In 'A Streetcar Named Desire' Terrible Beauty Finds a Home in New Orleans

Maybe it’s the time in which they were written, or perhaps it speaks to a deeper well of despair within the playwright himself, but there’s often something tragic about the female characters depicted in the plays of Tennessee Williams.

Calling them victims is not quite accurate — perhaps saying they reflect a lingering vestige of a faded reality is a more apt descriptor. These are women who exist at the edge of truth and tread on the margins of a changing society.

Such is the case with the pitiable figure of Blanche DuBois, the just past youthful southern belle in “A Streetcar Named Desire.” Blanche struggles to maintain relevance in a world that has left her behind, all the while attempting to convince those around her that she is not the sordid woman whose reputation precedes her. But in the truth revealed by the bright light of day, Blanche’s façade easily crumbles, exposing a fragile women who has deceived only herself by creating an elusive reality as a means of survival.

Bay Street Theater’s current production of “A Streetcar Named Desire,” which officially opened November 16 and runs through December 1, brings a commanding cast to the Sag Harbor stage along with stunning production values that evoke the sights and sounds of New Orleans on a hot, sultry night. It packs a powerful punch and reminds audiences of just how far we’ve come since the time when husbands reigned supreme and held sway over their wives and all their worldly possessions.

Or have we?

This stunning version of Williams’s 1947 play offers a haunting portrayal of a family in decline and is directed by Bay Street’s co-founder Stephen Hamilton. It’s presented under the banner of the theater’s “Literature Live!” programming, which means the play, which runs a crisp and concise 90 minutes, sans intermission, is geared toward high school audiences who come to see it during weekday performances.

While a play with a southern sensibility set not long after WWII would not normally be perceived as one that teenagers could easily latch onto, if 2024 has taught us anything, it’s that women like Blanche DuBois are now being driven back into the darkness as they navigate a reality in which their bodies are not their own and men strive to be their protectors — whether they like it or not. Which is another way of saying, this is a very mature play with extremely difficult themes that the general public will latch onto as well.

Under the skillful direction of Hamilton, this beautifully tragic production offers a poignant study of lost fortunes in changing times. As the lights rise on Michael Billings magical set, Blanche (played masterfully by Daniela Mastropietro) has just stepped off “Desire,” the ironically named streetcar in New Orleans that has brought her to the doorstep of Stella, her baby sister who lives in the French Quarter. Stella (sweetly portrayed by the lovely Katie Rodgers) shares a small, rundown two-room flat with her volatile and ruggedly handsome husband, Stanley Kowalski (Shea Buckner). Eunice Hubbell (Nicole Marie Hunt), who lives upstairs with her husband Steve (played by Joe Pallister), owns the building and welcomes Blanche into the empty apartment and heads off to retrieve Stella, who is at the bowling alley with Stanley and his friends.

When Stella rushes home to greet her sister, she learns that Blanche intends to stay for a while, despite her obvious disapproval of the sparse accommodations. Blanche explains that Belle Reve, their family plantation in Laurel, Mississippi, has been “lost” and as a result, she has taken a leave of absence from her high school teaching position.

Stella is protective of Blanche’s delicate emotional state and doesn’t push for the details. But when Stanley comes home and meets Blanche, who has already been dipping into his bourbon, he is immediately suspicious of his sister-in-law’s motives. Asserting his right as a husband to possess Stella’s family property through what he calls the Napoleonic Code, he rifles through Blanche’s trunk in search of papers explaining exactly what happened to Belle Reve. When confronted by Blanche, he is direct and intimidating in his interrogation, showing no remorse for having pawed through her personal effects, which include fur pelts, ball gowns, a tiara and a stack of ribbon-tied letters from a long lost beau representing a mirage of her former life.

It’s evident that Stella has moved on and is happy to leave the family drama behind. But Blanche still inhabits the glorious past of her antebellum upbringing. She spends her days in the Kowalski residence sneaking bourbon and speaking of the past as if in a fever dream, gazing wistfully out into the audience as she recalls, with great embellishment, remembrances of younger days. She talks of the men she loved and lost including her husband — the author of those letters — a man whose unspoken proclivities toward his own gender drove him to an untimely end, due to her admonishments.

But Stanley isn’t about to let Blanche live in her memories, peaceful or otherwise. Over time, the tensions between them grow palpably as he badgers and belittles his sister-in-law while she openly refers to him as uncouth and coarse. When Blanche takes a shine to Stanley’s poker playing friend Harold “Mitch” Mitchell (played by Sawyer A. Spielberg), a naïve soul who lives with his mother and is eager to find a wife, Stanley ramps up his harassment of Blanche and sets out to investigate her past in Laurel, Mississippi in order to learn the truth.

In his portrayal of Stanley Kowalski, Shea Bruckner is a charismatic force of nature, bringing the same charming, but dangerous energy to the role first made famous by Marlon Brando. He inhabits Stanley with a terrible beauty, using his big, brash personality to feign friendliness and camaraderie with Blanche before his inner rage builds to an explosive crescendo and is then unleashed in a burst of negative energy violent enough to send even the heartiest New Orleans rat scurrying to the river. It doesn’t take long before Stella is drawn into the middle of Blanche and Stanley’s battles and soon he directs his ire toward her as well, much to Blanche’s dismay. Meanwhile, things aren’t going great upstairs for Eunice and Steve either, and they are experiencing their own domestic strife as well.

It’s an untenable situation filled with fraught tension and we know for sure when the fever breaks, it will change everyone’s life — especially Blanche. Because in the world of Tennessee Williams, women like Blanche DuBois truly do depend on the kindness of strangers — and as every woman knows, “strangers” is just another term for “men,” which makes their lot in life all the more harrowing.

The talented cast is rounded out by Carlos Garcia (as Pablo Gonzalez), Adelaide Mestre (as Nurse/Mexican Woman) and Matthew Conlon (as Doctor). The wonderful performances are augmented by a production that is lush and moody. Billings’s dramatic set and sound design by David Brandenburg could almost be considered characters all their own. Noises of the city fill the apartment while projections on the facades of the neighboring buildings depict shadow people moving through the French Quarter as period jazz bathes the scene. Later on, it’s the distorted sound of voices that we hear all around us as Blanche descends further into a world of her own making. Like history itself, she’s a tragic study in self-denial until the end.

Tennessee Williams’s “A Streetcar Named Desire” runs through December 1 with evening performances and some matinees at Bay Street Theater. Tickets start at $39.99 at baystreet.org or 631-725-9500. Free performances are available to school groups by contacting Allen O’Reilly, Bay Street’s director of education, at allen@baystreet.org or by calling 631-725-0818. Bay Street Theater is on Long Wharf in Sag Harbor.