A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE By

8 SEPTEMBER – 15 OCTOBER 2016

DIRECTOR Sarah Frankcom DESIGNER Fly Davis SOUND DESIGNER Peter Rice LIGHTING DESIGNER Jack Knowles

PERFORMED BY Ben Batt (), Michelle Butterfly (Eunice Hubbel), Sandra Cole (Black Woman & Ensemble), Sharon Duncan-Brewster (Stella Kowalski), Etta Fusi (Mexican Woman & Ensemble), Reuben Johnson (Pablo Gonzales), Youssef Kerkour (Harold Mitchell), Reece Noi (A Young Collector), Maxine Peake (Blanche Du Bois), Ryan Pope (Steve Hubbel).

TEACHER RESOURCE

This resource has been created by the Royal Exchange Participation & Learning team. It has been written with Key Stage 3, 4 & 5 Drama and English teachers in mind, but many of the activities can be adapted to suit other subject areas and age groups. The resource aims to enhance students’ understanding of the rehearsal process and spark interesting conversations about the production.

CONTENTS PAGE

The Play’s Original Context 2 Characters and Themes 3 Concept and Design 8 References 10

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THE PLAY’S ORIGINAL CONTEXT

A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE was a ground-breaking play when it appeared on Broadway in 1947. The post-World War II period was dominated by musicals and revivals of classical texts; the ‘well-made play’ of the 1920s and 1930s did not sit readily with audiences who had lived through the anxieties of the late 1930s depression, and the devastating repercussions of nuclear technology employed during the war. Into this uncertain world came Tennessee Williams’ A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE, which seemed to encapsulate the anxieties of a society in transition. The men who appear in the play and gather around the table to play poker have all fought in the war; Blanche holds memories of her liaisons with off duty soldiers at Belle Reve. All the characters can be seen to be reconstructing their lives in a post-war America. The very title of the play alludes to the idea of transition. It is also a strong metaphor for Blanche’s emotional journey from desire to madness. TENNESSEE WILLIAMS

Tennessee Williams began his playwriting career in the 1930s. He liked to people his dramas with characters that were damaged and excluded; who reflected the emotional traumas he had experienced in his own life. As a homosexual at a time when homosexuality was illegal, he knew what it felt like to exist on the margins of society’s considered ‘norms’.

Williams began working on A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE in late 1944. His inspiration for the play began with an image of Blanche in his mind: “I saw Blanche sitting in a chair with the moonlight coming through a window onto her. My first idea for the title was ‘Blanche’s Chair in the Moon.’ But I only wrote one scene then. She was waiting for Mitch, and he wasn’t showing up. That was as far as I got then; it was December of 1944. I felt Streetcar so intensely it terrified me. I couldn’t work for several months I was so terrified…I didn’t go back to it until 1947, when I was in New Orleans… Then I went back to it, and it wrote itself, just like that…It took me by storm. Blanche possessed me.’ - Tennessee Williams, (1972) in Albert J. Devlin, ed., Conversations with Tennessee Williams, University Press of Mississippi, 1986, p. 215

A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE epitomizes the stylistic traits of Williams’ work with components such as:  Episodic structure  The detailed psychological realism of the characters juxtaposed with surrealistic elements of staging.  Layers of theatrical devices ranging from elements of design to the use of sound and linguistic motifs.  The prominence of characters who are physically or emotionally wounded and marginalized from society.

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CHARACTERS AND THEMES

Maxine Peake as Blanche DuBois, Youssef Kerkour as Harold Mitchell in A Streetcar Named Desire - Photo Manuel Harlan

BLANCHE DUBOIS

‘Her expression is one of shocked disbelief. Her appearance is incongruous to this setting. She is daintily dressed in a white suit with a fluffy bodice, necklace and earrings of pearl, white gloves and hat, looking as if she were arriving at a summer tea or cocktail party in the garden district. She is about five years older than STELLA. Her delicate beauty must avoid a strong light. There is something about her uncertain manner, as well as her white clothes, that suggests a moth.’

