The Copley Theatre in Aurora is staging a revival of the 1947 Tennessee Williams’ Pulitzer Prize winning play, “A Streetcar Named Desire,” for its season finale in the theater’s Bold series.
The play will be performed on select dates from March 13 to April 21. It is co-directed by Paramount artistic director Jim Corti and Elizabeth Swanson and stars Amanda Drinkall as Blanche DuBois, Casey Hoekstra as Stanley Kowalski and Alina Taber as Stella Kowalski.
Set designer Angela Weber Miller and costumer Mara Blumenfeld will transform the Copley stage into a shabby New Orleans apartment in the 1940s.
Marlon Brando famously portrayed Stanley Kowalski on Broadway and later in the film adaptation, where Vivien Leigh gave her devastating turn as Blanche.
“Streetcar” is the story of Southern belle sisters Blanche and Stella, who grew up on a Mississippi plantation. Blanche gets married at 16 while Stella leaves everything behind for a life with Stanley in New Orleans.
After her husband kills himself and she loses her job, Blanche moves in with her sister and brother-in-law. Unfortunately, it’s not an ideal situation. There’s alcoholism, sex addiction, toxic masculinity, sibling rivalry, mental illness, domestic violence and sexual assault.
As the Bold series is described as “inspiring, provocative, courageous,” this play is a good fit, even though it is several decades old.
“I think there’s an element in the Bold Series where new works have been very successful and very impactful. But the idea of taking a familiar work and experiencing it in the Copley is also something about the Bold Series and its subject matter,” Corti said.
“We are in the hands of actors who are filling this up with a kind of honesty and truth-telling that is very much about our human condition. How we are victims of our circumstances. I think people are going to be on the edge of their seats.
“There are all these very human, very common dynamics in relationships that Tennessee Williams puts to the most poetic prose,” he said.
Drinkall, who grew up in Oswego and now lives and works in Chicago, was familiar with “Streetcar” and was excited to take on the role of Blanche. It’s her first time performing a Williams work professionally.
“I think Blanche is such a beautifully written character,” she said. “I think Tennessee Williams is a genius and in Blanche he wrote something that is pretty complicated and anxiety-inducing. I also think some of the things she goes through a lot of people can relate to. Maybe not to the extent or extreme she ends up dealing with, but a lot of people have experienced sorrow and rejection and loneliness. She really tries to be a survivor. She has high hopes for herself and thinks there’s a light at the end of the tunnel.”
Originally from Minneapolis, Minnesota, Hoekstra is also a fan of Williams, having previously played Brick in “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” and John Buchanan in “Summer and Smoke.”
“I just think he’s one of the all-time American greats. He’s an incredible world-builder and character-builder and incredible author,” he said. “I feel like with Williams, you’re always digging for gold and it’s always there. He’s not a frivolous writer. He’s a writer with really profound characters and profound situations.”
Something he thinks Williams does so well is put the working man onstage in a glorious and dreadful capacity.
“Stanley is that. He’s a working man. He has a very small home space.” Hoekstra said. “These characters are gritty, sweaty, working people and I love it when those people are under the spotlight and you see them onstage. They get time in front of an audience to tell their stories.”
Hoekstra thinks audiences will enjoy the play because of its depth and complexity, he said. No character is perfect. There’s no clear hero and villain.
“That’s one of the reasons Williams is so delicious,” he said. “You won’t be able to settle down and say this is simple, this is straightforward. I’m thrilled by that and I hope it thrills other people.”
Despite the subject matter, his cast is doing well with caring for their mental health and is doing excellent with the material, Corti said.
“It’s been really exciting and a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” he said. “There’s no singing and dancing in this one. The heat in the room, the fires happening everywhere that don’t get put out. It’s very intense in that way. There’s a little bit of comic relief here and there, a little levity, but it just gets worse and worse.
“There’s all these types of tug-of-wars going on through the whole piece which is why it’s one of the most enduring plays of all time.”
Drinkall agreed. She thinks that audiences will appreciate their take on a Tennessee Williams classic.
“The play itself is extraordinary. The writing is brilliant. The group of people that have been assembled to create this world is really stunning,” she said. “The set is going to be beautiful; the costumes are lovely. I know a lot of us are wearing some vintage pieces which is really cool and exciting. I think we’re finding a lot of beauty in the room and it’s going to be a fun, sexy, sad story. We’re also finding humor in the play, which I don’t think always happens with this show.”
‘A Streetcar Named Desire’
When: March 13-April 21
Where: Copley Theatre, 8 E. Galena Blvd., Aurora
Tickets: $40-$55
Information: 630-896-6666; paramountaurora.com
Annie Alleman is a freelance reporter at The Beacon-News.
