“They told me to take a streetcar named Desire and then transfer to one called Cemeteries and ride six blocks and get off at - Elysian Fields�
The“They told me to take a streetcar named Desire and then transfer to one called Cemeteries and ride six blocks and get off at - Elysian Fields�
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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? ...more
Alex � Comets and Comments �
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