丕蹖 丿賵爻鬲卮 "賲蹖趩" 亘乇丕蹖 丕乇囟丕蹖 賴賵爻 禺賵丿 亘賵丿賴 鬲丕 乇賯蹖亘 乇丕 丨匕賮 讴賳丿 賵 禺賵丿 亘賴 亘賱丕賳卮 丿爻鬲 蹖丕亘丿
丕賵 禺乇賵爻 丕爻鬲 賵 蹖讴 禺乇賵爻 賳賴 丕夭 賲乇睾 鬲毓乇蹖賮 賲蹖 讴賳丿 賵 賳賴 亘丕 丌賳 賱丕爻 賲蹖夭賳丿 賵 賮賯胤 賴賵爻卮 乇丕 丿乇 趩賳丿 賱丨馗賴 亘賴 賴乇 乇丕賴蹖 卮丿賴 賮乇賵 賲蹖 賳卮丕賳丿
丕賵 亘賴 亘賱丕賳卮 賲蹖 诏賵蹖丿: 鬲毓丕乇賮 亘賴 夭賳 賴丕 丿乇亘丕乇賴 賯蹖丕賮賴 卮賵賳 噩夭賵 賲夭禺乇賮丕鬲賴貙賲賳 賴蹖趩 夭賳蹖 乇賵 賳丿蹖丿賲 讴賴 賯亘賱 丕蹖賳讴賴 亘賴卮 亘诏賳貙禺賵丿卮 賳丿賵賳賴 禺賵卮诏賱賴 蹖丕 賳賴.亘毓囟蹖 賴丕卮賵賳 賴賲 夭蹖丕丿蹖 賵丕爻賴 禺賵丿卮賵賳 丕乇夭卮 賯丕卅賱賳
卮禺氐蹖鬲 爻丕夭卮 倬匕蹖乇 丕爻鬲賱丕 丿乇 丕蹖賳 睾賵睾丕 賳爻亘鬲 亘賴 亘賱丕賳卮 賵 丕爻鬲丕賳賱蹖 夭蹖丕丿 亘賴 趩卮賲 賳賲蹖 丌蹖丿.賵蹖 丿賯蹖賯丕 卮亘蹖賴 賲乇睾蹖 丕爻鬲 讴賴 丿乇 亘乇丕亘乇 讴鬲讴 賴丕 賵 禺蹖丕賳鬲 賴丕 賵 賲爻鬲蹖 賴丕蹖 禺乇賵爻 鬲爻賱蹖賲 賲蹖 卮賵丿
賵 丕蹖賳 鬲爻賱蹖賲 倬匕蹖乇蹖 丿乇 噩賲賱丕鬲 丕賵賱 乇蹖賵蹖賵 讴賴 賲蹖 诏賵蹖丿 賴賲賴 丕蹖賳 趩蹖夭賴丕 丿乇 卮亘 賵 賴賲 丌睾賵卮蹖 亘丕 丕爻鬲丕賳賱蹖 賮乇丕賲賵卮 賲蹖 卮賵賳丿 讴丕賲賱丕 賲卮賴賵丿 丕爻鬲
氐丿 乇丨賲鬲 亘賴 丕蹖賵賳丕賳爻 (夭賳 賴賲爻丕蹖賴) 讴賴 亘丕 卮賳蹖丿賳 禺蹖丕賳鬲 賴丕蹖 賴賲爻乇卮 丨丿丕賯賱 趩賳丿 馗乇賮蹖
!!! 賲蹖 卮讴賳丿 丕賲丕 亘丕夭 亘丕蹖丿 丕蹖賳 禺蹖丕賳鬲 賴丕 乇丕 賮乇丕賲賵卮 讴賳丿
卮丕蹖丿 鬲賳賴丕 卮禺氐蹖鬲 賲蹖趩 丕爻鬲 讴賴 賲蹖 鬲賵丕賳 丿賵爻鬲卮 丿丕卮鬲.賲乇丿蹖 讴賴 丕夭 賲丕丿乇 倬蹖乇 賵 賲乇蹖囟卮 賲乇丕賯亘鬲 賲蹖讴賳丿 丕賲丕 賴蹖趩 禺亘乇蹖 丕夭 倬丿乇 賵 賲丕丿乇 丕爻鬲丕賳賱蹖 賵 丿賵爻鬲丕賳 丿蹖诏乇卮 賳蹖爻鬲.亘丕 丕蹖賳讴賴 賲蹖趩 賲蹖賱 噩賳爻蹖 夭蹖丕丿蹖 亘賴 亘賱丕賳卮 丿丕乇丿 賵 賮乇氐鬲卮 賴賲 倬蹖卮 賲蹖 丌蹖丿 鬲噩丕賵夭 賳賲蹖 讴賳丿
December 5, 2022
A mentally ill woman in the 1940s did not stand a chance.
