Stage Write

“STELLA!” The infamous line from A Streetcar Named Desire was firmly cemented in the annals of pop culture when Marlon Brando first belted it out decades ago. That is all many people know about the show, but Tennessee Williams’ work has much more to offer. The play delves deep into the complicated lives of the very different DuBois sisters.   Blanche, played with an escalating level of tense cheerfulness by Carrie Schlatter, is a southern belle who has fallen on hard times. Her troubled past has made her leave the family mansion to join her sister, Stella Kowalski in a rowdy neighborhood in New Orleans. Schlatter captures Blanche’s fragile state, vacillating from childish enthusiasm in one moment to snooty disdain in the next. She is in a perpetual state of performing a role, but whether it’s for her or for others is hard to tell. Stella’s husband Stanley, played by Chris Saunders, is coarse and uncouth in Blanche’s eyes and the two immediately butt heads. His raw se...