The meaning behind Tennessee Williams’ words is taking a new form in the Scottish Ballet’s version of the classic Southern drama, “A Streetcar Named Desire.”
The ballet, which was recently performed at the Spoleto Festival, gave a dramatically different spin on the piece, particularly with the character of Blanche.
In past productions on both the stage and screen, Blanche has had a tendency to come off as an unsympathetic character who is, for the most part, a snobbish, compulsive liar with self-destructive tendencies who has little regard for those around her.
However, in the ballet version of “Streetcar,” under the direction of Nancy Meckler and choreography by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, the audience has the opportunity to better understand where Blanche is coming from and why she acts and reacts in the manner that she does.
Blanche’s imbalance and instability that she suffers from is illuminated through the use of various pas de trois pieces featuring Blanche and male representations of her alcoholism and initial promiscuity.
The audience experiences just how emotionally fragile her psychological state is as she haunted by the sudden appearance of the apparition of her dead husband at any given moment, culminating in some instances in the terrible, echoing sound of his suicide.
Blanche, through her fluttering movements, becomes moth-like; drawn to several different flames and paper moons, false notions of reality and make believe, until she is at last consumed by her past and unable to live a normal life in the present or future.
In addition to the insight into Blanche’s character, all of the production elements of the ballet from the minimalist set and costumes, to the almost symbolic treatment of light and exposure, came together to surround the audience with an inventive and imaginative production that was both visually and musically stunning.
Each partnering sequence was seamless and fluid, almost as if the dancers were extensions of one another. The pas de deux between Alan and his lover was especially striking as it escalated into a pas de trois with the addition of Blanche in her blissful and determined ignorance of her marital situation as she tried to ignore the pull of the other partner.
The use of crates as transitional and transformative set pieces was# particularly clever, and allowed for the #symbolic crumbling down of Blanche’s family estate, which had served as the backdrop for the beginning of the production, into ruin.
Peter Salem’s incorporations of spoken word and silence into the score served as devices to further enhance the impact of the key moments, such as Stanley’s iconic “Stella!” scream and Alan’s suicide. His layering of “Paper Moon” and the echoes of the flower peddlers’ cries of “flores para los muertos” in the final scene was chillingly brilliant and perfectly encapsulated the inescapable presence of death in both Blanche’s reality and fantasy.
By translating Williams’ text into movement, only the raw emotions remained, allowing the subtext to shine through and give the audience the opportunity to see behind, and actually want to believe in, Blanche’s paper moon.
The ballet, which was recently performed at the Spoleto Festival, gave a dramatically different spin on the piece, particularly with the character of Blanche.
In past productions on both the stage and screen, Blanche has had a tendency to come off as an unsympathetic character who is, for the most part, a snobbish, compulsive liar with self-destructive tendencies who has little regard for those around her.
However, in the ballet version of “Streetcar,” under the direction of Nancy Meckler and choreography by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, the audience has the opportunity to better understand where Blanche is coming from and why she acts and reacts in the manner that she does.
Blanche’s imbalance and instability that she suffers from is illuminated through the use of various pas de trois pieces featuring Blanche and male representations of her alcoholism and initial promiscuity.
The audience experiences just how emotionally fragile her psychological state is as she haunted by the sudden appearance of the apparition of her dead husband at any given moment, culminating in some instances in the terrible, echoing sound of his suicide.
Blanche, through her fluttering movements, becomes moth-like; drawn to several different flames and paper moons, false notions of reality and make believe, until she is at last consumed by her past and unable to live a normal life in the present or future.
In addition to the insight into Blanche’s character, all of the production elements of the ballet from the minimalist set and costumes, to the almost symbolic treatment of light and exposure, came together to surround the audience with an inventive and imaginative production that was both visually and musically stunning.
Each partnering sequence was seamless and fluid, almost as if the dancers were extensions of one another. The pas de deux between Alan and his lover was especially striking as it escalated into a pas de trois with the addition of Blanche in her blissful and determined ignorance of her marital situation as she tried to ignore the pull of the other partner.
The use of crates as transitional and transformative set pieces was# particularly clever, and allowed for the #symbolic crumbling down of Blanche’s family estate, which had served as the backdrop for the beginning of the production, into ruin.
Peter Salem’s incorporations of spoken word and silence into the score served as devices to further enhance the impact of the key moments, such as Stanley’s iconic “Stella!” scream and Alan’s suicide. His layering of “Paper Moon” and the echoes of the flower peddlers’ cries of “flores para los muertos” in the final scene was chillingly brilliant and perfectly encapsulated the inescapable presence of death in both Blanche’s reality and fantasy.
By translating Williams’ text into movement, only the raw emotions remained, allowing the subtext to shine through and give the audience the opportunity to see behind, and actually want to believe in, Blanche’s paper moon.