caldewlit.weebly.com · Web viewEven the title of Harvey’s song, sung by a female, seemed quite...
Transcript of caldewlit.weebly.com · Web viewEven the title of Harvey’s song, sung by a female, seemed quite...
Stagecraft Discussed: A Streetcar Named Desire
part two (of two)Blanche’s paranoia about her fading looks ensures hysteria about lighting
inside the apartment; most memorably when Mitch “tears the paper lantern off
the light bulb.” In Benedict Andrews’ 2014 production, the lighting was vibrant
and varied with the entire stage bathed in different coloured pastel hues for
the main dramatic action and much more intense luminous blues and purples
between scene changes. So, a whole spectrum of colour from soft whites and yellows to explosive purples and greens was employed to create an intoxicating visual spectacle. The constant colour changes combined and
clashed, thus adding to the dynamic conflicts of the production and preventing
the audience from settling into complacence.
The famous paper
lantern prop that
hides reality for
Blanche was coloured
red in this production,
which became a
colour motif
throughout the play
as Blanche swanned
around in a bright red
silk gown in certain
scenes and towards
the end donned a red
dress with an almost childlike red bow in her hair. However, the colour schema achieved through costume colour was more intricate than first meets the eye. Blanche’s red silk dressing gown was matched by Stella’s
bright red pyjama shorts and most strikingly by Stanley’s bright red silk
pyjamas before the infamous rape scene. A fascinating colour symmetry
between Stella and Blanche was created by their clothing at the beginning
and end of the play. When Blanche first comes to Elysian Fields Stella wore a
bright yellow top with light blue leggings and when Blanche left the play
mentally destroyed she wore a bright yellow dress with a light blue jacket.
This colour connection subtly symbolised the inversion of the sisterly
hierarchy in the play as Blanche shifted from initial dominance to final
vulnerability. By the play’s end it was the little sister who looked after the big
sister, not the other way round. Such subtle visual connections were also
echoed in the soundscapes that Andrews employed.
The jazz music that dominates the original script was rejected by Andrews as
he incorporated more contemporary music. One notable scene that
dramatised the intense sexual attraction smouldering between Stella and
Stanley was not mentioned in the stage directions, but added much to the
portrayal of the intense desires that swirl around the tiny apartment. This
sequence was used to bridge between two scenes in a way that both
distracted the audience from the dead time between scene changes as well
as adding to the play’s thematic explorations of sex and domination between
men and women. Here Vanessa Kirby, as Stella, and Ben Foster, as Stanley,
engaged in a carefully choreographed and stylised sex scene accompanied
by the guitar riff from PJ Harvey’s
“To Bring You My Love.” The slow sensuous guitar motif set the pace for the deliberately slowed down movement of the actors and it brought a dark, striking physicalisation of what the play suggests rather than dramatises.
Tellingly, Stella was very much
dominated by Stanley as Kirby was
led by Foster to their bed; her
subservience underscored by her
physical location below Foster. Even the title of Harvey’s song, sung by a
female, seemed quite apt, to the female role in this brief scene, where love is
traded for sexual satisfaction. Elsewhere, ear-assaulting blasts of guitar
feedback courtesy of Jimi Hendrix perforated the performance space between
scene changes to mirror the disorientating colour changes. The strategy of
contemporary music was continued by using Chris Isaac’s famous “Wicked
Game” to reflect the loss of hope experienced by Blanche towards the end of
the play.
Combined with such bold lighting and sound decisions the actors also played
a significant role in stagecraft decisions. They became a manifestation of stagecraft in action through their gestures, delivery, stage position etc .
Gillian Anderson, for example,
played Blanche in a highly effective
way. For the first half of the play
her Blanche grated on the nerves
with her affectations of gentility,
childishness and coquetry by
presenting almost a Southern
stereotype. She prioritised her
self-delusion and feigned
confidence; epitomised by her
entrance in designer sunglasses,
designer outfit and huge heels.
Anderson’s performance, however,
was subtle; an underlying discomfort and anxiety oozed through the veneer of
confidence; through laughter that was just slightly too manic, twitching hand
gestures, restless body movements and an airiness of delivery that seemed to
fade to a sigh at times. However, as the second half commenced Blanche’s artifice died away and Anderson played up the reality of her emotional turmoil. The disjunction between the annoying and immature
Blanche and the subsequently exposed and vulnerable Blanche maximised
audience sympathy by her sudden and rapid collapsing fortunes.
For the rape scene the decision to have Blanche change into an ill-fitting ball
gown and tiara complete with smeared make-up was both visually and
emotionally highly effective. It showed Blanche desperately and misguidedly
still trying to perpetuate her own prom-queen delusions while also revealing
the inappropriateness of such delusions. The ghastly Joker-esque lipstick that
Anderson applied so
disastrously further
emphasised Blanche’s
unhinged mental state.
Anderson’s frantic scuttling up and down the apartment, wheeling and circling with over exaggerated movements contrasted perfectly with Foster’s cool, calculated movements as they dramatised the focused predator hunting a skittish prey. Foster
maximised Stanley’s alpha
male status at the start of
the play when he delivered a bag of red meat to Stella covered in grease and
dirt and his primal desires were embodied further when Foster navigated his
way through the under-netting of Blanche’s ball gown with calculating
menace. Without showing the actual sexual violence itself it was a highly
effective way of disturbing the audience and propelling Blanche towards her
tragic end.
The contrast between Anderson’s appearance as she entered and exited the
play could not be more marked. She entered with the air of a cool, confident, glamorous woman replete with heels, sunglasses, styled hair and designer gear and exited a broken woman with lank, unbrushed hair, smudged lipstick and faraway gaze. Anderson also prolonged
Blanche’s tragic exit by slowly walking all the way around the revolving stage
to maximise both the spectacle of her departure as well as audience
sympathy.
Now that you have been initiated into the dark arts of stagecraft as well as
refreshing your knowledge of intratextual devices, it might be wise to see
them put into action. The new A-Level specifications require a close textual
analysis of unseen passages, so it makes sense to apply this to drama texts,
texts that require an additional awareness of stagecraft and of how different
directors, actors and audiences can interpret a text. As elsewhere, knowledge
of various productions will also help you to answer this sort of question fully.