The Power of the Stage

Blanche DuBois: I don't want realism. I want magic! Yes, yes, magic. I try to give that to people. I do misrepresent things. I don't tell truths. I tell what ought to be truth.

We went to the local theater the other night for the powerful, iconic play, A Streetcar Named Desire. It was not a large theater and we were in the 3rd row center. Local actors doing such a powerful play would seem to be a set-up for disaster. Fortunately, and wonderfully, it was as well produced and acted as any we have seen on the professional stage in Minneapolis. While not as "fancy" or complex a production as one might find in a larger venue, the power of the play came crashing through.

Streetcar is, of course, a tragedy by Tennessee Williams made famous in the late 40s and early 50s by Marlon Brando's amazing personification of Stanley Kowalski. Vivian Leigh played Blanche, Kim Hunter was Stella, and Karl Malden Mitch in that version. Fortunately the actors in this stage production seemed to dive deep into the characters and made them their own. Sure, you can't watch the play without thinking of the screen version, but it doesn't take long for the play, as it is being presented, sucks you in.

Movies do that, too, of course. But movies are larger than life. They exist in a seemingly different place. Or, at home on DVD, they are smaller, more manageable. On the stage the difference is amazing. These are real, flesh-and-blood people in front of us. Sure, they are actors performing lines written by someone else and told how to do their parts by another person. But, in good theater, with excellent material you discover life.

Perhaps Blanche Dubois's quote at the top of this post may be a lead-in to theater. Except that in the midst of the magic of theater, realism, reality and pain and fear and humanity, are played out for us to feel. If one can sit in a theater and watch the slow but inevitable descent into madness of a Blanche, the strutting and dangerous sexuality of a Stanley and not feel, then one is in danger of losing the hope of one's soul.

That's one of the reasons I so enjoy theater. It does not misrepresent the truth. Yes, it may stretch and magnify realism, but the magic of the stage (and screen) can turn life into truth.