A Streetcar Named Desire
Last Thursday I went to see the production of A Streetcar Named Desire that our friend was in. He played Stanley and this was the first time I got to see him in something, I didn’t make it to his last play which was, I think, Pride & Prejudice. But it’s been nearly a week and I’ve still not shared about it.
While I know the story of A Streetcar Named Desire, I’ve still never seen the movie. The play was good, though, and makes me really want to see the movie. I forgot to ask at the rental place if they have it. Maybe I’ll look for it on Ebay or something. The movie was released in 1951 and stars Marlon Brando and Vivien Leigh.
In a very tiny nutshell, we have Blanche (blonde, in the photos) who is pretty much kicked out of her hometown and so she goes to visit her sister Stella. Blanche has a lot of issues, she’s pretty disturbed and after a while that side starts to really show through. She doesn’t get along with her brother-in-law Stanley and he becomes continually nasty towards her. Blanche meets Stanley’s friend Mitch and the two seem meant for one another but it’s not long before her past catches up with her. It’s really only a matter of time.
On the production aspect, they did a really good job. The only issues seemed to be, for me, that there were times I wasn’t able to understand Blanche, when she’d get really emotional and such, it was hard for the audio system to handle her. I also had a hard time understanding pretty much everything the Mitch character said.
There was also one incident that had us all just laughing and laughing during a very serious scene. In that first photo I posted, Blanche is threatening Stanley with a broken bottle. If you look closely, you’ll see it’s a plastic soda bottle. My friend told us later that they had used a “rigged” glass bottle during dress rehearsal but it shattered all over stage instead of having a clean break so they had to use the plastic one. Well, when she broke it, it went POP! in the spirit of plastic and the end went rolling across the stage. In the photo, she almost looks like she’s going to start laughing about it. We all just rolled but they continued as if it hadn’t happened. What just really makes me laugh though, is that you’d think they would have had a sound effect of glass breaking or something!
So anyway, it was nice to see my friend in his play and nice to spend some time with his wife who is one of my best friends now, without a bunch of kids running around causing trouble and making noise. :)
