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.