File Under: A Street Car Named Desire at WTFest

Anyone who has ever by vocation or avocation practiced the dramatic arts sees each performance from that perspective and tries to learn from it.  Last night at the Williamstown Theater Festival, I witnessed a master class.  This production of "A Street Car Named Desire," has brought the piece to a new level of intimacy and subtlety.  The choice of director David Cromer, to bring part of the audience on to the back side of the stage, made for a performance that lent itself more to the sense of eavesdropping and prurient peeking, than that of watching a play.

The set is much like an aquarium, with no place for the actors to cheat to.  I often found myself making eye contact with the performers.  Luckily, I was fully engaged in them so I didn't feel odd about it.  Don't sit on the stage in the front row unless you are ok with this.

When I heard that Jessica Hecht would play Blanche DuBois, I knew I was in for a nuanced and sympathetic performance, but she brought the fractured mind of Ms. Dubois to an unsettling reality.  She fully realized the mood swings and Blache's efforts to maintain a grip on those few last strands of dignity and self.

Stanley Kowalski is a character that is all too often played as an unsympathetic lout.  Not so with Sam Rockwell's performance.  I expected nothing less from an actor who understands the payoff of a character built on the foundation of human subtlety.  Sam made Stan a person, not a character.  A man whose life has been turned upside down without warning, by an in-law, who thinks him an ape.  It's hard not to sympathise with his feelings, if not his actions.  For Stanley Kowalski does many despicable things, yet through Sam's interpretation, you can grasp at the edges of the motivation, yet still deplore those things.

Ana Reeder did a fine turn as Stella, not portraying a shrinking flower, but a woman who is strong in her own right and undeniably in love with Stanley, for better or worse.  I should also mention, Daniel Stewart Sherman, as Mitch.  He brought forth a man of sensitivity and patience, a counterpoint to the self-focused and impulsive Kowalski.  In the final scene, his sorrow and distaste, for what has transpired, is heart wrenching.

The actors that rounded out the cast were all on point.  Each presenting well crafted characters to support the leads.

I don't know if this show is sold out yet, but you need to go get tickets now.

Update: There is a lot of smoking by the actors during the show (duh it's set in 1947), therefore asthmatics should avoid the on stage seats.  The wife is still a little tight through the chest.