Blanche is the archetypal ‘Southern Belle’, whose emotional dependence relies on a patriarchal system of male protection. Fundamentally she represents the disintegrating ‘old world’ order of pre - Second World War America. During the course of the play, we see her alternating between illusion and reality as she attempts to confront a host of issues: her role in a shifting society, her sexuality, her ability to determine her own life in a male dominated world and, most importantly, her past. She is essentially an actress, playing roles removed from the reality of her situation, costuming herself from her trunk containing fake furs and costume jewelry, controlling the lighting in the flat that will show her to her advantage, even adding musical accompaniment to her first scene with Mitch.

The play is, essentially, Blanche’s tragedy. Despite her faults – her alcoholism, her lies – as a character, she should enlist our sympathies, engendering in her audience a deep sense of loss,

3 sadness and anger at her ultimate fate, the tearing apart of a beautiful, sensitive and delicate soul: ‘You didn’t know Blanche as a girl. Nobody, nobody, was tender and trusting as she was. But people like you abused her, and forced her to change.’ – Stella talking to Stanley, Scene Eight

Ben Batt as Stanley Kowalski, Sharon Duncan-Brewster as Stella Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire - Photo Manuel Harlan

STANLEY

‘Animal joy in his being is implicit in all his movements and attitudes. Since earliest manhood the centre of his life has been pleasure with women, the giving and taking of it, not with weak indulgence, dependently, but with the power and pride of a richly feathered male bird among hens. Branching out from this complete and satisfying centre are all the auxiliary channels of his life, such as his heartiness with men, his appreciation of rough humor, his love of good drink and food and games, his car, his radio, everything that is his, that bears his emblem of the gaudy seed bearer. He sizes women up at a glance, with sexual classifications, crude images flashing into his mind and determining the way he smiles at them’.

Like, Blanche, Stanley is also a product of his background. A ‘Polack’, his genealogy makes him an object of derision to those who know nothing of Polish history or culture. Yet Stanley shows no sign of politic beliefs; his world is very insular, consisting of his family, over whom he dominates, and his immediate neighbors and friends. It is a predominantly male world of bowling, poker, drinking and fighting. All of his actions are imbued with an energy and animal vitality, most centrally his physical relationship with Stella. Williams does show an emotionally naive side to his character as well. After having hit Stella, causing her to retreat to Eunice’s upstairs flat, he stands

4 in the street and cries out for her to come back to him. Yet central to his character is an ugly misogyny, exemplified by his rape of Blanche.

STELLA

‘A gentle young woman, about twenty-five, and of a background obviously quite different from her husband’s’.

Stella’s robustness and acceptance of life show her to be the opposite in nature to Blanche. Stella was only fifteen when she left the family home, Belle Reve, to discover a new life New Orleans. Stanley has become her world, and she has shifted her behaviour and social status accordingly, seeming at one with her surroundings, happily pregnant when we meet her at the start of the play. Stella is the play’s calming anchor, lovingly patient and caring towards Blanche, and conciliatory towards her husband; she overlooks both of their faults. It is during her unavoidable absence – when she is in hospital having her baby – that the violent clash between Stanley and Blanche takes place.

MITCH

Mitch (Harold Mitchell) – a man in his late twenties, is part of Stanley’s male pack. He demonstrates more sensibility that the other men, living with his widowed mother for whom he cares. Gentle and well-mannered, yet at the same time intensely awkward and self-conscious, he is the antithesis of Stanley. Blanche instinctively notices that he is ‘different’ from the other men in Stanley’s world, and the flattery and attention that she offers him draws him towards her. However, a darker side to his nature is portrayed in his final scene alone with Blanche: having learnt the truth about her past from Stanley, he chastises her for her actions, yet fumbles pathetically to get ‘what I been missing all summer’, showing himself on one level to be as exploitative as Stanley.

WHY NOT?

Ask your students to read the above character descriptions and discuss how the actors in the Royal Exchange production captured the ‘essence’ of each character through their performances. How did they make use of their acting skills to tell each character’s story to the audience?

In groups, challenge your students to make a list of all of the themes in A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE and then have a go at the classroom activity in APPENDIX A, which was designed for the Royal Exchange by Stephen Lucas.