My heartfelt sympathies to Blanche DuBois. Imagine marrying a closeted gay man, catching him in the act- that's how you find out by the way- and when confronted about it, he immediately proceeds to blow his brains out, literally. Also, you've lost your home and have no place to live. Broken and alone you turn to your sister (the only living member of your family) for help, but, alas, she's married to Stanley Kowalski, one of the most contemptible men in literature. Your doom ensues.
Stating the obvious here but Tennessee Williams is a marvelous playwright. FIVE stars for Streetcar, a bloody brilliant play!
My heartfelt sympathies to Blanche DuBois. Imagine marrying a closeted gay man, catching him in the act- that's how you find out by the way- and when confronted about it, he immediately proceeds to blow his brains out, literally. Also, you've lost your home and have no place to live. Broken and alone you turn to your sister (the only living member of your family) for help, but, alas, she's married to Stanley Kowalski, one of the most contemptible men in literature. Your doom ensues.
Stating the obvious here but Tennessee Williams is a marvelous playwright. FIVE stars for Streetcar, a bloody brilliant play!
February 10, 2023
A Streetcar Named Desire is one of the most critically acclaimed plays of the twentieth century and the most popular work of Tennessee Williams.
This is a terrific drama around mental health and abusive relationships.
I recently attended a performance by The National Ballet of Canada of an adaptation of this play, and I was mesmerized but at the same time disturbed by its graphic and violent sexual content. I have watched the movie adaptation several times and I don鈥檛 recall those scenes or some parts of the storyline, so I decided to read this play for the first time.
I really enjoyed it, especially the dialogues. But as I read, I played the movie in my head, so my opinion could be considered biased, as the movie is one of my favourites.
This play is quite remarkable.
The ending in the movie is slightly different from the play.
PS. Original review posted on March 21, 2022 and edited on February 10, 2023.
This is a terrific drama around mental health and abusive relationships.
I recently attended a performance by The National Ballet of Canada of an adaptation of this play, and I was mesmerized but at the same time disturbed by its graphic and violent sexual content. I have watched the movie adaptation several times and I don鈥檛 recall those scenes or some parts of the storyline, so I decided to read this play for the first time.
I really enjoyed it, especially the dialogues. But as I read, I played the movie in my head, so my opinion could be considered biased, as the movie is one of my favourites.
This play is quite remarkable.
The ending in the movie is slightly different from the play.
PS. Original review posted on March 21, 2022 and edited on February 10, 2023.
March 18, 2018
A mental breakdown is a gradual process; it is something that happens slowly over a substantial period of time. With this play it was like a smack in the mouth; it came suddenly and without any form of real warning. And I find that a little odd.
Sure, something can trigger us off though we don鈥檛 necessarily go from perfectly calm and collective to meltdown mode in an instant. Blanche is clearly delusional. She has convinced herself of a life that doesn鈥檛 really exist. This is her body armour, a shell she uses to protect herself from what is actually happening in her life. She pretends to be a member of a higher class in which her life is perfectly fine, but it鈥檚 not really.
Nobody else is aware of this. Her persona convinces most and keeps the rest away. In this she鈥檚 not remotely insane or unhinged; she鈥檚 just damaged and on her guard. Life has got her down. So at the end of the play, when she supposedly gets raped, she loses it.
The sexual chemistry was there from the very first scene in which she met Stanley. She was drawn to his animalism and domineering masculinity; she clearly desired him even if she would never directly admit it to herself or others. So when he eventually makes a move on her, she doesn鈥檛 put up any convincing resistance; she lets it happen: she almost wants it to happen. And I find it difficult to conclude that it is rape. It happens off stage and we only know of the aftermath. The crime is implied, though it isn鈥檛 directly explicit.
