'A Streetcar Named Desire' now on at Artscape

Arriving for the sold out opening-night performance last Friday, we discovered that the only front-of-house information - in the absence of a much-asked-for programme - was a notice to the fact that nine minutes had been excised from the play. So unfortunately, we do not know who the actors, singers and dancers were, except for Samantha Taylor as Blanche DuBois, the main character in the play, identified only after some Googling.

In an interesting twist to the play, director Darryl Spijkers has added song and dance to the drama. These unexpected interludes serve well to capture the crowded life in a working-class tenement in steamy New Orleans in the 1940s. Perhaps the director was influenced by the ballet and opera versions of Williams' drama? We saw them as somewhat analogous to the choruses that serve to comment on the action in the classical plays of ancient Greece.

"Whoever you are, I have always depended on the kindness of strangers"

We liked Samantha Taylor (Blanche) as an aging southern belle in an extremely demanding role that portrays her descent into eventual madness in the play's closing scenes (when the stranger of her famous line arrives), as she struggles with her fading beauty and alcoholism. She is confronted by her sister Stella's crude working-class husband, Stanley Kowalski, who quickly sees through her pretences and investigates her past. With a 24-year-old Marlon Brando as the original 1948 Stanley Kowalski in an acknowledged tour-de-force, big boots needed to be filled. We found his brutal portrayal a little jarring as he jumped from seeming reason to outburst but his persecution of Blanche helped drive the play forward well enough.

Stella, as Stanley's mild-mannered and abused wife, was well acted in a performance that contrasted with her increasingly disturbed sister. However, we did not find the portrayal of the gentle character of Mitch, Stanley's poker partner and Blanche's suitor, strong enough to convince, especially towards the end when he drunkenly tries to explain why has stood her up. This is a pivotal part of the play as it contributes to pushing Blanche over the edge. Overall, all the actors put in a good job, keeping their accents well.

We thought the set (by Zanodean Cassiem) particularly good, as it managed to show the rooms of Stanley's and Stella's seedy apartment with the imaginative use of dividing curtains and just one door.

Despite some shortcomings in the play, we enjoyed our evening out. The amateur group's production well serves as an introduction to Tennessee Williams' searing dramas. Good luck with the next performance from this enthusiastic group.

A Streetcar Named Desire is showing at the Artscape Theatre Centre's Arena, Cape Town until Saturday 18 January 2014. Tickets for the Cape Town rendition of A Streetcar Named Desire cost R85p/p and are on sale via Computicket.com and at the Artscape theatre's box office.