Worcester College JCR

Wednesday 25th, Friday 27th and Saturday 28th November, 7.30pm

“It is never easy to like Blanche; William’s allows her to do little to endear herself to us and yet we ought to feel for her. Julia balanced this paradox perfectly, creating and sustaining an emotional rollercoaster for her audience,” Nicola Byrom ★★★★★

‘Between the jerks and jolts that governed his rough masculine nature, Neumark-Jones ingeniously inserted the fluidity of a dancer, delicately fusing one outburst to the next.’ Judith Frodyma ★★★★★

A Streetcar Named Desire ★★★★★

Review By Nicola Byrom

If you have never seen Tennessee Williams, this is a perfect introduction. His plays are profound for their ability to create atmosphere, leaving an audience more with a sense or a feeling than a memory for what has taken place. Some productions feel that lighting, set and sound answer this requirement. This production however has no technical luxuries and play is better for being performed in a confined place rather than a large stage. If atmosphere cannot be created by technical effects, it must be constructed by the actors. Most simply, if you stage a play as well known as “A Streetcar Named Desire,” you need either to do something dramatically different, or perform it to the letter, powerfully. The second is usually more difficult, and yet the Buskins Drama Society have managed to do this brilliantly. This cast successfully, and powerfully, maintained the claustrophobic tension central to this play throughout their performance.

Julia McLaren performed a completely convincing and compelling portrayal of Blanche; the sister who arrives in the one roomed flat in downtown New Orleans to weave a path of illusions and pretension. As the play unravels the audience are offered both an alternative face for this character and snap-shots of explanation for why illusion may be easier and preferable than reality. It is never easy to like Blanche; William’s allows her to do little to endear herself to us and yet we ought to feel for her. Julia balanced this paradox perfectly, creating and sustaining an emotional rollercoaster for her audience that would move strong feeling in every spectator. The whole cast rose to this level, each portraying their unique, and distinctive characters powerfully.

In this play the audience sees dramatic emotional changes in the characters; this cast work well together to convey these reversals of personality. Jeremy Neumark-Jones, playing a very strong Stanley, is formidably aggressive in the snap shots of violence scattered through this drama and still persuasively caring when holding his wife, Stella. The emotional changes pulled off by Julia on a close to minute by minute basis never lose their credibility. The play is one of contrasts, refinement versus brute nature, practicality versus imagination; reality pressed against illusion. While William’s asks whether truth has any value if its nature can be subject, such questions would be lost without strong character portrayal. The play tells not so much a story but places characters on stage, lit up in a spotlight for the audience to judge. This cast allow the audience to consider those characters rather than the actors portraying them.

At points the cast needed to be more aware of the limited space. At key moments we found Stanley facing away from the audience when his expression would have been informative. Similarly moments arose when actors’ positions on stage obscured one another. Beyond these minor criticisms, the greatest disappointment was the lack of audience; it would be a great shame to miss this performance.

A Streetcar Named Desire ★★★★★

Review by Judith Frodyma

It was my first time seeing Streetcar. The Worcester College JCR was set up as the Kowalski’s living room – creating an intimacy with the audience, but also slightly stretching our imaginations, though rather effortlessly. “I don’t want realism, I want magic” Blanche proclaims, but a disturbingly familiar realism is what Tennessee Williams brought to the homely stage. The setting also allowed for an Ibsen-esque view into the Kowalski-Dubois private life, where a misunderstanding of clashing worldviews was unveiled through the missing curtain between their rooms that so offended the southern belle.

The role of Blanche Dubois, played by Julia Mclaren, is a delicate one – Blanche is not exactly the most lovable of characters & requires quite a dose of pathos in order to excuse her “hoity-toity” behaviour. Williams at one point has Blanche “suggest a moth”, a delicate creature avoiding bright light, indicating perhaps that in acting, a little less is often more. William Blake once said “the road to excess leads to the palace of wisdom… for we never know what is enough until we know what is more than enough.” Mclaren almost got this right – her accent practised and perfected, her movements dramatic, the pitch of her voice sliding up and down the scale for effect – however, she lacked the refinement of acting her character professed to have, consequently leaving the audience with no regenerative or salvaging grace despite her tragic past. Her li(n)es did not carry with them the sadness required for a sincere empathy – rather, her slightly overdone performance left us only with Stanley’s woolly-free reality.

The reoccurring adjective throughout Jeremy Neumark-Jones’ performance of Stanley Kowalski was ‘commanding.’ He had a way of conveying Stanley’s brute force and vulgarity that was almost charming. Charming and frightening, as I even found I moved my feet out of his way every time he walked past. Neumark-Jones had a strong command over his voice – accent, tone, infliction (when unabashedly hollers for Stella, for example) as well as a command over the people and things (such as the broken plate) in his way: “remember what Huey Long said: every man is a king.” If there was pathos, mine went to Stanley, heightened when in a moment of remorse, he falls on his knees and buries his head in Stella’s bosom. Between the jerks and jolts that governed his rough masculine nature, Neumark-Jones ingeniously inserted the fluidity of a dancer, delicately fusing one outburst to the next.

Emily Gill in the role of Stella, ironically constantly in her sister’s shadow, shone a light of her own on her character. Gill, with her heartbreaking facial expressions and eyes welled with tears, made her love and chemistry with Stanley most believable. She moved with the grace of someone who is not disillusioned by the facts but to save herself from their uncomfortable brightness, wishes she were, resulting in a stellar performance that maintained an impeccable consistency throughout.

Overall, the stripped down cast (seven in total) and single set proved to be an advantage – the focus was increased and emotions intensified. Jamie Brown as Mitch presented a fumbled mother’s boy, while the other minor characters did well to remain subdued enough to highlight the Kowalski’s beautifully sad performance.

I’d definitely like to see it again.