鈥淲e've had this date with each other from the beginning.鈥�
I may be arguing against the tide, though if you consider the history of Blanche the rape can be fairly doubted. She has a way of weeding her way out of situations. She鈥檚 escaped her first marriage because her husband killed himself. This, again, seems doubtful. Blanche relays her tale, but from her side of things (the only one that is available.) Apparently, her husband killed himself off the basis of one conversation which confronted his homosexuality. This doesn鈥檛 seem real. She walked in on him having sex with another man. Nothing happens. Time goes by. She brings the subject up later on, and then BAMM! he kills himself. I find the whole situation doubtful. We only have Blanche鈥檚 take on things, and I do think it鈥檚 far from the truth. I think the rape can be seen as her escape route out of another situation. I think she lets it happen just so she can have an exit point.
Indeed, the perfectly poised and delusional Blanche couldn鈥檛 simply walk out of the door; she couldn鈥檛 simply accept that her sister doesn鈥檛 like her and that she鈥檚 a complete manipulator of people and their emotions. No. That鈥檚 not Blanche. She has to go out with a bang, so to speak. I think the whole insanity thing was an act or to the point that she has deluded herself into thinking that it鈥檚 real. I am, again, arguing against the tide. I can鈥檛 find any sources that agree with me. But, I am almost convinced of it. I just can鈥檛 accept that she could have been driven to complete madness just like that. Not that I鈥檓 undermining the terribleness of rape, but in this situation I don鈥檛 think it鈥檚 a valid trigger to insanity.
It鈥檚 an interesting play, and it made me think, though I鈥檓 not certain that the ending everybody thinks happened did happen.
Sure, something can trigger us off though we don鈥檛 necessarily go from perfectly calm and collective to meltdown mode in an instant. Blanche is clearly delusional. She has convinced herself of a life that doesn鈥檛 really exist. This is her body armour, a shell she uses to protect herself from what is actually happening in her life. She pretends to be a member of a higher class in which her life is perfectly fine, but it鈥檚 not really.
Nobody else is aware of this. Her persona convinces most and keeps the rest away. In this she鈥檚 not remotely insane or unhinged; she鈥檚 just damaged and on her guard. Life has got her down. So at the end of the play, when she supposedly gets raped, she loses it.
The sexual chemistry was there from the very first scene in which she met Stanley. She was drawn to his animalism and domineering masculinity; she clearly desired him even if she would never directly admit it to herself or others. So when he eventually makes a move on her, she doesn鈥檛 put up any convincing resistance; she lets it happen: she almost wants it to happen. And I find it difficult to conclude that it is rape. It happens off stage and we only know of the aftermath. The crime is implied, though it isn鈥檛 directly explicit.
鈥淲e've had this date with each other from the beginning.鈥�
I may be arguing against the tide, though if you consider the history of Blanche the rape can be fairly doubted. She has a way of weeding her way out of situations. She鈥檚 escaped her first marriage because her husband killed himself. This, again, seems doubtful. Blanche relays her tale, but from her side of things (the only one that is available.) Apparently, her husband killed himself off the basis of one conversation which confronted his homosexuality. This doesn鈥檛 seem real. She walked in on him having sex with another man. Nothing happens. Time goes by. She brings the subject up later on, and then BAMM! he kills himself. I find the whole situation doubtful. We only have Blanche鈥檚 take on things, and I do think it鈥檚 far from the truth. I think the rape can be seen as her escape route out of another situation. I think she lets it happen just so she can have an exit point.
Indeed, the perfectly poised and delusional Blanche couldn鈥檛 simply walk out of the door; she couldn鈥檛 simply accept that her sister doesn鈥檛 like her and that she鈥檚 a complete manipulator of people and their emotions. No. That鈥檚 not Blanche. She has to go out with a bang, so to speak. I think the whole insanity thing was an act or to the point that she has deluded herself into thinking that it鈥檚 real. I am, again, arguing against the tide. I can鈥檛 find any sources that agree with me. But, I am almost convinced of it. I just can鈥檛 accept that she could have been driven to complete madness just like that. Not that I鈥檓 undermining the terribleness of rape, but in this situation I don鈥檛 think it鈥檚 a valid trigger to insanity.
It鈥檚 an interesting play, and it made me think, though I鈥檓 not certain that the ending everybody thinks happened did happen.
February 18, 2021
Tennessee Williams writes some brilliant dialogue and distributes it perfectly across an explosive cast of characters. All of it makes for some crazy intense scenes.
So while it's natural to imagine this would be an awesome play (which I can't wait to see some day), the experience of reading it isn't, or at least for me it wasn't. Seems like this was clearly written to be performed not read, like most plays are...
