University of Virginia Library

Vestibules Of Southern Decadence

By TOOTIE GOODRICH

The Virginia Players second
production of the year,
Tennessee Williams' "A
Streetcar Named Desire," is a
drama that has the potential of
taking the audience into a
sector of life which is often
glanced over.

CD/Mike Powell

Olim, Hurlburt: The Dilemma Of Southern Aristocracy

The play opened on
Broadway in 1947, and Robert
McLaughlin, the director of the
Virginia Players' production,
has attempted to portray the
story as it first appeared. The
play won the Pulitzer Prize,
The Donaldson Award and the
New York Drama Critics
Award.

Stanley Kowalski, played
by Rafael Triana, is an earthy,
beer-drinking, hard-loving
husband who thrives in his low
life New Orleans Environment.
He bowls, plays poker and is
the King of his castle.

Stella Kowalski, his wife, is
played by Carolyn Hurlburt.
She is from an aristocratic
upper class background, but
has accepted and adapted very
happily to a new, more
common lifestyle.

Blanche du Bois, Stella's
sister, is played by Cathy Olim.
She is the aristocratic southern
woman destined to destruction
as her fragile dream world
disintegrates around her. She is
the fading Southern beauty
making her final attempt at
happiness, as Stanley destroys
her dreams and eventually her
sanity.

Harold Mitchell, or Mitch, a
good poker friend of Stanley's,
is played by David Drucker. He
is a gentle man whose major
concern in life is the welfare
and happiness of his ill mother.

The supporting characters
are various neighborhood
residents. Eunice and Steve
Hubbell are played by Helena
Reilly and Steven Wise; also,
Jane Lerohl plays a neighbor
woman, Carla Miller plays a
Mexican woman and Ray
Royce plays Pablo Gonzales. In
addition, Mark Hogrefe plays a
newspaper boy, Dinah McNeal
plays a nurse and Kenneth
Kessler plays a doctor.

"Streetcar" is a story of
human passions and desires, as
the title implies. The story is a
classic confrontation between
brutality and romanticism in
human nature. It juxtaposes
masculine and feminine,
commonness and
pseudo-aristocracy. As the play
progresses, the audience gets to
know these people. "You
know Stanley and Blanche as
human beings", remarked Mr.
McLaughlin.

"A Streetcar Named
Desire" will run November
13-19 at Minor Hall. Shows will
be nightly at 8:30, and a
Matinee on Sunday, the 19th,
at 2:30. Box office hours are
2:00-5:00, phone 924-3051.