Review: Feel the Heat in A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE at Portland Center Stage

As soon as you walk into the theatre at Portland Center Stage, you'll start to feel overheated and a little claustrophobic. No, nothing's wrong with the air conditioning. It's because of G.W. Mercier's set, which features an authentic New Orleans second-story balcony jutting out over the two cramped rooms where the action of A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE takes place.

The rooms become even smaller when they are filled with people, providing the perfect setting for Tennessee Williams' masterpiece about sex and secrets. There's simply nowhere to hide.

For those (like me before this production) who have never seen A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE, here's brief summary:

Stella and her husband Stanley live a seemingly happy, though modest, life in a rundown neighborhood of New Orleans. Then, Stella's sister, Blanche, arrives unexpectedly one day and ruins everything. She's well-dressed and judgmental, and her conversation alternates between bragging about her many admirers and insulting Stanley as a lower-class brute. Not a charming houseguest. As the play goes on, Blanche's veneer begins to crack and reveal a psyche severely damaged by dreadful events and even worse secrets. Also, a drinking problem. This may be trite to say of a Pulitzer prize-winning classic, but...it's a really good play!

For this production, Portland Center Stage has assembled a stellar cast. Demetrius Grosse, who plays Stanley, is an impressive display of masculinity (especially with his shirt off -- holy wow!). Stanley is a lower-class brute, and an abusive one, but in Grosse's hands he's also incredibly attractive, and even occasionally sensitive. You can see why Stella is so in love with him, and why Blanche is both drawn to and repulsed by him. Deidrie Henry, who plays Blanche, is like a spinning top -- constantly moving and disrupting things until she herself begins to falter. It might have been just a trick of the light, but both actors look very tall, which makes the rooms seem even smaller and the characters' confrontations even more eruptive. I also really liked Kristen Adele as Stella -- her strength is much less violent than that of her sister and her husband, but you get the sense that she's a force to contend with nonetheless.

Both the set and director Chris Coleman's decisions heighten the tensions of the play. In addition to the imposing balcony, the walls are sheer, so you can always see what's happening outside -- and, more importantly, there's no privacy within. There are also always people about -- delivery men, the noisy neighbors upstairs, the prostitute on the corner -- creating a sense of chaos, which, along with the feeling of decay that is New Orleans, seems the perfect external reflection of Blanche's internal state. Everything is teetering just on the edge of collapse.

A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE is a thrilling play, and this -- the last show in PCS's season -- is a thrilling production. See it now through June 19. Tickets here: https://www.pcs.org/streetcar

Photo credit: Patrick Weishampel/blankeye.tv.

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