It is clear to me why New Orleans is the setting for this incredible play of passion, desire, and devastation. Having spent much time in the city, and particularly in the Quarter, I finally understood when people would say that a city had a heartbeat. Just walking the streets of the Quarter, I could feel the life, the passion, the soul of this city. It breathed. I could feel every inhale and exhale of it's existence. This was a place that brought me back to life, after several years and started me on a new journey, allowing me to release my old self, which had become such a tired, 'ruin' of my former self.
This city is one of the most electrifying and passionate places on earth... not romantic, like Florence or Paris - but, Passionate, primal, raw.
This city is part of the fuel in the fire between Stella and Stanley Kowalski. It is a magical city, a place of power and raw emotion that pushes and prods these two people into emotional oblivion. When these two characters are on stage, something electrifying occurs. A pulsing heartbeat is felt... something inexplicable, something deep...
The passion between them could be compared to that of pure primal, animalistic emotions. They need each other, they ache for each other and, in some sense, they are each other.
Even the abuse thrown on Stella is wrought with a passion so deep, that only when they are together, does any of it make any sense...
There has been some debate amongst our cast about whether Stanley cheats... whether Stella stays with him after Blanche is sectioned... why AND how they got together in the first place...
What fuels Stanley's anger... his abuse... his control? Stella's own attempt at control? Or, is it something else...Blanche?
What of his heartfelt, desperate plea for Stella to return home to his bed... Why does she do it? Why does their need for each other overpower what is sensible... What is he really fighting for?
Stella? Stanley? Blanche? ... What is the dangerous co-dependency they share, fight against, Run from and run right back to...
The actors taking on these roles must be able to draw on a deep connection, while trusting and understanding each other. As we finish up blocking in our production, it is my hope that Juliet (Stella) and Titus (Stanley) will be able to let go and allow the elements of Stanley and Stella, already inherent within each of them, push through.
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