may program pages.qxp_Layout 1 4/19/17 8:59 AM Page 29 Wednesday through Friday, May 10–12, 2017, 8pm Zellerbach Hall Scottish Ballet A Streetcar Named Desire Directed by Nancy Meckler Choreographed by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa Music and Sound by Peter Salem Original play by Tennessee Williams Design by Niki Turner Lighting Design by Tim Mitchell Principals Christopher Harrison Bethany Kingsley-Garner. Eve Mutso* Soloists Andrew Peasgood Luke Schaufuss Nicholas Shoesmith Araminta Wraith Victor Zarallo First Artists Laura Joffre Sophie Laplane Evan Loudon Rimbaud Patron Constant Vigier Artists Javier Andreu Aisling Brangan Matthew Broadbent Grace Horler Pascal Johnson Roseanna Leney Daniela Oddi Melissa Parsons Grace Paulley Simon Schilgen Claire Souet Eado Turgeman Christopher Hampson, chief executive/artistic director Steven Roth, executive director Hope Muir, assistant artistic director Amy Dolan, company manager/international tour producer George Thomson, technical director Tim Palmer, production manager Matthew Strachan, chief electrician Iain Levee, assistant electrician Chris Holmes, chief stage technician Stevie Winning, technician Brian Prentice, sound operator/company pianist Sheelagh McCabe, stage manager Zoe Hayward, deputy stage manage Mary Mullen, head of wardrobe Ariane Robinson, wardrobe technician Scottish Ballet's production of A Streetcar Name Desire is made possible through special arrangement with The University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee. * guest artist This performance is made possible, in part, by Patron Sponsors Brian James and S. Shariq Yosufzai and Corporate Sponsor Graduate Berkeley. Opposite: Eve Mutso as Blanche DuBois in Nancy Meckler and Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s A Streetcar Named Desire. Photo by Andy Ross. may program pages.qxp_Layout 1 4/19/17 8:59 AM Page 30 Wednesday through Friday, May 10 –12, 2017, 8pm Zellerbach Hall Scottish Ballet A Streetcar Named Desire Based on A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams REVISED CASTING Blanche DuBois Eve Mutso (Wednesday evening) Araminta Wraith (ursday evening) Eve Mutso (Friday evening) Stella Kowalski, her sister Sophie Laplane (Wednesday evening) Bethany Kingsley-Garner (ursday evening) Sophie Laplane (Friday evening) Alan, Blanche's husband Victor Zarallo Alan's Lover Constant Vigier Stanley Kowalski Christopher Harrison Mitch, his friend Luke Schaufuss Young Blanche Aisling Brangan (Wednesday evening) Roseanna Leney (ursday evening) Aisling Brangan (Friday evening) Shep Huntleigh, a wealthy Texan Rimbaud Patron Young Boy Andrew Peasgood Salesmen, Sailors, Showgirls, Artists of Scottish Ballet Bowling teams, Poker players, etc. Casting subject to change. Length of the performance is approximately two hours, including one intermission. may program pages.qxp_Layout 1 4/19/17 8:59 AM Page 33 SYNOPSIS When Tennessee Williams began writing his We rejoin Blanche and find that she is with - play A Streetcar Named Desire he thought of out a home, now living in a hotel. Haunted by calling it The Moth . Our first image takes its guilt over her young husband’s death, she seeks inspiration from this title when we see a young comfort in alcohol and in the arms of strangers, girl, Blanche, dancing under a bare light bulb. including Shep Huntleigh, a wealthy Texan. She is a delicate creature fluttering towards the Eventually she is discovered seducing a Young light, a light that attracts but can also burn: Boy and is forced to leave town. a light that represents desire. Blanche: “I was never hard or self-sufficient Our storytelling, unlike Williams’ play, begins enough. When people are soft… soft people by relating the story of Blanche DuBois while have got to court the favour of hard ones, Stella. she is growing up in America’s Deep South. The Have got to be seductive… put on soft colors, year is 1935, and the lifestyle of the landed the colors of butterfly wings, and glow… make gentry is in steep decline. Blanche is a beautiful a little temporary magic just in order to pay for young girl with her life still ahead of her. one night’s shelter. That’s why I’ve been… not so awf’ly good lately. I’ve run for protection, ACT I Stella… protection.” Belle Reve New Orleans Blanche meets and falls in love with Alan, a Now heavily addicted to alcohol, Blanche trav - gentle and sensitive young man. At their wed - els to her sister Stella in New Orleans, hoping ding we meet her family and Blanche’s younger to leave behind her past and to make a new sister, Stella. The wedding is elegant and genteel start. She meets up with Stella and Stanley at the even though the once wealthy family is soon bowling alley, and when she is taken to their to lose its