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THE CONCEPT AND DESIGN

Creating a concept for A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE has been a challenging and exciting process for the Royal Exchange’s production departments. Speaking at a design meeting, Director Sarah Frankcom explained that “it is one of the greatest plays ever written, so it comes with lots of ‘baggage’ – audiences will have expectations about what a production should be like”.

Playing against these expectations - and against traditional, naturalistic imaginings of the play, - Frankcom has decided to present the play through the eyes of the central character of Blanche; an extremely fragile and unwell woman in the middle stages of alcohol addiction.

The set design is key to communicating this concept to the audience. Fly Davis, the Designer on the show, has created a space that tells us about Blanche’s inner world. As you can see from the picture of the model box (above), the set design conjures a world that feels:

TEMPORARY The green floor was inspired by the Louisiana Superdome: the massive stadium that was used to house survivors of Hurricane Katrina. There is a sense that Blanche is only ever ‘moving through’ this space, emphasized by simple set pieces such as fold away chairs and an ice cooler. As well as tapping into the theme of American throw-away culture, the set gives a visual impression of the chaotic nature of Blanche’s mind, getting messier as the play progresses.

FLUID The Royal Exchange production is set firmly in America, but not in a specific time period. There is a sense that the play could be taking place at any time in the last 50 years, which highlights the ways in which the themes in the text are still relevant to audiences today.

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There’s also a fluidity between ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ space, with the actors remaining onstage throughout the play, watching (or pertinently ignoring) the story unfold. This heightens the tension in the relationships and highlights the theme of public versus private in the play.

Lighting and sound also help to create a fluid feel to the play. LEDs in the floor are a simple way of differentiating between ‘locations’ (the kitchen, the living room etc.) and allow the action to move fast without the need for lengthy scene changes. Similarly, manipulated blues tracks from artists like PJ Harvey, Deadweather and Jack White guide the audience seamlessly through Blanche’s emotional journey.

DREAMLIKE As Blanche’s mental health deteriorates through the play, special effects are used to create theatrical hallucinations, giving the audience a sensory experience of what the character could be going through.

Above the stage, for example, there is a square of lights that can fly in and out of the playing space, tilting drunkenly and swaying to make the audience feel woozy. The lighting design also plays with extremes of light and dark to give a sense of time passing in an unusual way. There is also a large bath that is self-filling from the plug hole, and a glass panel that can steam up to allow Blanche to see her reflection. All of these effects contribute to creating an uneasy atmosphere.

Costume also adds to the dreamlike feel of the play. The colour palette for all of the characters (apart from Blanche) is neutral, with simple textures and no patterns. Blanche, on the other hand, carries a giant suitcase of colourful clothes on stage and wears a variety of flamboyant costumes throughout the play (although the she starts wearing more muted colours towards the end of the play to show that she is feeling more numb). The characters that intervene in her life, such as the Mexican Woman and the Young Man also wear heightened costume with detailed patterns, colours and textures. The costume design creates a world of heightened symbolism and ensures that the audience will see Blanche as the main character.

WHY NOT?

Watch these films, which were used by Sarah Frankcom and Fly Davies when they were developing a concept and design for A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE.

I Was There: Hurricane Katrina: Superdome Survivor [Video] http://www.history.com/topics/hurricane-katrina/videos/i-was-there-hurricane-katrina- superdome-survivor

Refuge of last resort: Five days inside the Superdome for Hurricane Katrina http://ftw.usatoday.com/2015/08/refuge-of-last-resort-five-days-inside-the-superdome-for- hurricane-katrina

Using the list that you created for your last activity (on page 4), discuss how Hurricane Katrina emphasizes and illuminates the important themes and ideas in the play.

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REFERENCES IN THE PLAY

Tennessee Williams is famous for the complex references in his play. Assistant Director Andy Routledge kindly created this list of references to help you understand the text better.

