A Streetcar Named Desire (Hull Truck Theatre)

Secret Theatre’s publicity for a week of plays at Hull Truck Theatre promises "a festival of shows like you’ve never seen before". I think that’s fair enough: on the strength of A Streetcar Named Desire, I can understand the excitement engendered on an improvised stage at the Lyric, Hammersmith, or at the Edinburgh Festival. However, a sparsely attended matinee at Hull produced more perplexity than excitement.

Is surprise in theatre a means or an end in itself? Probably the latter in the case of Secret Theatre’s Streetcar, though from time to time the bizarre approach leads to some interesting insights. The wish to surprise for its own sake shows in the deliberate lack of programmes – I finally got a cast list after the performance thanks to my persistence and the assistance of a helpful member of the Hull Truck staff – and the absence of any hints at the nature of the production in the publicity leaflet. No wonder the attentive school party that formed a significant part of the audience responded more with giggles than gasps, some of them at intentionally amusing episodes, some not.

Sean Holmes‘ direction and Hyemi Shin‘s designs avoid any form of naturalism. Tennessee Williams‘ play is normally produced in a style redolent of New Orleans and the Old South. Blanche DuBois comes to New Orleans from the old family plantation to stay with her sister Stella. She brings with her an ante-bellum sense of aristocratic behaviour and several guilty secrets. Stella’s husband Stanley appears to Blanche to be an animal, but she fares better with his friend Mitch, a well-meaning mother’s boy in early middle age.

The play normally generates plenty of violence, sexual chemistry, explosive argument and local colour. The violence is there, often stylised, but any thought of local colour has been abandoned. Southern American accents are non-existent; the set consists of three white walls, with a portable bathroom-cum-phone lobby wheeled on and whirled around; entry to the second storey is by a very large step-ladder; and so much more.

I guess Holmes’ company plays the text, not the characters. The very talented Nadia Albina is required to play Blanche at the extremes, either superior and in control or hysterical, but her impeccable English at least gives us a sort of objective correlative for the character – Blanche DuBois of Downton Abbey. Similarly Sergo Vares‘ Stanley, quietly articulate between the outbursts, enables us to see how much sense the character talks, but is lacking in danger. As a rather unlikely former Southern belle, Adelle Leonce (Stella) is still the most human character on display.

Those who go to the theatre in search of "What will they do next?" surprises are likely to be happier than those who expect insight into character.

The Secret Theatre shows continue at Hull Truck Theatre until 4th October 2014 and then moves to the following venues:

7 – 18 Oct: Arts Depot, North Finchley

21 Oct – 1 Nov: Manchester Royal Exchange

11 – 22 Nov: Warwick Arts Centre