Studying A Streetcar Named Desire (1)

As part of writing The Room, a play on housemaid abuse, I study iconic plays.  I had the pleasure and privilege of studying drama and comedy, along with poetry and Shakespeare, for a year each at Northwestern University.  So we read the likes of Samuel Beckett (Waiting for Godot), Jean-Paul Sartre (No Exit), and Joe Orton (What the Butler Saw).  I've watched film adaptations and stage productions of these plays over the past two years.

But what else?

Marlon Brando, as Stanley Kowalski (1948)

Enter: A Streetcar Named Desire.

Playwright Tennessee Williams won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for this 1947 American classic, and one of my first encounters with it was about the original Broadway production:

The original Broadway production was produced by Irene Mayer Selznick.  It opened at the Shubert in New Haven shortly before moving to the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on December 3, 1947.  Selznick originally wanted to cast Margaret Sullavan and John Garfield, but settled on Marlon Brando and Jessica Tandy, who were virtual unknowns at the time. Brando was given car fare to Tennessee Williams' home in Provincetown, Massachusetts, where he not only gave a sensational reading, but did some house repairs as well.The problem with casting Brando as Stanley was that he was much younger than the character as written by Williams. However, after the meeting between Brando and Williams, the playwright eagerly agreed that Brando would make an ideal Stanley. Williams believed that by casting a younger actor, the Neanderthalish Kowalski would evolve from being a vicious older man to someone whose unintentional cruelty can be attributed to his youthful ignorance. Brando ultimately was dissatisfied with his performance, though, saying he never was able to bring out the humor of the character, which was ironic as his characterization often drew laughs from the audience at the expense of Jessica Tandy's Blanche Dubois. Tandy was cast after Williams saw her performance in a West Coast production of his one-act play Portrait of a Madonna. The opening night cast also included Kim Hunter as Stella and Karl Malden as Mitch.  Despite its shocking scenes and gritty dialogue, the audience applauded for half an hour after the debut performance ended.  Brooks Atkinson, reviewing the opening in The New York Times described Tandy's "superb performance" as "almost incredibly true," concluding that Williams "has spun a poignant and luminous story" ... Brando portrayed Stanley with an overt sexuality combined with a boyish vulnerability that made his portrait of Stanley, and especially the moment where he howls "Stella!" for his wife, into cultural touchstones. Brando's appearance as Stanley on stage and on screen revolutionized American acting by introducing "The Method" or "Method acting" into American consciousness and culture.

The production was before my time, but I have vague images and evocative moments from descriptions I read during my years at Northwestern University (1977 - 1981).  Brando's Stella was somehow one of those moments.