I challenge anyone to find a better line than, “STEEELLLLLLLLLA!”

It was only a few years ago that I saw Tennessee Williams‘ Pulitzer-winning A Streetcar Named Desire for the first time.  Before that, I had heard “STELLA!” pretty much everywhere else.  I think it was on the Simpsons, Saturday Night Live, Gilmore Girls, and in all kinds of other popular media.  It’s one of those iconic lines that you already know, and know to laugh, even before you know exactly where it comes from.  Kind of like I remember knowing pretty much all the jokes from The Kentucky Fried Movie – thanks to all my high school friends – before I could finally see it.  Or how you all know “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn,” even if you’ve never seen Gone With the Wind.

Then I saw Streetcar for the first time and finally got to have that AHA moment of finally understanding just why the “Stella!” line is essential and meaningful.  Experiencing it is different from just hearing about it.  Kind of like sex.  Then, once you’ve had the real thing, you acquire an understanding of how and when to weave it into your own conversations.  You can be funny in new and different ways.  I wonder how many people in the audience were experiencing “the kindness of strangers” for the first time.

Maybe I could work this into a grand unified theory and call it something like the Three Phases of “Stella!”  It might apply to all kinds of things.  Maybe like skiing.

So I was looking forward to seeing how the UAB Theatre students would handle these difficult characters.  Very well, for sure.  My favorite of the four main characters was probably Jessica Walston as Stella, though it really might be only if you forced me to pick.  Her Stella was maybe a little stronger and less mousy than I’ve seen and she seemed still visibly moved by the play’s emotion at the final curtain.

The other actors more-than-capably handled the other primary roles.  I imagine it’s hard to find someone who can handle the straightforward blue-collar masculinity of Stanley, but Atom Bennett pulls it off very well (and with appropriate and killer arm tattoos).  Likewise, it must be difficult to find a young actress with any hope whatsoever of playing the charming, complex, and world-weary Blanche, but Lindsay Allen fits and without jarring up her accent throughout the performance.  Finally, I think Mitch may rank as one of my favorite supporting characters and Daniel Martin embodies both his teddybear-ness and struggles to be more than just a chump.

I’ve seen the play three times now and I’m always left with questions.  My opinion is that it’s meant to be ambiguous, though I keep seeing it directed with some certain slants.  I’m planning on reading this script sometime soon to try and see if there are additional clues.

1. Does Blanche go crazy?  Every version I’ve seen has Blanche starting to show signs of madness after or during her encounter with Mitch, but I don’t feel like the lines really indicate that she’s mad.  Instead, I always wonder if we’re just seeing her wear out her welcome in a way which she’s done many times in the past, because of her inability to tell any truth.  I think Blanche is affirmatively trying to put her unique spin on things all the way to the end of the play.  It’s not madness; it’s practiced charm and deceit.  She’s even trying to disarm the doctor and her poetic brain is working on getting the narratives pieced together for the next phase of her life.  But I’ve never heard of it played that way on stage.  Even if not “mad” – whatever that means – I would acknowledge that she definitely doesn’t fit in the world like everyone else.
2. Is Blanche lying to Mitch (and to Stella and all the men who came before) about the circumstances of her former husband’s death?  Everything we know about Blanche is that she’s a liar.  She tells us so.  But then, at a crucial and important moment with a new beaux, she tells a story which is designed to gather his sympathy (and ours) and we’re supposed to think it’s true.  I just don’t buy it.  I always wonder if at least some chunk of her story is bogus.  Again, I’ve never seen it played that way on stage – it seems like it’s played as 100% true, even though we know she’s completely untrustworthy.
3. Does Stanley rape Blanche?  I think it’s strikingly ambiguous from the words, though I’ve frequently been rebuked for suggesting any alternate theory.  One possibility is that he just physically or verbally scares the hell out of her and then Blanche turns around and complains to Stella about it.  Another is that he’s intentionally or clumsily physically violent with her.  I’ve also always wondered if you could play Blanche as affirmatively seducing Stanley in a last ditch effort to gain the upper hand.  I’m just not sure.  But it seems awfully irrational, out-of-character, and simplistic for Stanley to rape his wife’s sister while expecting the birth of his first child.
4. Is Blanche a virgin?  I believe there’s evidence that she might be.  She may have married someone that wouldn’t sleep with her.  Then we get to watch her normal mode-of-operation with Mitch, and she repeatedly puts him off.  She’s uncomfortable with the sweaty and humid New Orleans lust between Stanley and Stella.  Even though there’s all kinds of implication that she’s a fallen woman, I’m not so sure.  As Stella says early on, “People talk.”  I think instead that she’s used to getting whatever she wants out of her targets without having to sleep with them.  Men clearly like her.  Is this why she’s still not married?

Thanks a million to Melissa Christian and Theatre UAB for letting me visit again.  A good performance makes you think about it for the rest of the week – and I have.  Continued success to a group that always does a good job.