Scottish Ballet A Streetcar Named Desire Festival Theatre Edinburgh 3rd May 2023 Review
Scottish Ballet’s A Streetcar Named desire is at the Festival Theatre Edinburgh this week (Wed 3 to Sat 6 May) and if you think that ballet is not for you then take a chance on this one and be prepared to have your thoughts on the subject re-defined by this production.
Based on the now iconic play by Tennessee Williams which was first performed on Broadway on December 3, 1947, Scottish Ballet keep very closely to the original narrative and, if you are a fan of the 1951 film starring Marlon Brando as Stanley (who also played this role in the first Broadway production) and Vivien Leigh as Blanche, then you will recognise so many familiar scenes here too.
At first glance, this is a story of a soon to be gone forever world as the large estates of the American deep south, with all of their colonial splendour and wealth, were slowly fading into history and oblivion. How so much of this wealth was created is of course also the other side of this story.
Fading glory and a fading Southern Belle is probably the best way to define Blanche Dubois, a woman out of time and out of place struggling to come to terms with her past, her present, her future and her relationship with her sister Stella.
It is eight years since Scottish Ballet has put on a production of “Streetcar” and when I saw this back in 2015 with Eve Mutso in the leading role of Blanche it was one of my favourite shows of that year. This time around, with Marge Hendrick as Blanche, it is one of my favourite shows of 2023.
With A Streetcar Named Desire, Scottish Ballet have blurred the lines of what a ballet can be, and merged dance, music and drama seamlessly together to tell a story in movement only without words (if you don’t count Stanley shouting “Stella”).
For any dancer out there, this role as Blanche is one of the strongest ones in contemporary dance, but few people will have both the technical dance and dramatic skills to take the role on. Here, Marge Hendrick has both and if you were to strip the dance out of her role, you are still left with a very powerful dramatic performance that should be winning more than a few stage-theatre awards for her portrayal of a woman slowly losing her already thin grasp of reality. What exactly is Blanche running away from, what is she always trying to run to? The answer to that so often seems to be a lost youth, a lost lover and an attempt to either cling to or to re-create both again in her life.
Although this production is staying very close to the original source material, there are some changes as here we are exploring in more detail what Blanche is thinking as a person; we start to get a real insight into the tragic events of her youth, the memories and demons that haunt her every day as she attempts to cope with them and her very changed status in life through an over reliance on alcohol. It is here, expressing the inner soul of Blanche, that Marge Hendrick excels both in dance body language and expressive movement. Shared credit for Blanche must go to Choreographer Annabelle Lopez Ochoa who has created a delicate but still powerful portrayal for not only her, but for all characters here a very special work that perfectly captures the at times fantasy world of Blanche’s past with the brutal reality of her present situation with her sister Stella, Stanley, and his card playing friends. The dynamics between Blanche and her sister Stella (Bethany-Kingsley Garner) have so much to say about their relationship and their shared past memories of better times. Credit must also go to Nancy Meckler for tight scenario and direction on this production.
For Streetcar to really work though, it is the relationship between Blanche and Stanley that has to be just right, and in both dance and dramatic portrayal, Ryoichi Hirano is excellent in this role.
Always there somewhere in this story, be it in an obvious scene, or used very subtly in the background, is one of the best music scores and sound (Peter Salem), that I have heard for a contemporary work of dance (or theatre) in many years.
Creating much of the atmosphere of this work is an at times sparse but always inventive set design (Nicola Turner) accompanied by very effective lighting (Tim Mitchell).
Scottish Ballet’s A Streetcar Named Desire is one of those works where I think you can find something you have overlooked every time that you watch it performed, and this will keep this production fresh for many years to come.
Review by Tom King © 2023
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
Based on the now iconic play by Tennessee Williams which was first performed on Broadway on December 3, 1947, Scottish Ballet keep very closely to the original narrative and, if you are a fan of the 1951 film starring Marlon Brando as Stanley (who also played this role in the first Broadway production) and Vivien Leigh as Blanche, then you will recognise so many familiar scenes here too.
At first glance, this is a story of a soon to be gone forever world as the large estates of the American deep south, with all of their colonial splendour and wealth, were slowly fading into history and oblivion. How so much of this wealth was created is of course also the other side of this story.
Fading glory and a fading Southern Belle is probably the best way to define Blanche Dubois, a woman out of time and out of place struggling to come to terms with her past, her present, her future and her relationship with her sister Stella.
It is eight years since Scottish Ballet has put on a production of “Streetcar” and when I saw this back in 2015 with Eve Mutso in the leading role of Blanche it was one of my favourite shows of that year. This time around, with Marge Hendrick as Blanche, it is one of my favourite shows of 2023.
With A Streetcar Named Desire, Scottish Ballet have blurred the lines of what a ballet can be, and merged dance, music and drama seamlessly together to tell a story in movement only without words (if you don’t count Stanley shouting “Stella”).
For any dancer out there, this role as Blanche is one of the strongest ones in contemporary dance, but few people will have both the technical dance and dramatic skills to take the role on. Here, Marge Hendrick has both and if you were to strip the dance out of her role, you are still left with a very powerful dramatic performance that should be winning more than a few stage-theatre awards for her portrayal of a woman slowly losing her already thin grasp of reality. What exactly is Blanche running away from, what is she always trying to run to? The answer to that so often seems to be a lost youth, a lost lover and an attempt to either cling to or to re-create both again in her life.
Although this production is staying very close to the original source material, there are some changes as here we are exploring in more detail what Blanche is thinking as a person; we start to get a real insight into the tragic events of her youth, the memories and demons that haunt her every day as she attempts to cope with them and her very changed status in life through an over reliance on alcohol. It is here, expressing the inner soul of Blanche, that Marge Hendrick excels both in dance body language and expressive movement. Shared credit for Blanche must go to Choreographer Annabelle Lopez Ochoa who has created a delicate but still powerful portrayal for not only her, but for all characters here a very special work that perfectly captures the at times fantasy world of Blanche’s past with the brutal reality of her present situation with her sister Stella, Stanley, and his card playing friends. The dynamics between Blanche and her sister Stella (Bethany-Kingsley Garner) have so much to say about their relationship and their shared past memories of better times. Credit must also go to Nancy Meckler for tight scenario and direction on this production.
For Streetcar to really work though, it is the relationship between Blanche and Stanley that has to be just right, and in both dance and dramatic portrayal, Ryoichi Hirano is excellent in this role.
Always there somewhere in this story, be it in an obvious scene, or used very subtly in the background, is one of the best music scores and sound (Peter Salem), that I have heard for a contemporary work of dance (or theatre) in many years.
Creating much of the atmosphere of this work is an at times sparse but always inventive set design (Nicola Turner) accompanied by very effective lighting (Tim Mitchell).
Scottish Ballet’s A Streetcar Named Desire is one of those works where I think you can find something you have overlooked every time that you watch it performed, and this will keep this production fresh for many years to come.
Review by Tom King © 2023
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com