New England Reviews: Plays Put on in Classic Style

"A Streetcar Named Desire"

Seacoast Repertory Theatre, Portsmouth, NH

Now through November 28

603-433-4472 or www.seacoastrep.org

"The Price"

Merrimack Repertory Theatre, Lowell, MA

Now through December 12

978-654-7550 or www.merrimackrep.org

People may think that the primary reason for spending autumn in New England has passed with the changing of the leaves. Think again. The area this fall has been serving up one of the richest and most varied palettes of colorful theatrical offerings that fans of American drama could ever want to see.

Two of the area's current standouts are Tennessee Williams' "A Streetcar Named Desire" at the Seacoast Repertory Theatre in Portsmouth, NH and Arthur Miller's "The Price" at the Merrimack Repertory Theatre in Lowell, MA. While both of these dramas present serious performance challenges because of the vaulting and idiosyncratic prose that is the trademark of each playwright, the theaters presenting these works have done commendable – even inspired – service to the material.

"A Streetcar Named Desire"

by Tennessee Williams

Directed by Sarah Gurfield, SSDC

Scenic Design by Jessica Kaplan

Lighting Design by Aaron Hutto

Costume Design by Diane Lent

Cast in order of appearance:

Eunice Hubbell, Susan Norris

Stanley Kowalski, Colin Ryan

Stella Kowalski, Elizabeth Barry

Steve Hubbell, Peter Dunbar

Harold Mitchell (Mitch), Josh Bresette

Blanche DuBois, Debra Wiley

Pablo Gonzales, Coy DeLuca

Young Collector, Alex Nichols

Strange Woman/Mexican Flower Woman, Tami Burns

Strange Man, Alan Jasper

In its charming waterfront performance space in Portsmouth, NH, Seacoast Repertory Theatre is presenting "A Streetcar Named Desire" through November 28. With understated realism and crystal clarity, director Sarah Gurfield and her intrepid cast and creative team deliver an intense and riveting interpretation of Tennessee Williams' gritty classic of familial disintegration in the steamy French Quarter of New Orleans.

The cramped, smartly detailed two-tiered set by Jessica Kaplan creates the perfect claustrophobic tenement in which the bullish Stanley Kowalski, his easy-going wife Stella, and her high-strung visiting sister Blanche DuBois reside and collide. Their personal dirty laundry is aired quite publicly in this thin-walled, post-WWII serviceman's ghetto as Stanley's increasing brutality toward the seemingly prim and proper Blanche prods her slow, agonizing descent toward madness.

The very talented Debra Wiley as Blanche gives a performance that simply astounds. With a natural, fluid command of Williams' poetic language, Wiley presents us with a down but not out cultural relic desperately clinging to a mannered past that no longer exists. She is at once a lamb and a tigress, alternating between the flirtatious Southern belle she was raised to be and the outspoken, pragmatic survivor she was born to have been. Slowly, almost imperceptibly, as Blanche's elaborately constructed charade crumbles, so does Wiley's carefully maintained composure. Pressures mount and Wiley's anxiety starts to win out over her control. It is not until her brother-in-law pushes her to total helplessness and hopelessness, however, that she ultimately loses her tenuous last grip on reality. In the end, just as Blanche had once found physical comfort in her family's country estate Belle Reve, she now finds emotional solace in the "beautiful dream" she has escaped to in her mind.

In support of Wiley, Colin Ryan is a raw and sadistic Stanley who just barely hides his rage under a veneer of boyish swagger. Elizabeth Barry is winning as Stella, the complacent but cheerful wife who is both aroused and repulsed by her husband's crudeness. Josh Bresette as the lovesick Mitch gives us a gentlemanly but tormented lonely heart who blames the woman he put up on a pedestal for breaking when she inevitably falls. And Susan Norris and Peter Dunbar provide friendly and sometimes funny interference as the earthy neighbors Eunice and Steve Hubbell.

This Seacoast Repertory Theatre production of "A Streetcar Named Desire" is a reminder of how powerful sheer words can be. When expressed simply, honestly, and without distracting histrionics, brilliant writing can leave a buzz in the brain and an ache in the heart. This revival of "Streetcar" does both.

"The Price"

by Arthur Miller

Directed by Charles Towers

Scenic Design by Bill Clarke

Costume Design by Deborah Newhall

Lighting Design by Tom Sturge

Cast in order of appearance:

Victor Franz, Christopher McHale

Esther Franz, Monique Fowler

Gregory Solomon, David Rogers

Walter Franz, W.T. Martin

At the Merrimack Repertory Theatre in Lowell, MA, we visit dysfunctional family number two in Arthur Miller's generational drama, "The Price." Scathing in its critique of capitalism and shocking in its stark depiction of debilitating sibling rivalry when first staged 36 years ago, "The Price" today is more Lifetime Television material than it is groundbreaking theater. However, MRT's excellent production seamlessly transports us back to 1965, a time when the Great Depression still haunted a materialistically driven country's memory and family secrets were better left locked in the attic.

The attic of an old Manhattan brownstone is precisely where the action of "The Price" takes place. Estranged brothers Victor and Walter Franz, one a struggling policeman, the other a wealthy surgeon, reunite after 16 years to dispose of what's left of their deceased father's meager estate. In scenic designer Bill Clarke's meticulously appointed walk-up filled with Depression Era furniture and memorabilia, Victor (Christopher McHale) and Walter (W.T. Martin) painfully peel away the veneer from each other's well ordered but diametrically opposed lives to expose very different versions of the childhood truths from which they both psychologically ran.

McHale, Martin, and other cast members Monique Fowler (Victor's wife Esther) and David Rogers (estate dealer Gregory Solomon) all ride the stream of consciousness of Arthur Miller's naturalistic dialog effortlessly. They let seemingly innocuous set pieces trigger reminiscences that lead them to at times fanciful, at times dramatic, but always personally revealing storytelling.

The dynamic interplay between each richly drawn character is entirely unaffected. McHale's downtrodden Victor shows increasing frustration at his wife's badgering, the dealer's dickering, and his brother's patronizing, but he keeps his emotions in check, working hard to stifle his rising anger rather than pushing to unleash it. Fowler, dressed in a blue lambs wool suit that harks back to Jacqueline Kennedy, also demonstrates enough restraint to make her depressed and disappointed Esther a sympathetic victim of her generation's high expectations rather than a nagging stereotype who just wants more.

Martin's egotistical yet wounded surgeon Walter is a ramrod straight paradox of ambition driven by fear. As much as he would like to reconcile with his brother, he simply doesn't know how. The price for his success has been the loss of love and understanding. His inability to make real human connections has cost him his marriage, his children, a nervous breakdown, and his ability to take responsibility for his past. As Walter, Martin is both infuriating and tragic. He is able to balance delicately between the arrogant, insensitive achiever who belittles his brother without even realizing it and the well-meaning but emotionally bereft automaton who dares not bend lest he break.

The uncharacteristic comic relief that Miller has written into "The Price" is delivered with perfectly understated humor by David Rogers as Solomon. With muted Yiddish mannerisms and a painfully acquired worldly wisdom, Rogers' 89-year-old Jewish immigrant estate dealer vexes with his endless chatter, cajoles with his salesman's philosophizing, and ultimately earns respect as a man happy to have found meaning in living another day.

Despite Miller's reliance on one too many contrived plot twists to force the brothers' confrontation in the end, Merrimack Repertory Theatre's version of "The Price" never deteriorates into melodrama. Miller's once startling themes may be commonplace in today's era of soap operas and movies of the week, but an able cast and smart direction by Charles Towers keep this production fresh and true.

 

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