So while it's natural to imagine this would be an awesome play (which I can't wait to see some day), the experience of reading it isn't, or at least for me it wasn't. Seems like this was clearly written to be performed not read, like most plays are...
December 29, 2020
I'll tell you what I want. Magic! Yes, yes, magic! I try and give that to people. I misrepresent things to them. I don't tell the truth. I tell what ought to be the truth. And if that is sinful, then let me be damned for it!
What a wonderfully claustrophobic and poisonous play! I've somehow never seen or read any Tennessee Williams before this, something to be corrected. This is a brutal indictment of post-war American culture which deals with domestic violence, rape (?) and emotional abuse, as well as the illusions and delusions that enable the latter - which also, ironically, may sustain women in the face of a cruel world. Faded Blanche is the catalyst and most obvious victim but Stella left me anxious, too.
Full of anger, desire, tension, smouldering but risky sexuality, subtle critiques of class, race and gender stereotypes - and set against a vibrant New Orleans background, which also becomes the source of Blanche's hallucinations, this makes fantastic use of a closed set which foregrounds how dangerous domestic proximity may be.
April 7, 2024
For the last few years I鈥檝e reviewed everything I read. Sometimes that鈥檚 a real pain in the ass. This is one of those times. A Streetcar Named Desire is perhaps the most famous play of one of America鈥檚 most distinguished playwrights. Its movie adaptation is a true classic. It鈥檚 a play with hot passion, big emotions, and bigger characters. And honestly, I don鈥檛 like it. It left me cold. Didn鈥檛 touch me. Kinda pissed me off.
Why? I couldn鈥檛 abide Stanley. He鈥檚 a brute and a bully, and he dominates this play like he dominates his wife Stella. The way everything plays out, with Stella lying to herself while her sister Blanche is destroyed and abandoned just ripped me, and not in a good way. The play felt exploitive, mean, and cruel. When contemplating poor Blanche and her fate, all I could think of was a sad line from Richard Brautigan鈥檚 short story The Betrayed Kingdom:
鈥漈his might have been a funny story if it weren鈥檛 for the fact that people need a little loving, and God, sometimes it鈥檚 sad all the shit they have to go through to find some.鈥�
Why? I couldn鈥檛 abide Stanley. He鈥檚 a brute and a bully, and he dominates this play like he dominates his wife Stella. The way everything plays out, with Stella lying to herself while her sister Blanche is destroyed and abandoned just ripped me, and not in a good way. The play felt exploitive, mean, and cruel. When contemplating poor Blanche and her fate, all I could think of was a sad line from Richard Brautigan鈥檚 short story The Betrayed Kingdom:
鈥漈his might have been a funny story if it weren鈥檛 for the fact that people need a little loving, and God, sometimes it鈥檚 sad all the shit they have to go through to find some.鈥�
March 8, 2021
I really can鈥檛 understand how I鈥檝e just listened to and read this iconic play for the first time. I鈥檝e never seen a production on the stage or any of the film versions either. I will have to remedy that now.
Tennessee Williams created such a bleak, raw, visceral cast of characters in A Streetcar Named Desire in which he probes their innermost desires and truths. His striking and evocative dialogues skillfully depict the complex themes portrayed throughout. The atmosphere brilliantly takes you back to the humidity and music of 1940鈥檚 New Orleans.
These characters have become some of the most recognized and famous of all time. Stanley Kowalski is a brutally harsh, crude, working-class man who has no ability for sympathy. Then there is Blanche DuBois. A broken and tortured southern belle, Blanche comes to New Orleans to get away from her life that is crumbling. Her pregnant sister Stella, Stanley鈥檚 wife, tries to make Blanche feel comfortable in her small, shabby apartment, so unlike the DuBois plantation in Mississippi. There is immediate dislike between Stanley and Blanche and Stella is caught in the middle. Williams is so adept at creating the tension among the characters in order to reveal the meanings, open and hidden, in a way that builds and builds from the beginning to the end. We are witnesses to the desires and hidden truths behind their actions and we feel their pain immensely. Sexuality and passion actually reflect the way these characters view the world around them. The women鈥檚 ideas about dependence on men govern their lives and cause great suffering and psychological instability.
What an intricately woven story that has stood the test of time and still is relevant to our modern world. I think we will continue to talk about these flawed people for years and years to come.