home, Belle Reve, due to mounting apartment, she is horrified to see how basic debt incurred through gambling and profligate their lives are and how little privacy there will spending. At the wedding, Alan briefly meets a be as she shares the tiny living space. Stanley young man and finds he is attracted to him. proudly tells her that they are expecting a baby. Alan is clearly uncertain about his sexuality and Blanche senses that Stanley is fiercely territorial although he loves his wife, he soon begins a and resents her presence in his home; he feels secret affair. When Blanche unexpectedly finds that Blanche looks down on him and considers the two men together, she is confused and him common. upset, and eventually rejects Alan. In despair, Alan runs off and shoots himself, dying in The Poker Game Blanche’s arms. She is distraught and cannot When Stanley’s friends arrive at the apartment forgive herself for dealing so harshly with him. for their poker night, Stella is eager to be out of his way and takes Blanche out for the evening. Stella Leaves Home As the two women watch a floorshow in a Stella makes a decision to leave Belle Reve and nightclub, Blanche drinks heavily. She feels make her own way in the world, leaving Blanche lightheaded and suddenly is haunted by an alone with her family and their financial prob - image of Alan and the night of his death. lems. Over time, Blanch deals with many fam - Shaken, she leaves the club with Stella, and on ily deaths, including those of her parents. The the street meets a Mexican flower seller, offering beautiful but decaying Belle Reve is lost and flowers for graves as she chants “flores para los Blanche becomes overwhelmed. muertos” (“flowers for the dead”). As Blanche The scene shifts to the music-filled streets buys a flower, she imagines again that young of New Orleans, where Stella meets and falls Alan is haunting her. passionately in love with Stanley Kowalski, a Back at the apartment, Stanley’s poker game factory worker. Here, the score introduces us to is in full swing. There, Blanche meets his friend the world of jazz. Mitch. Mitch is a shy man, unconfident with may program pages.qxp_Layout 1 4/19/17 8:59 AM Page 34 may program pages.qxp_Layout 1 4/19/17 8:59 AM Page 35 SYNOPSIS women and unmarried, and Blanche takes the The Letter opportunity to flirt with him. She longs for a Time has passed, and Stella is now heavily preg - safe haven—protection from the world’s harsh - nant. Stanley arrives home with a letter from ness—and can see no way to attain this unless a friend telling him of Blanche’s promiscuous she can find a husband. In the early 1950s, few past. Having seen Blanche trying to “steal” his women could imagine survival or happiness wife, he is now determined to destroy Blanche’s without being married. Sensing that Mitch is chances with Mitch. He shows the letter to Stella her only chance, Blanche is desperate to con - and we see images of Blanche’s past encounters vince him that she is still young and innocent. when she was living at the hotel. When she invites Mitch to dance, Stanley be - Blanche discovers Stella begging Stanley not comes enraged at the interruption to his poker to show the letter to anyone. She asks to see it, game and throws the radio out the window. but Stanley waves it before her eyes and leaves Stella is furious and pushes the friends to leave. to do his damage. Blanche is terrified and imag - Stanley, now drunk and feeling his territory has ines the letter and its contents being seen by been invaded, attacks his wife. His friends man - everyone in town, including Mitch. age to stop him and douse him in the bath while Mitch arrives, angry that he has been de - the two women run out onto the street. Stanley ceived by tales of her innocent past. He has the is full of remorse and calls out to Stella. Unable letter and he tries to force himself on Blanche to resist her passion for Stanley and his need for before leaving in disgust. Alone, Blanche feels her, Stella returns and is able to forgive, taking she has lost every chance for survival. Her moth- him into her arms. like dance reveals her vulnerability, and the cho - rus of women echoes her movements. ACT II Blanche Retreats into Fantasy When the doorbell rings, Blanche is brought The Next Morning back to reality by the arrival of a newspaper de - The next morning, Stanley and Stella are very livery boy. He reminds her of young Alan, and loving towards each other and Blanche, who has indeed Alan’s ghost appears again to haunt her. spent the night with a neighbour, returns just She tries to seduce the boy, but her hold on re - as Stanley is going out. She sees Stanley as a ality is so slight that the boy keeps turning into monster and is desperate to get Stella packed Alan.