SCENE ONE

 Elysian Fields (p.3) - In Greek mythology the Elysian Fields are the final resting places of the souls of the heroic and the virtuous.  L and N tracks (p.3) - Louisville and Nashville Railroad tracks  Red Hots (p.3) - Heavily-spiced Frankfurter sausages  Belle Reve (p.5) - means ‘beautiful dream’ in French, an echo of the time when Louisiana (named after King Louis XIV) was a French territory, before being sold to the United States by Napoleon In 1803.  Ghost-haunted woodland of Weir (p.7) - From Poe’s poem Ulalume (1847). It focuses on the narrator’s loss of his beloved love due her death.  Jax Beer (p.14) - Made by the Jackson brewing company of New Orleans until 1974.  Laurel (p.15) - A city in Mississippi. Approximately 135 miles from New Orleans.

SCENE TWO

 Galatoire’s (p.18) – A popular French restaurant in the French Quarter of New Orleans on Bourbon Street  "From the Land of the Sky-Blue Water” (p.19) - a popular song published in 1909. Nelle Richmond Eberhart wrote the poem that goes with the music: From the Land of Sky-blue Water, They brought a captive maid, And her eyes they are lit with lightnings, Her heart is not afraid! But I steal to her lodge at dawning, I woo her with my flute; She is sick for the Sky-blue Water, The captive maid is mute.  Napoleonic code (p.20) – after Napoleon III of France, the husband has ownership of the wife’s possessions. Louisiana was formerly a French colony. All other states follow the British common law model.  The Bible (p.28) Jesus says ‘And if the blind lead the blind both shall fall into a ditch’ (Matthew 15:14)

SCENE THREE

 Picture of Van Gough’s of a billiard-parlor at night (p.29) - The painting that Williams refers to is The Night Café. It is in the art gallery of Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, where Williams probably saw it.

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 Seven Card Stud (p30) - a variety of poker in which each player is dealt one card face down in each of the first two rounds, one card face up in each of the next four rounds, and one card face down in the last round, each of the last five rounds being followed by a betting interval.  Xavier Cugat (p.34) – a popular band leader in 1940s. Nicknamed the Rhumba King.  Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnet (p.35) the sonnet speaks of love continuing after death.  How do I Love Thee (Sonnet 43) [1850] How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight For the ends of being and ideal grace. I love thee to the level of every day’s Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light. I love thee freely, as men strive for right. I love thee purely, as they turn from praise. I love thee with the passion put to use In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith. I love thee with a love I seemed to lose With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath, Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death  French Huguenots (p.37) a French Protestant of the 16th and 17th centuries. Largely Calvinist, the Huguenots suffered severe persecution at the hands of the Catholic majority, and many thousands emigrated from France.  Bourbon (p.37) – a famous street in New Orleans known for jazz and strip-clubs  Hawthorne (p.38) – American writer, Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-64)  Whitman (p.38) – American poet, Walt Whitman (1819-82)  Poe (p.38) – American poet, Edgar Allan Poe (1809-49)  All quiet on the Potomac now? (p.42) - The Potomac river, which flows through the US capital of Washington DC was at the heart of much of the fighting in the American Civil War [see page 18] It’s said the poem by Ethel Lynn Beers [1861] (of which this is the first line) was inspired by a newspaper report headlined "All Quiet on the Potomac” which went on to say that a picket had been shot. Beers’ poem was set to music and became one of the most famous songs of the Civil War.

SCENE FOUR

 Bromo (p.48) - Bromo-Seltzer, a headache remedy and antacid introduced in 1891; its effervescent granules are dissolved in water

SCENE FIVE  Evening Star (p.60) - a newspaper. The ‘evening star’ is Venus, named after the mythical goddess of love.  Rosenkavalier (p.62) - Literally ‘the knight of the rose’ Rosenkavalier is the hero of Richard Strauss’s comic-romantic opera by the same name (1911).