Tennessee Williams created such a bleak, raw, visceral cast of characters in A Streetcar Named Desire in which he probes their innermost desires and truths. His striking and evocative dialogues skillfully depict the complex themes portrayed throughout. The atmosphere brilliantly takes you back to the humidity and music of 1940鈥檚 New Orleans.
These characters have become some of the most recognized and famous of all time. Stanley Kowalski is a brutally harsh, crude, working-class man who has no ability for sympathy. Then there is Blanche DuBois. A broken and tortured southern belle, Blanche comes to New Orleans to get away from her life that is crumbling. Her pregnant sister Stella, Stanley鈥檚 wife, tries to make Blanche feel comfortable in her small, shabby apartment, so unlike the DuBois plantation in Mississippi. There is immediate dislike between Stanley and Blanche and Stella is caught in the middle. Williams is so adept at creating the tension among the characters in order to reveal the meanings, open and hidden, in a way that builds and builds from the beginning to the end. We are witnesses to the desires and hidden truths behind their actions and we feel their pain immensely. Sexuality and passion actually reflect the way these characters view the world around them. The women鈥檚 ideas about dependence on men govern their lives and cause great suffering and psychological instability.
What an intricately woven story that has stood the test of time and still is relevant to our modern world. I think we will continue to talk about these flawed people for years and years to come.
June 9, 2013
Such a powerful drama! Williams presents his word-portraits so amazingly. As I noted when I read , he also is a master of stage direction. When reading this play, it's possible to "see" the surroundings, hear the music and voices on the street.
Stanley, Stella and Blanche come alive on the pages as Blanche drops in at her sister's home creating a simmering stew of growing emotion. The heat of a Southern summer is reflected by all that happens in the two bedroom apartment as stories are told and feelings unleashed.
Now I must watch the film...just placed on hold at the library.
Very highly recommended.
Stanley, Stella and Blanche come alive on the pages as Blanche drops in at her sister's home creating a simmering stew of growing emotion. The heat of a Southern summer is reflected by all that happens in the two bedroom apartment as stories are told and feelings unleashed.
Now I must watch the film...just placed on hold at the library.
Very highly recommended.
June 6, 2022
丕氐賱丕 丨賵丕爻賲 賳亘賵丿 丕蹖賳賵 鬲賲賵賲 讴乇丿賲
趩賯丿乇 毓丕賱蹖 亘賵丿
毓丕卮賯卮 卮丿賲 乇爻賲丕
鬲乇噩賲賴 乇賵 賴賲 禺蹖賱蹖 禺蹖賱蹖 丿賵爻鬲 丿丕卮鬲賲貙 丨丕賱 賵 賴賵丕蹖 賮蹖賱賲 賮丕乇爻蹖 乇賵 丿丕卮鬲
蹖丕丿賲 亘丕卮賴 丕蹖賳賲 亘丕 爻毓蹖丿 賴賲禺賵丕賳蹖 讴乇丿蹖賲貙 趩賯丿乇 趩蹖夭 亘賱丿賴 丕蹖賳 亘卮乇 丕賴
趩賯丿乇 毓丕賱蹖 亘賵丿
毓丕卮賯卮 卮丿賲 乇爻賲丕
鬲乇噩賲賴 乇賵 賴賲 禺蹖賱蹖 禺蹖賱蹖 丿賵爻鬲 丿丕卮鬲賲貙 丨丕賱 賵 賴賵丕蹖 賮蹖賱賲 賮丕乇爻蹖 乇賵 丿丕卮鬲
蹖丕丿賲 亘丕卮賴 丕蹖賳賲 亘丕 爻毓蹖丿 賴賲禺賵丕賳蹖 讴乇丿蹖賲貙 趩賯丿乇 趩蹖夭 亘賱丿賴 丕蹖賳 亘卮乇 丕賴
April 10, 2023
鉃� 3 Stars *:锝ワ緹鉁�
I've grown to appreciate this one more for its comedic value and its comedic value only. Well actually not really, I also actually appreciated the exploration of Blanche's character. I mean just look at this shit.
I love her your honour. I can't help it when she insults men with such grace.
She's been judging these men by their zodiac signs!!
WHAT DO YOU MEAN "brightly" LMAO.
This girl was putting in the work, trying to stress out these men to the max.
I'm sorry but she's so real.
BYE.
BLANCHE: I feel so hot and frazzled. Wait till I powder before you open the door. Do I look done in?
