X-Files star rides Streetcar to success

Gillian Anderson as Blanche DuBois in 'A Streetcar Named Desire'.

Gillian Anderson as Blanche DuBois in 'A Streetcar Named Desire'.

Published Oct 17, 2014

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A Streetcar Named Desire

DIRECTOR: Benedict Andrews

CAST: Gillian Anderson, Ben Foster, Vanessa Kirby

Running time: 3 hours, 45 minutes

RATING: ****

 

 

 

Director Benedict Andrews has a reputation of turning the classics on its head. And it shows. If anything, you marvel anew at the 1947 Tennessee Williams text because of its language, the lyricism and the insights into these damaged characters who are thrown together to battle their demons with the most fragile character stripped of her façade, while Stanley and Stella are left behind to pick up the pieces.

For this particular production, Andrews decided on theatre in the round, but also a revolving stage which means that as an audience, you have a double whammy.

It immediately turns it into a very intimate production and on film, it is even more close up than the live production because of the camera angles and the way it catches Anderson’s hand flutters, the flick of her hair and the smallest twist of her head, all of which contribute to the persona of Blanche DuBois in the finest detail. It is a joy to witness.

This is the second play that I saw live and then on film and it was surprising to confirm that even though nothing can replace live theatre, there are immeasurable gains from the filmed production.

With Streetcar specifically because of Anderson’s astonishing performance, it’s all about the text and her extraordinary Blanch who arrives on a street named Elysian Fields via a streetcar named Desire at the flat where her sister Stella lives. Williams knew how to play with the mind and there’s no mincing of words or intent.

So does Anderson. She picked the play and the director because she found his work direct and honest and that’s the performance she was aiming for. She is dressed for the part looking like the film star she is, in flashy dark glasses and stilettos but for Blanche, it’s all artifice. Nothing is what it seems and Blanche makes sure no one sees her in the harsh light of day. It’s about hiding her age as well as her past as she creates the life she dreams of living rather than face her unsavoury reality. It is a brave, brilliant portrayal of a woman unraveling as swiftly as she swigs a drink. She shifts her attention to her sister and her brutish husband rather than dealing with her own disintegrating life. Kirby plays a gutsy if vulnerable Stella, but Foster doesn’t seem to get under Stanley Kowalski’s skin.

 

• A Streetcar Named Desire is at Cinema Nouveau tomorrow, Wednesday and Thursday at 7.30pm, Sunday at 2.30pm – in Joburg, Pretoria, Durban and Cape Town, and at The Fugard Bioscope on November 2, 11am.

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