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Metropolis' version of classic drama a traffic-stopper

3 1/2 stars out of four

Daily Herald
By Barbara Vitello | Daily Herald Critic at Large

Posted Friday, March 30, 2007

When it comes to theater, The Metropolis Performing Arts Centre sticks to the tried-and-true.

Crowd-pleasing comedies like "Noises Off" and "Brighton Beach Memoirs"; perennials like "A Christmas Carol"; pop revues like "Forever Plaid"; and tearjerkers like "Steel Magnolias" figure prominently at the Metropolis. And for good reason: the tastes of suburban audiences tend toward the traditional. Savvy artistic directors understand this and program accordingly. