A Streetcar Named Desire - Review
0 Comments Published by Svetlana Zhukova on Tuesday, September 08, 2009 at 1:09 PM.
Last Saturday it was a glamour time - I have attended the opening night premiere of "A Streetcar Named Desire" play of Sydney Theatre Company.
It's quite a cultural event around here - starring Cate Blanchett in the main role, and directed by Liv Ullmann, famous director (I have to say I haven't heard of her before, but she is very known; an actress in the 60s, dircetor of the Faithless movie and an ex-wife of Ingmar Bergman, starred in most of his movies - of which I've seen none either I have to admit - but I've heard the name :)
The opening night was an interesting outing - many Sydney celebrities were there, I think I saw Miranda Otto, a few local actors, a couple of TV personalities, and I'm sure many other 'who is who's' were around - unfortunately not being local, I couldn't be as impressed :) Just saw camera flashes going off, but who they were photographing all the time, I have no idea...
Now, the play.
I think the acting was great (but I wish we were sitting closer to the stage, so I could see better the acting of Cate Blanchett!), and all critics are raving, tickets are sold out and impossible to get etc... But I wasn't as impressed as I thought I would be.
May be it's the fact the play went for over 3 hours - which is quite long and takes away the dynamism and intensity of the events in my opinion. Or was is that the story line of the play isn't as scandalous/confronting as it was when the play was written? With the media nowadays everything is much more on display, and there are many stories we see around and hear about, that are much more shocking, gripping and thought provoking than the play. The subject now seems almost trivial...
Or was it that I didn't know the background/plot, haven't seen the movie with Marlon Brando and Vivien Leigh to appreciate the story?
Blanche (played by Cate Blanchett) is far from sexual predator/addict the character is described as; you feel rather pity for the poor soul rather than her desires...
But for a balanced point of view, check these two reviews out:
Nevertheless, it's a very good play - this opening night was almost like a partying gift from my company - I managed the sponsorship of STC for the last couple of years, so it's a very good exit I'd say :)
It's quite a cultural event around here - starring Cate Blanchett in the main role, and directed by Liv Ullmann, famous director (I have to say I haven't heard of her before, but she is very known; an actress in the 60s, dircetor of the Faithless movie and an ex-wife of Ingmar Bergman, starred in most of his movies - of which I've seen none either I have to admit - but I've heard the name :)
The opening night was an interesting outing - many Sydney celebrities were there, I think I saw Miranda Otto, a few local actors, a couple of TV personalities, and I'm sure many other 'who is who's' were around - unfortunately not being local, I couldn't be as impressed :) Just saw camera flashes going off, but who they were photographing all the time, I have no idea...
Now, the play.
I think the acting was great (but I wish we were sitting closer to the stage, so I could see better the acting of Cate Blanchett!), and all critics are raving, tickets are sold out and impossible to get etc... But I wasn't as impressed as I thought I would be.
May be it's the fact the play went for over 3 hours - which is quite long and takes away the dynamism and intensity of the events in my opinion. Or was is that the story line of the play isn't as scandalous/confronting as it was when the play was written? With the media nowadays everything is much more on display, and there are many stories we see around and hear about, that are much more shocking, gripping and thought provoking than the play. The subject now seems almost trivial...
Or was it that I didn't know the background/plot, haven't seen the movie with Marlon Brando and Vivien Leigh to appreciate the story?
Blanche (played by Cate Blanchett) is far from sexual predator/addict the character is described as; you feel rather pity for the poor soul rather than her desires...
But for a balanced point of view, check these two reviews out:
"Extraordinary" - Australian Stage online (joined by similar reviews form The Australian, SMH and many others: READ HERE
"Missing something" - from Same Same, and the only review that echoes my thoughts on the play: READ HERE
Nevertheless, it's a very good play - this opening night was almost like a partying gift from my company - I managed the sponsorship of STC for the last couple of years, so it's a very good exit I'd say :)
Labels: a streetcar named desire, opinion, review, sydney theatre company
