Fallen on hard times and chased out of town, Blanche Dubois runs to New Orleans to seek refuge in the house of her younger sister Stella and her husband, Stanley Kowalski. But refuge is hard to find with Stanley watching her every move and Blanche discovers that the kindness of strangers is not always what it appears to be.
A Streetcar Named Desire, written by Tennessee Williams and published in 1947, is a timeless story of a love triangle concerning two sisters and the man who comes between them. However, this love triangle takes some unexpected twists and turns. Blanche DuBois, ostracised in her home town and driven out by her own compulsive habits, travels to New Orleans to find refuge in the home of her sister Stella. Blanche and Stella are descendants of the Old South, but where Stella has moved away from that aristocratic culture and married beneath her, Blanche still clings to the air and expectations reminiscent of Scarlet O’Hara and other famous southern belles. Blanche is, unsurprisingly, shocked to find her younger sister happily in a multi-cultural and rather shabby quarter of the city. Initially, she seems to reluctantly accept her new situation, but it quickly becomes clear that any chance of Blanche making a life for herself near Stella will be made impossible due to the relationship that develops between herself and Stella’s husband Stanley Kowalski.
From the moment Stanley lays eyes on his sister-in-law, he is torn between a loathing disgust for everything she represents, and a perverse desire to dominate Blanche in the same way he owns his wife. Blanche, however, is not as easy to ‘pull down the columns’ as her sister was, and thus begins a game of cat and mouse that ultimately leads to Blanche’s past being pulled out into the light for all to see, which in turn pushes Blanche over the precarious edge she has been flirting with all her life.
May 2-3, 2012
LAKtheater
Director: Jodie Mann
Stage Manager: Liduine de Graaff
Producer: Anne Fleur den Haan
Artistic Director: Eva Forbes-Wijman
Treasurer: Liduine de Graaff
PR Officer: Myrthe Brouwer
Set: Jodie Mann, Blaise Bachelier
Costumes: Jodie Mann, Anne Fleur den Haan
Props: Iris de Wolf
Hair/Make-up: Catrin Simons, Demetra Hadjiyiannis, Myrthe Brouwer
Lighting: Joris Visée
Voice coaching: Martina Noteboom, Brian Stacy, Lisa Jacobson, Jonathan Todd
Poster design: Leung Wong
CAST
Stella Kowalski: Larissa Schulte Nordholt
Blanche DuBois: Lisette Heijma
Stanley Kowalski: Lotte Lemstra
Harold ‘Mitch’ Mitchell: Jonathan Todd
Pablo Gonzales: Catrin Simons
Steve Hubbell: Kala Hartman Anaya
Eunice Hubbell: Adriana Moser
June: Demetra Hadjiyiannis
Young Man: Catrin Simons
Doctor: Alexandra van Kampen
Nurse: Demetra Hadjiyiannis
Many Thanks To:
Richard Todd, Siofra McComb, Karin van der Zeeuw, Michael Newton.