Stellar cast takes Streetcar into Trump's America

A Streetcar Named Desire stars (from left) Morgana O'Reilly, Mia Blake and Toni Potter. Photo/Doug Sherring

Of all the lines in Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire, Blanche DuBois' plaintive, "Whoever you are - I have always depended on the kindness of strangers" resonates even 70 years after it was written.

At a time when events can take a savage turn in the beat of a heart, all of us may be more dependent on the kindness of strangers than we imagine - whether it's at a protest that suddenly turns violent or working for a corporation controlled from offshore offices by people who don't know our names.

So it's not surprising when Shane Bosher, former Silo Theatre artistic director, got the green light to stage Streetcar as the company's 20th anniversary show, he looked at the text anew and saw today. Bosher is taking Streetcar from post-World War II New Orleans into Donald Trump's America, with a powerhouse cast of Silo stalwarts and a newcomer or two.

"It's about the haves and the have-nots and, for me, the play is a battle of two cultures with one trying to assert itself over the other. I think there are very strong conversations happening about that all over the world at the moment.

"These characters, and what happens to them, some of the violence in the play - if that's not expressed in a contemporary way, then it's too easy for us to sit back, look at it and then say, 'Isn't it great that things aren't like that now?' These are people who are fighting for their way of life and, in order for them to do that, certain things have to be blanked out or denied so they have a sort of collective amnesia."

The story remains the same: crippling debt has sunk the DuBois family estate; a fragile and desperate Blanche DuBois seeks refuge with her sister, Stella, and her brooding husband, Stanley, in their New Orleans tenement.

Silo's current artistic director, Sophie Roberts, asked Bosher for a list of plays he would like to stage for the company's 20th anniversary. She didn't go past Streetcar, agreeing with him that the Pulitzer Prize winner has lost none of its potency.

Mia Blake.

Mia Blake, who appeared in Bosher's first Silo show (as a psychic dominatrix in Unidentified Human Remains and the True Nature of Love in 2003), plays Blanche.

"I knew Streetcar would be amazing because it's such an iconic show. It's like one of those times where you get asked to do Juliet or something and you're just in the right age range and think, 'Oh my god, I've got to do that!' The chance to have that kind of a journey on stage and do one of those plays, you can't say no."

Blake spent time thinking about modern motivations for Blanche. Turns out, she says, not a lot has changed.

"This is where it's so relevant still; most suffering comes from - and it's my biggest theory, especially with Blanche - not from the situation, but refusal to accept the situation. There are just so many points where you could go, 'You know what, Blanche? Choose the other way!' but she won't let herself let go and live, potentially, a more honest life.

"She's so fully attached to a certain type of life that it's the struggle between accepting the situation versus trying to live through the dream of what she should be doing; the expectation of the life she thinks she should have."

Morgana O'Reilly, whose first professional theatre role post-graduation was in Silo's 10th anniversary show (Bare), is Stella. It seems like intriguing casting to have O'Reilly, known for feisty, quirky characters, play a woman traditionally seen as weak and easily swayed. Bosher has a different take, saying Stella made a conscious decision to leave home at a young age and make her own way in the world.

"She's turned her back on what she sees as the hypocrisy of the upper class for something that feels more vital and real to her, and she's made concessions to live in that world. That, to me, is a very strong woman."

O'Reilly didn't hesitate to accept the role when offered it - "If Shane asks me to do anything, I'll say yes because I know it will be good" - but acknowledges Stella poses some challenges.

"I think her natural energy and rhythm is a lot different to mine in that I would be much quicker to stand up and say, 'Stop'. I believe in my heart that she has fire in her but it takes a long time to push her to a place where she'll let it out.

"The writing is so potent. If it was a weather system, it would be really humid; if it were a drink it would be heavy liquor. It's so good, it just stays with you and the life of the piece doesn't just lie in the words; it lies in the space between the words and I think that is what I find so affecting.

"It's not what I'm saying that is making me feel all these things. It's the things that I am not saying and the things that I am listening to that are done just purely through physical action that are so powerful."

Like Blake, Toni Potter's career was kick-started by Silo in Unidentified Human Remains and the True Nature of Love (she played a lesbian stalker). Potter has played leading roles in Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Suddenly Last Summer and in Streetcar, she plays Eunice who owns the building Stella and Stanley live in.

Toni Potter

"She's very different from the last two characters I've played because she is lower class whereas the other two were more upper class so it's a different accent, it's a different feel."

Learning Yat, a form of New Orleans-accented English, has been one of her biggest tests.
But she says it's exciting, because it helps her to get under the skin of the character, and it's a smaller role so she doesn't have "screeds" of lines to learn.

A Streetcar Named Desire also stars Ryan O'Kane, Mark Ruka, Fasitua Amosa, Nicole Whippy and, in a nod to Silo's future, newcomer Arlo Green.

Lowdown
What: A Streetcar Named Desire
Where and when: Rangatira at Q Theatre, Thursday, August 25-Saturday, September 16