Dreamy illusion meets brutal reality

Theatre Guild

The University of Adelaide Theatre Guild turns to the classics for the third production in its 70th anniversary year, with A Streetcar Named Desire. Tennessee Williams's Pulitzer Prize-winning classic of delusion, desire, destruction and desolation opens in the Little Theatre on Saturday 10 May.

Ever since Marlon Brando and Jessica Tandy first brought them to life in the 1947 Broadway production, and Brando and Vivien Leigh reprised the roles in Elia Kazan's 1951 film version, the characters of Blanche DuBois and Stanley Kowalski have fascinated and challenged audiences and actors alike.

When Blanche visits her young, pregnant sister Stella in New Orleans, having been driven out of her home town for seducing a 17-year-old student, she is appalled by the crassness of Stella's husband, Stanley.

Around these twin poles of Stanley's raw, macho, working class brutality and Blanche's fantasy-driven, fading Southern gentility, Williams builds his passionate drama.

Blanche's sense of self is fragile and built on lies and false foundations - "I don't want realism, I want magic," she says - and Stanley's merciless demolition of her over the course of the evening makes for compelling theatre.

The Guild's 70th anniversary production of Streetcar is a return to the play by the Guild after 25 years and a successful production directed by Peter Goers in 1983. This new production is directed by Anita Baltutis, an experienced teacher of drama who has brought together a dynamic cast of Guild regulars and new talent, headed by Kate Doherty as Blanche and Adam Tuominen as Stanley.

Among the cast are two University of Adelaide graduates who have been involved with the Theatre Guild for many years.

Marie-Cate Constantine plays Stella. Constantine is an Arts/Law (Honours) graduate of the University and has a Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice from the Law Society of SA. She became a member of the Theatre Guild in 1998, having signed up during O Week, and has been involved ever since, taking part in productions as a performer, and assisting behind the scenes. She was also a performer and writer for the Annual Law Revue from 1999-2003.

Cate Rogers, who plays Eunice, has continued to be involved in the Theatre Guild since starting her Arts degree in 1988. A graduate with Honours in English, Rogers was a founding member of campus theatre group Parting Company, and for the past 10 years she has directed and performed for another campus theatre group, Crescent Company. For the Theatre Guild she has appeared in The Merchant of Venice, Tartuffe and The Real Inspector Hound, among others, and directed or co-directed The Taming of the Shrew, The Comedy of Errors and The Rover.

A Streetcar Named Desire plays in the Little Theatre at 7.30pm on 10, 13-17 and 20-24 May. Tickets $25 adults/$20 concession.

Tickets for University of Adelaide staff and students are only $15 on Tuesday 13 and Tuesday 20
May. For more information, visit: www.adelaide.edu.au/theatreguild or call (08) 8303 5999.

The Living Stage

Also in May, the Theatre Guild marks its 70th anniversary with an exhibition in the Barr Smith Library, entitled "The Living Stage", to be opened by the Vice-Chancellor on 15 May, and then running until 22 June.