The sadly vulnerable character Blanche DuBois will come undone on a Yale stage this semester when the School of Drama presents Tennessee Williams' Pulitzer Prize-winning play "A Streetcar Named Desire."
The production will run Jan. 21-26 at the Yale Repertory Theatre, corner of Chapel and York streets.
Declared by one critic to be "arguably the finest play ever written for the American stage," the play presents the brutal confrontation between death and desire, illusion and reality, poker and poetry, says Trip Cullman, a final-year student in the M.F.A. directing program at the drama school, who will direct the production.
The play shows Blanche DuBois invade the specious marital equilibrium her sister Stella and brother-in-law Stanley have created for themselves as she makes a last-ditch effort to find sanctuary from her past. But in Stanley's cruelly visceral world, Blanche's already tenuous hold on reality is in jeopardy.
"'A Streetcar Named Desire' is the story of an individual forced out of society; the destruction of a human being by another," says Cullman. "Are we alone in the cruel and vile world or -- as Blanche so desperately hopes -- is there some vestige of redemption in something beyond, in the metaphysical, in the beautiful, in kindness? Ultimately, the play is an outcry for tolerance."
Williams received his first Pulitzer Prize in 1948 for "A Streetcar Named Desire," which was made into the landmark motion picture directed by Elia Kazan and starring Marlon Brando and Vivien Leigh.
Cullman's New York directing credits include "The Vortex" for the Innocent Theatre, "2XTennessee" at the Soho Repertory Theatre, "The Propaganda Plays" at Dixon Place and "Dracula" for Target Margin Theater. He has also worked at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, Lincoln Center Theater, Manhattan Theatre Club, Roundabout Theatre Company, Classic Stage Company, The Joseph Papp Public Theater/New York Shakespeare Festival and Brooklyn Academy of Music. At Yale Cabaret, where he served as artistic director for the 2000-2001 season, he directed "Whirligig," "Assassins" and "Absolutely True."
Featured in "A Streetcar Named Desire" are Bridget Flanery as Blanche DuBois, William Theodore Thompson as Stanley Kowalski, Bess Wohl as Stella Kowalski and Leslie Elliard as Mitch. Rounding out the ensemble are Robyn Ganeles, Brad Heberlee, Billy Eugene Jones, Heather Mazur, Maulik Pancholy and Adam Richman.
The artistic staff for the production include scenic designer Wilson Chin, costume designer Wade Laboissonniere, lighting designer Torkel Skjaerven, sound designer David Budries, dramaturgs Linda Bartholomai and Marcella Nowak, and stage manager Elena M. Maltese.
Performances are Monday at 7 p.m., Tuesday-Friday at 8 p.m., and Saturday at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Individual tickets range from $15 to $18. Discounts are available for students, seniors and groups of 10 or more. For more information or to order tickets, call the Yale Rep box office at (203) 432-1234; box office hours are
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