STELLA: Why no. You are as fresh as a daisy.
BLANCHE: One that's been picked a few days.
鈹佲攣鈹佲攣鈹佲攣鈹佲攣鈹佲攣鈹� 鈾� 鈹佲攣鈹佲攣鈹佲攣鈹佲攣鈹佲攣鈹�
I've grown to appreciate this one more for its comedic value and its comedic value only. Well actually not really, I also actually appreciated the exploration of Blanche's character. I mean just look at this shit.
STELLA: No. Stanley's the only one of his crowd that's likely to get anywhere.
BLANCHE: What makes you think Stanley will?
STELLA: Look at him.
BLANCHE: I've looked at him.
STELLA: Then you should know.
BLANCHE: I'm sorry, but I haven't noticed the stamp of genius even on Stanley's forehead.
I love her your honour. I can't help it when she insults men with such grace.
BLANCHE: What sign were you born under?
STANLEY [while he is dressing]: Sign?
BLANCHE: Astrological sign. I bet you were born under Aries. Aries people are forceful and dynamic. They dote on noise! They love to bang things around!
She's been judging these men by their zodiac signs!!
There is a crash; then a relative hush.
BLANCHE [brightly]: Did he kill her?
WHAT DO YOU MEAN "brightly" LMAO.
BLANCHE: We are going to be very Bohemian. We are going to pretend that we are sitting in a little artists' cafe on the Left Bank in Paris! [She lights a candle stub and puts it in a bottle.] Je suis la Dame aux Camellias! Vous etes Armand! Understand French?
MITCH [heavily]: Naw. Naw, I-
This girl was putting in the work, trying to stress out these men to the max.
STANLEY: I have a lawyer acquaintance who will study these out.
BLANCHE: Present them to him with a box of aspirin tablets.
I'm sorry but she's so real.
STELLA: Blanche, you saw him at his worst last night.
BLANCHE: On the contrary, I saw him at his best! What such a man has to offer is animal force and he gave a wonderful exhibition of that! But the only way to live with such a man is to-go to bed with him. And that's your job-not mine!
BYE.
鈹佲攣鈹佲攣鈹佲攣鈹佲攣鈹佲攣鈹� 鈾� 鈹佲攣鈹佲攣鈹佲攣鈹佲攣鈹佲攣鈹�
May 6, 2025
I don鈥檛 want realism. I want magic! Yes, yes, magic! I try to give that to people. I misrepresent things to them. I don鈥檛 tell truth, I tell what ought to be truth. And if that is sinful, then let me be damned for it!鈥擠on鈥檛 turn the light on!
--- Blanche DuBois
It clear that Tennessee Williams set out to explore some of the violence and injustice he sees in his suuroundings when he wrote A Streetcar Named Desire, the story of Blanche Dubois visiting her sister Stella and brother-in-law Stanley Kowalski for a few months after she loses her house. The neighbourhood and surroundings are a harsh reflection of people themselves, the men swaggering around everywhere, the forgiving women deluding themselves to be happy. Blanche wants a life of beauty and elegance, spins stories to cover up the harshness she had to face until no one believes her when she tries to tell them the truth. Stella has found one way to have a somewhat steady life and seems to suppress some occurrences to be able continue living this life. Stanley, the only lead with any power in this play, gets what he wants in his life by his swagger (can't call it charm), and just taking what he wants.
The only point of the play is to show a vignette, lit by a make-shift lampshade of a few months in the lives of Blanche, Stella and Stanley - show all the malignant sexism, the unfair distribution of power, the simple suppression of any truth not convenient and disposal of any person who doesn't fit in the hierarchy, even the casual undercurrents of racism towards neighbours.
There is no real change in the characters, except when they each go over the edge in their own way at the end. The story arc sees no real resolution towards what is right or just, or the society attempt to be better. The dialogues and the settings of the play give a vivid description of the emotions and tension in the dim little house, much like the constant refrains heard in the street. On the whole, a morbid play, which in my opinion didn't age well over the decades.
馃専馃専馃専
[Half a star for the premise and the whole play; 3/4 star for the characters; 3/4 star for the story and themes; Half a star for the world-building and description of society; Half a star for the writing - 3 stars.]
I think, without planning to do so, I have followed the developing tension and anger and violence of the world and time that I live in through my own steadily increasing tension as a writer and person. I guess my work has always been a kind of psychotherapy for me... It releases their own... Increasing tensions, verging on the psychotic.
--- William Tennyson
--- Blanche DuBois
It clear that Tennessee Williams set out to explore some of the violence and injustice he sees in his suuroundings when he wrote A Streetcar Named Desire, the story of Blanche Dubois visiting her sister Stella and brother-in-law Stanley Kowalski for a few months after she loses her house. The neighbourhood and surroundings are a harsh reflection of people themselves, the men swaggering around everywhere, the forgiving women deluding themselves to be happy. Blanche wants a life of beauty and elegance, spins stories to cover up the harshness she had to face until no one believes her when she tries to tell them the truth. Stella has found one way to have a somewhat steady life and seems to suppress some occurrences to be able continue living this life. Stanley, the only lead with any power in this play, gets what he wants in his life by his swagger (can't call it charm), and just taking what he wants.
The only point of the play is to show a vignette, lit by a make-shift lampshade of a few months in the lives of Blanche, Stella and Stanley - show all the malignant sexism, the unfair distribution of power, the simple suppression of any truth not convenient and disposal of any person who doesn't fit in the hierarchy, even the casual undercurrents of racism towards neighbours.
There is no real change in the characters, except when they each go over the edge in their own way at the end. The story arc sees no real resolution towards what is right or just, or the society attempt to be better. The dialogues and the settings of the play give a vivid description of the emotions and tension in the dim little house, much like the constant refrains heard in the street. On the whole, a morbid play, which in my opinion didn't age well over the decades.
馃専馃専馃専
[Half a star for the premise and the whole play; 3/4 star for the characters; 3/4 star for the story and themes; Half a star for the world-building and description of society; Half a star for the writing - 3 stars.]
I think, without planning to do so, I have followed the developing tension and anger and violence of the world and time that I live in through my own steadily increasing tension as a writer and person. I guess my work has always been a kind of psychotherapy for me... It releases their own... Increasing tensions, verging on the psychotic.
--- William Tennyson
January 13, 2016
PopSugar Challenge 2015 SPILLOVER (because I am a challenge failure, oops.)
Category: A Play
4 Stars
What a deliciously depressive way to commence my 2016 reading year! After hearing and reading about A Streetcar Named Desire (*glares at *, seriously authors please stop putting massive spoilers for classic works in your books. PLEASE?! I didn鈥檛 get spoiled mind because I already knew, but still!)for many a year I have finally sat down and read it. And what I have to say is this: what the fuck took me so long?
This play is a relatively quick read, it took me one lazy January afternoon, but it is packed with a punch that lingers much longer than the story takes to tell.
All of the characters within this play are interesting in their own regard, but for the sake of this review I will focus on Blanche. For all intents and purposes Blanche is a lady; well dressed, submissive, diminutive, from a prominent family. However, as the story goes forward there are little moments of reality which slip into that gloss messing up the proper image Blanche portrays. The character transition of Blanche is both fascinating and depressing.
This is a harsh little play, and it begs the question: is it better to live in a dark and dreary reality, full of monsters in human flesh or in an imaged perfect world of your own making?
鈥淚 can't stand a naked light bulb, any more than I can a rude remark or a vulgar action.鈥�
Category: A Play
4 Stars
What a deliciously depressive way to commence my 2016 reading year! After hearing and reading about A Streetcar Named Desire (*glares at *, seriously authors please stop putting massive spoilers for classic works in your books. PLEASE?! I didn鈥檛 get spoiled mind because I already knew, but still!)for many a year I have finally sat down and read it. And what I have to say is this: what the fuck took me so long?
This play is a relatively quick read, it took me one lazy January afternoon, but it is packed with a punch that lingers much longer than the story takes to tell.
All of the characters within this play are interesting in their own regard, but for the sake of this review I will focus on Blanche. For all intents and purposes Blanche is a lady; well dressed, submissive, diminutive, from a prominent family. However, as the story goes forward there are little moments of reality which slip into that gloss messing up the proper image Blanche portrays. The character transition of Blanche is both fascinating and depressing.
This is a harsh little play, and it begs the question: is it better to live in a dark and dreary reality, full of monsters in human flesh or in an imaged perfect world of your own making?