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SCENE SIX

 Neurasthenic personality (p.63) someone suffering from neurasthenia, a psychological disorder characterized by nervous exhaustion. A common clinical diagnosis during the late 19th century, the term in no longer in scientific use.  Mae West (p.63) – a film star known for her witty use of innuendo  Owl-car (p.63) – all night tram  Pleiades, the Seven Sisters (p.64) – open star cluster in the constellation Taurus, visible to the naked eye in the night sky  Left Bank in Paris (p.65) – southern side of the Seine. It is a small part of Paris and historically known as the artistic part of the city.  La Dame Aux Camellias (p.65) - a novel (1848) by Alexandre Dumas the Younger. A courtesan is saved by love but later dies of TB.  Loew’s State (p.68) – a cinema

SCENE SEVEN

 ‘It’s only a paper moon’ (p.76) - a popular song from the 30s. It has endured as a vehicle for improvisation by many jazz musicians. It’s Only A Paper Moon It’s only a paper moon Sailing over a cardboard sea But it wouldn't be make believe If you believed in me Yes, it's only a canvas sky Hangin' over a muslin tree But it wouldn't be make believe If you believed in me It's a Barnum and Bailey world Just as phony as it can be But it wouldn't be make believe If you believed in me Without your love It's a honky tonk parade Without your love It's a melody played in a penny arcade It's a Barnum and Bailey world Just as phony as it can be But it wouldn't be make believe If you believed in me  Moon Lake Casino (p.72) - A popular night spot and casino during the 1940s, located in Dundee, Mississippi

SCENE SEVEN

 Possess your soul in patience (p.78) - From Luke 21.19 - ‘in your patience possess ye your souls’

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SCENE EIGHT

 Huey Long (p.83) a corrupt American politician popular because he reduced unemployment and improved the social services. He was nicknamed The Kingfish and assassinated in 1935 (1853-1935)  Greyhound (p.86) - The long-distance bus

SCENE TEN

 But I have been foolish – casting my pearls before swine! (p.99) - An allusion to Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.

SCENE ELEVEN

 Salerno (p.104) - A port in Southern Italy, the scene of fierce fighting in the Second World War. Against the odds, Stanley survived the fighting.  Della Robbia Blue (p.107) – The Della Robia Pottery was a ceramic factory founded in 1894 Birkenhead, England.  Quinine (p.108) - A salt used to treat malaria and reduce fever

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APPENDIX A – CLASSROOM ACTIVITY

photo taken by Sean Hansford

This classroom activity, designed for the Royal Exchange by Stephen Lucas, will challenge students to devise a performance and design a set inspired by the themes within A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE.

PART ONE: Name the lines on the blank tram map (on page…) after themes in A Streetcar Named Desire. There’s an example below to help you on page...

PART TWO: Find lines in the play where themes collide. There are some examples in the table below.

Masculinity Death Fantasy Class Desire Femininity Madness

Blanche: ‘I’ll be buried at sea sewn up in a clean white sack and dropped overboard – at noon – in ✓ ✓ ✓ the blaze of summer – and into an ocean as blue as [chimes again] my first lover’s eyes!’

Blanche: ‘I received a telegram from an old ✓ ✓ ✓ admirer of mine’

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PART THREE: Use each line to inspire the name of a tram stop and add to the map. There’s an example on page… Think about where each name should go depending on which themes it touches on.

PART FOUR: Choose a tram stop name that you particularly like. You are going to design a theatre set for this tram station, which should convey the mood of the line that inspired it. You have many tools to help you convey this mood, including scenery, lighting, costume, make up and props (look at the relevant page from the ‘Behind the Scenes’ document on the Royal Exchange website for more information about these different areas).

EXTENSION: One way that actors develop their characters is to imagine how they would behave in different situations. How would the different characters behave in the different tram stops you have created? For example, Stanley may be level headed at one stop, whereas Blanche would be deeply affected and Stella may feel guilty for having left Belle Reve.

Another way actors develop characters is to imagine their backstories. Imagine that the tube stops are different points in the characters’ lives. The stops could even lead into their future.

Imagine Stella alighting at Belle Reve – how did she behave before she left? Why did she leave? Was death approaching? Was she stifled? What was her relationship with Blanche? Write or improvise a scene where Stella is at Belle Reve.

Imagine Blanche alighting at Moon Lake. Is her memory of that night accurate? Write or improvise a scene of the fateful night at Moon Lake.

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