Review: Weyni Mengesha’s blazing ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ is back at Soulpepper

Acclaimed Tennessee Williams production from 2019 still resonates

What: A Streetcar Named Desire
Where: Soulpepper Theatre, 50 Tank House Lane
When: Now, until Sun., July 7
Highlight: Amy Rutherford’s heartbreakingly optimistic Blanche
Rating: NNNN (out of 5)
Why you should go: The smouldering, jazz-soaked atmosphere of this remarkably cohesive production still resonates.


SOULPEPPER THEATRE’S recent programming mandate? Solid theatre. That may sound sarcastic — I’d hope all professional theatres aim to put up quality work — but it’s difficult not to notice Soulpepper’s current fondness for bringing in vetted winners, whether they’re transfers of local hits (Casey and Diana a few months ago, The Master Plan this November), shows that impressed abroad (Age Is a Feeling until Sunday, A Strange Loop next April) or sturdy crowd favourites (Kim’s Convenience next January).

Artistic director Weyni Mengesha’s take on Tennessee Williams’s iconic A Streetcar Named Desire fits in, having been met with incredible critical acclaim  when it premiered at Soulpepper in 2019. And, remounted with the same designers and most of the same cast, I’m glad to say the smouldering, jazz-soaked atmosphere of this remarkably cohesive production still resonates.

Running a mammoth three hours and 15 minutes including intermission, Mengesha’s staging brings a contemporary energy to Williams’s New Orleans setting, rendering it a raucous, unglamorous place filled with violence, passion and trombone playing. When professional fantasy conjuror Blanche DuBois (Amy Rutherford) arrives at her sister Stella’s (Shakura Dickson) one-room apartment wearing a ghost-white pantsuit, she’s stunned by the rundown vibe. But the brutishness of Stella’s abusive husband, Stanley (Mac Fyfe), soon makes all other concerns irrelevant, with Blanche taking on the duty of getting Stella — pregnant and ostensibly content with her living situation — out. The collision of these three vigorous personalities is the play’s subject.

Rutherford’s performance is reason enough to catch the show. Here is a Blanche who never stops believing in the future. She finds overwhelming joy in the smallest things: hot baths, expensive perfume, light bulb coverings. It’s extraordinarily easy to believe her lies. Even Fyfe’s no-nonsense Stanley initially has a tough time cutting through her glossy surface. The pair’s conflict blows like a hurricane, leaving Stella, the romantic, in the disorienting eye.

The foreground of Lorenzo Savoini’s expressive set offers a realistic depiction of Stella and Stanley’s residence, complete with set dressings, doors and a fridge. But the space around it is more abstract: reflective corrugated metal coats the stage’s walls while an angular staircase to the apartment above provides the foundation for several haunting stage images.

Transition music is a popular convention. The intelligence of Mengesha’s production is the way she incorporates the on-stage musicians — including new cast member Divine Brown, scatting like a phoenix —  into the fabric of the drama itself. When not performing on a platform hidden behind Savoini’s metal wall, they’re often ambling past the apartment or marching through the audience, laughing and singing until dawn. Mengesha’s New Orleans extends in every direction, engulfing the space in an inebriating haze of smoke and whiskey.

 

soulpepper, streetcar, theatre, Toronto