Getting back to traditional theater, Taipei's upstart troupe YouSee Theatre (
Under direction from John Sheng Kuo (
"Williams achieved a great rhythm in his script. I've tried in the translation to keep that rhythm in Chinese so that the play can recreate the same enormous impact of the original," he said after a rehearsal Wednesday.
PHOTO COURTESY YOUSEE THEATRE
A Streetcar Named Desire will be YouSee Theatre's second production after last year's The Desired (
Drawing from his experience in literary criticism and literary readings of theater while also seeking to draw a distinction with the preponderant tendency of local theater troupes to stage highly abstract or conceptual pieces, Kuo said he sought to shift the emphasis to the actors for a performance that displays the many layers of each of Williams' characters.
"The vocabulary within Taiwan's theater when dealing with issues of desire and mourning is actually quite weak. It's usually either too abstract, or simply too conventional, with the result that characters are too flat. So, I demand that the actors really dig into the characters to bring out the vivid emotions that Williams wrote into the play," Kuo said.
A sneak preview of the play on Wendnesday confirmed that, with a few scratchy microphones and one wardrobe issue aside, Kuo has successfully flogged stirring emotional performances out of his cast of seasoned actors. These include the well-known author and actress Betty Wu (
Wu stands out in particular, not only for occupying the role of the play's lead character, but in faithfully reproducing Blanche's delicate mixture of coquettishness, vulnerability and suggested sexuality that form the basis of Williams' complex discourse on gender in the play.
Without overplaying the woe in her predicament as a woman surrounded by men who are eager to carry out one form or another of aggression against her, Wu comes across as the outwardly fragile, yet inwardly tough woman that is Blanche.
Maintaining that delicate tipping point poses a particular challenge and is especially poignant in the context of Taiwan, Kuo said.
"Even today, in society at large, people's understanding of gender predicaments is quite low. There's a subconscious, low-level violence that plays out against women who are perceived as too dominant or visible," he said.
"This applies to Blanche, who doesn't want to be what the men around her expect of her."
Hsiao is also convincing as the insecure and hypocritically moralistic Mitch, who becomes torn when he learns of Blanche's colorful romantic past and ultimately rejects her as a "dirty" woman, though not before attempting a crass sexual pass at her.
Tang and Lin provide solid roles as the conflicted, abused Stella and the insensitive cur Stanley.
At the dress rehearsal, the only glaring weakness in the production comes from the role of Stanley but is not necessarily related to Lin. His wardrobe shares the tight T-shirt of Marlon Brando from the classic 1951 movie, but not being as muscle-bound or unkempt, the effect on Lin is one not of an abrasive, boorish drunk but rather of an urbane metrosexual, which would hardly describe the role of Stanley, who in the story winds up raping Blanche. Opting for a dirtier T-shirt would go a long way toward correcting this minor but also very distracting flaw.
Despite Stanley's incongruously clean and stylish T-shirt, the performance is clearly micromanaged by Kuo for a faithful reproduction of one of his favorite plays. "Tennessee Williams opened the door to a new world for me," he said.
For audiences in Taipei, the play could also be a new experience in theatrical realism.
Performance notes:
What: A Streetcar Named Desire (
When: Tonight and tomorrow, 7:30pm; tomorrow and Sunday, 2:30pm
Where: Novel Hall (
Tickets: NT$400 to NT$1,500, available through Era ticketing at www.ticket.com.tw or at the venue
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