鈥淚 can't stand a naked light bulb, any more than I can a rude remark or a vulgar action.鈥�
November 27, 2018
"You are an ordinary guy and your wife's sister comes to stay with you," began Mary McCarthy in the Partisan Review. "Whenever you want to go to the toilet, there she is in the bathroom, primping or having a bath. My God, you yell, can't a man pee in his own house?" This variation on the mother-in-law joke, which stunned Broadway in 1947 with the heroine's rape, swiftly became an American classic with such lines for the sex act as "getting those colored lights going."
On arrival Blanche, played by Jessica Tandy, was the focus of critics. NYTs Brooks Atkinson devoted a graf to the characterization, then added briefly that others were Brando, Karl Malden and Kim Hunter. But, within weeks, Brando dominated theatre talk. My visiting from Los Angeles grandmother, who couldn't get a ticket, did standing room -- and fainted ! A religious person, she found the suicide, incest, insanity, drunkenness, homosexuality and rape too much. Worse, the vulgarians played cards and the heroine used cheap perfume.
In his notebooks, director Elia Kazan wrote that it was a poetic tragedy - "the final dissolution of a person of worth." For him, Blanche was a social type who symbolized a dying civilization...the genteel tradition of the old South. Now, she was outdated like the dinosaur. Stanley, "who sucks on a cigar all day because he can't find a teat," must bring her right down to his level, beneath him. So he levels her with his cock.
A tragic triangle : Blanche, Stanley, Stella. To finally accept Blanche, Stella would then have to return to the subjugation of the Tradition : childhood, younger sister, the South. Stella must be narcotized to forget the price she's paying for a kind of salvation. She's doomed too.
The "Streetcar" comes to the last stop at the end of the line.
On arrival Blanche, played by Jessica Tandy, was the focus of critics. NYTs Brooks Atkinson devoted a graf to the characterization, then added briefly that others were Brando, Karl Malden and Kim Hunter. But, within weeks, Brando dominated theatre talk. My visiting from Los Angeles grandmother, who couldn't get a ticket, did standing room -- and fainted ! A religious person, she found the suicide, incest, insanity, drunkenness, homosexuality and rape too much. Worse, the vulgarians played cards and the heroine used cheap perfume.
In his notebooks, director Elia Kazan wrote that it was a poetic tragedy - "the final dissolution of a person of worth." For him, Blanche was a social type who symbolized a dying civilization...the genteel tradition of the old South. Now, she was outdated like the dinosaur. Stanley, "who sucks on a cigar all day because he can't find a teat," must bring her right down to his level, beneath him. So he levels her with his cock.
A tragic triangle : Blanche, Stanley, Stella. To finally accept Blanche, Stella would then have to return to the subjugation of the Tradition : childhood, younger sister, the South. Stella must be narcotized to forget the price she's paying for a kind of salvation. She's doomed too.
The "Streetcar" comes to the last stop at the end of the line.
September 30, 2016
Stell-lahhhhh!
I read this back in the late 70s and I can honestly say that, while I enjoyed it, I never fully appreciated it. It was a good, short-read for a school assignment. Nothing special.
Then I saw the film adaptation and it quickly became an all-time favorite movie. And Blanche Dubois came to life as one of the most interesting characters I have ever happened upon. Even with her vanity, manipulative behavior, the loss of the ancestral home and her lies,
I couldn't stay angry at Blanche for long. I found myself pitying this sad and tragic character. I knew it was coming, yet I couldn't help but catch my breath (read: yelp) when she uttered her "kindness of strangers" line.
Hayleigh encouraged me to re-read the play and I'm glad she did. I have a newfound appreciation for this piece of work. The only issue I had reading this is that I kept seeing Marlon Brando and Vivien Leigh throughout the book.
I read this back in the late 70s and I can honestly say that, while I enjoyed it, I never fully appreciated it. It was a good, short-read for a school assignment. Nothing special.
Then I saw the film adaptation and it quickly became an all-time favorite movie. And Blanche Dubois came to life as one of the most interesting characters I have ever happened upon. Even with her vanity, manipulative behavior, the loss of the ancestral home and her lies,
"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 truth, I tell what ought to be truth. And if that is sinful, then let me be damned for it! 鈥� Don't turn the light on!"
I couldn't stay angry at Blanche for long. I found myself pitying this sad and tragic character. I knew it was coming, yet I couldn't help but catch my breath (read: yelp) when she uttered her "kindness of strangers" line.
Hayleigh encouraged me to re-read the play and I'm glad she did. I have a newfound appreciation for this piece of work. The only issue I had reading this is that I kept seeing Marlon Brando and Vivien Leigh throughout the book.
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