The 2010 Writers’ Theatre revival of A Streetcar Named Desire, presented in the Chicago suburb of Glencoe, arrived on the scene in the immediate afterglow of the critically acclaimed and soldout limited US run of the Sydney Theatre Company’s production of the play starring Cate Blanchett as Blanche DuBois. The Sydney production, directed by Liv Ullmann, was universally praised, and critics particularly singled out Blanchett’s performance as revelatory and nearly definitive. With Ullmann’s direction and Blanchett’s performance appearing on everyone’s “Best of 2009” lists, the production generated tremendous media attention and enthusiastic talk of an extended Broadway run, in part because of the artistic name recognition of its collaborators
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No one had any sense of privacy. This proximity to the actors underscored the intensely intimate nature of the production. When I saw Cate Blanchett at the Kennedy Center, I was sitting in the very last row of the orchestra section, which is to say I was barely in the orchestra at all. The cavernous venue rendered the play distant and remote. I made a quick decision to experience the performance as a radio play so as not to be frustrated by the impossibility of seeing the actors’ facial expressions and the details of the set. At intermission I made two quick moves: the first was to run up to the stage to see the set design; the second was to bolt to the lobby to see the photograph of the actor playing Stanley, whose face I could not see from my seat. At the Writers’ Theatre production, the actor playing Stanley, Matt Hawkins, was never out of sight and always right there in front of my face. When he was fighting with Stella, Blanche, and Mitch, I feared he would turn at any moment and start a fight with me. And why not, since I was essentially sitting in his
No one had any sense of privacy. This proximity to the actors underscored the intensely intimate nature of the production. When I saw Cate Blanchett at the Kennedy Center, I was sitting in the very last row of the orchestra section, which is to say I was barely in the orchestra at all. The cavernous venue rendered the play distant and remote. I made a quick decision to experience the performance as a radio play so as not to be frustrated by the impossibility of seeing the actors’ facial expressions and the details of the set. At intermission I made two quick moves: the first was to run up to the stage to see the set design; the second was to bolt to the lobby to see the photograph of the actor playing Stanley, whose face I could not see from my seat. At the Writers’ Theatre production, the actor playing Stanley, Matt Hawkins, was never out of sight and always right there in front of my face. When he was fighting with Stella, Blanche, and Mitch, I feared he would turn at any moment and start a fight with me. And why not, since I was essentially sitting in his