UK Theatre Network

This play was inspired by Tennessee Williams’s short story Desire and the Black Masseur, adapted by Matt Harris and transformed into a work of overlapping images, a non-linear story of opposites. Harris calls his play “magic realism”.

The story begins in a typical office – desks, papers, everything held in dull colours except for the gaudy red curtains. A man is asleep at his desk: Ashley Hicks is wasting away as a clerk in a statistics company spending his spare time alone in art house cinemas. Ashley suffers from narcolepsy, drifting in and out of his dreams and fantasies and taking the audience with him. It is sometimes hard to know whether we are watching Ashley’s fantasy or his reality. Ashley suffers from guilt and anxiety because he suppresses his true sexuality. After rejecting his female boss’s advances Ashley embarks on a journey of self-discovery with Lloyd, his black childhood friend and the focus of his desire. It is only in his dreams that Ashley dares to reveal his true self.

Skillfully directed by Vernon Douglas and perfectly cast the production tackles religious and racial issues as well as themes of sexual jealousy and obsession. It is an intense drama with moments of absurdity as in an imagined interrogation scene that takes place in a universe where films made before 2020 are banned and the political correctness idea has moved far beyond any kind of reason. Ashley finds himself evaluated and interrogated by his bosses Trevor and Maggie for bullying Lloyd.

Until 27 November 2010, 7.30 pm
The Lion and Unicorn

08444 777 000

www.giantolive.com

Brace yourself for the sultry atmosphere of summer in New Orleans as Bolton Octagon stages Tennessee Williams’s modern classic about sexual power play between the faded remnants of America’s effete southern aristocracy and a new wave of unromantic European immigrants.

 Blanche and her younger sister Stella are all that remain of the once wealthy DuBois family.  Stella left home ten years ago and has embraced a new life in a poor inner-city area as the wife of rough, working-class Stanley Kowalski.  But Blanche stayed loyal to her gentrified roots, and after a long separation of both time and space she arrives unexpectedly and incongruously on Stella’s rickety doorstep.

 Blanche’s self-centred behaviour and superficially refined ways rub up against Stanley’s extremes of vulgarity and machismo, and Stella’s loyalty to her past and present is constantly put to the test.  Aside from the domestic conflict, the play’s fascination lies in the gradual revelation of Blanche’s tragic past and the multi-faceted nature of her character.

 Director David Thacker’s focus on the characters is strangely unambiguous - the audience sees Blanche with Stanley’s harsh realistic gaze rather than through her own rose-coloured spectacles because Clare Foster’s Blanche is not ethereal and whispy but harsh and strident from the word off.  Amy Nuttall as her sister Stella is the most sympathetic character on stage, torn between the needy Blanche and her demanding husband, but Keiran Hill, although physically imposing, is too clean cut and plain nice to make Stanley into the archetypal he-man. 

 This production feels closer to the sharply defined realism of Arthur Miller than the woozy and feverish impressionism of Tennessee Williams.  Partly this is due to the challenge of staging these dream-like dramas in-the-round, as with the Royal Exchange’s production of The Glass Menagerie.  The playwright describes layers of rooms coming in and out of focus, their walls sometimes alive with reflections, lights and shadows - the design of the long-running Woman in Black is a brilliant example of how this can work - while Ciaran Bagnall’s set design can only offer us a floor plan and fixed furniture (although costume designer Mary Horan’s lavish frocks, furs and finery are to die for).  Even Carol Sloman’s music struggles to create any atmosphere.  In the end it is the sheer power of the story that carries the evening.

 A Streetcar Named Desire is on at Bolton Octagon until Saturday 9 October 2010

Tickets: from £9.50

Eves: Mon-Sat @ 7.30pm

Matinees: Fri 17 Sep; Sat 2 & Wed 6 Oct @ 2pm  

Box Office: 01204 520661

www.octagonbolton.co.uk

In an old mansion in the Garden District of New Orleans a family is gathering together for the first time in almost a year. Last Summer Sebastian Venable died in suspicious circumstances and now the only witness to his death has appeared and will destroy everything in her wake.

"Suddenly Last Summer" is considered by many to be one of Tennessee Williams darkest and most surreal plays. Although the play's first production was in 1958 it didn't receive its Broadway debut until 1995.

It is perhaps best known as the inspiration for the Academy Award nominated 1959 film starring Elizabeth Taylor, Katherine Hepburn and Montgomery Clift.

Whilst the play deals with subjects such as insanity and repressed sexuality it also contains the lyricism that is frequently found in Williams writing. And this production by Theatre Alba in the gardens of Duddingston Kirk Manse should certainly prove to be one of the most atmospheric and memorable productions of this year's Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Let's just hope we get some of that balmy New Orleans weather to go with it!

“Suddenly Last Summer”

by Tennessee Williams

10-14 and 17-21August

16:00 (1hr 20mins)
 

In the Marquee at

Duddingston Kirk Manse Gardens (Venue 121)

Photos by Alan Guthrie