By JOHN BONAZZO
THEATRE CRITIC
Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire is considered a classic of American drama. The Mimes and Mummers’ production of this seminal work has moments of theatrical magic, but one fatal linguistic flaw keeps it from perfection.
The play centers on Blanche DuBois, a faded Southern belle who comes to New Orleans to stay with her sister Stella and her husband Stanley. Blanche has faced hard times, which now force her to get help from her sister. She is disturbed by the abusive relationship of Stella and Stanley, which Stella tolerates without complaint. Blanche herself gets in a relationship with Stanley’s friend Mitch until Stanley digs up some incriminating information about her past. She then slowly slips deeper into a rabbit hole of drunkenness and despair.
Director Brad Raimondo does a good job heightening the tension as the play goes on and the audience continually questions Blanche’s sanity.
Matt Mayer’s set blurs the barriers between different areas of the Kowalski house, along with the outside neighborhood, which is disconcerting at times but works as a representation of Blanche’s addled mind. With its vintage furniture, it screams faded Southern splendor. The lighting by Brendan Polke is pretty minimal, which is significant for Mitch’s second act monologue; some clever lighting effects are deployed in the final scene, though.
Joe Gallagher is a slow burning Stanley at the beginning, but once Blanche gets inside his head he explodes with anguish, and the verbal and physical fireworks are something to behold. Sean McKay expertly turns on a dime as Mitch; tender and innocent at the beginning of his courtship of Blanche, he also brings forth Mitch’s troubled mind when Blanche’s secrets are revealed. They also crucially make their Southern accents sound natural and not affected.
The reason this element is so crucial is because the two leading ladies try too hard on the accent front. Cat Gallagher makes Stella’s inner pain show through, and MaryKate Glenn’s Blanche has some affectionate moments, particularly in the final scene. Their accents are so thick, however, that it distracts from enjoyment of the play and makes moments of bleak drama sometimes almost comedic. Hopefully Gallagher and Glenn will take a cue from their cast mates and learn to underplay the drawl throughout the rest of the weekend; that will make for a much better production.
The Mimes’ mounting of A Streetcar Named Desire tries hard, but doesn’t quite capture the full dramatic effect of Williams’ words. With some accent modification, this misstep can be corrected; let’s hope it is, as this group can and should do better.
John Bonazzo is the Theatre Critic of The Fordham Ram. You can follow him on Twitter at @johnbonazzo.
