Programme 1977 – A Streetcar Named Desire

GROUP THEATRE

presents

Tennessee Williams

A Streetcar Named Desire

August 12 – 20 1977   8pm

CAST.

Blanche Dubois   Sharyn Wilkins
Stella Kowalski   Clare Bailey
Stanley Kowalski   Chris Ryan
Harold Mitchell (Mitch)   Gareth John
Eunice Hubbel   Margaret Agnew
Steve Hubbel   Brian Overend
Pablo Gonzales   John Doig
Negro Woman   Morag Hill
Doctor   David Reefman (Ron Hill on 13th)
Matron   Morag Hill
Young Man   Stewart Doig
Sailor   Stewart Doig
Voice of Street Vendor   David Reefman

PRODUCTION TEAM

Director   Gavin Garner
Assistant to Director   Brian Overend
Stage Manager   Stuart Bailey
Set Construction   Stuart Bailey, John Doig, Stewart Doig, Peter McBride, Brian Overend
Set Painting   Peter Liley
Prompt   Trude Hill
Lighting and Sound   David Leese, Peter McBride, Andrew McCarthy
Properties   Carolyn Wilson, Brenda McCarthy
Wardrobe   Val MacInnes
Publicity/Programme   Caryl Boyle, Prue Neild, Pat Sherry, James Morgan
Front of House   Members of the Society

About the playwright:   Thomas Lanier Williams, born in Missouri in 1914. Renamed himself Tennessee after the state of that name which is symbolic of his deep love of the American South, which always features as the location for his plays. Recognised as one of America’s leading playwrights: both Streetcar and A Cat on a Hot Tin Roof won Pulitzer Prizes and these two plays, plus The Glass Menagerie and The Night of the Iguana won New York Drama Critics’ Circle Awards.

As a dramatist, Williams uses the full resources of the theatre: many of the best moments in his plays come from a blend of the visual and verbal elements. Williams’ obsessive themes are loneliness, innocence, the final insufficency [insufficiency] of love. In the preface to Cat on a Hot Tin Roof Williams wrote: “We clasp hands with each other at meeting and parting, fight each other and destroy each other because of this always somewhat thwarted effort to break through walls to each other. As a character in a play once said, ‘We’re all of us sentenced to solitary confinement in our own skins.’ Personal lyricism is the outcry of prisoner to prisoner from the cell in solitary where each is confined for the duration of his life.’ This comment could be applied to all Williams’ plays.

About the play:   A Streetcar Named Desire has been described as Williams’ finest play. Though written in 1947 the issues it raises are as relevant today as when the play was written. As in his other plays, Williams shows the sharp conflict between reality and the world of illusions. The play explores areas of delusion and cruelty and studies the disintegration of Blanche’s personality and character as the dreamworld to which she has retreated is finally shattered.

The action of the play takes place in the Kowalski apartment in the slum area of New Orleans, known as the Elysian Fields, in the year 1948.

Scene One:   Early evening, May.
Scene Two:   Following evening.
Scene Three:   Later that night
Scene Four:   Following morning

INTERVAL:   15 minutes.

Scene Five:   Some months later, afternoon.
Scene Six:   Late that night.
Scene Seven:   Late afternoon, mid-September
Scene Eight:   Forty-five minutes later.
Scene Nine:   Later that evening.
Scene Ten:   A few hours later.
Scene Eleven:   Some weeks later.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Martin, Cut Above, Embassy Court; Hairstyles for Blanche and Stella.
Peter McBride, construction of spiral staircase.
Neil Dunn, Radio Apple, assistance with sound effects.
Mahora Crockery.

Group Theatre wishes to thank all those who have assisted with this production in any way.

MEMBERSHIP

Have you joined Group Theatre yet? Membership entitles you to one free seat at each major production, plus up-to-date information about Group activities. Membership forms are available at the box office.

Junior Group caters for 10 – I5 year olds; meets on Wednesdays from 6.00 to 7.30 p.m.

Group Entity; a new group for those in the 16 – 18 age group; new term starts on Wednesday, I4 September, at 8 p.m.

Inquire at box office for details.

Help keep live theatre flourishing in the Bay – join Group Theatre.

FUTURE EVENTS

ARSENIC AND OLD LACE

by Joseph Kesselring

A glorious, ghoulish comedy…

To be directed by Phil Turley.

Auditions in early September
Production in November
WATCH the paper for details.

Lots of lovely parts available.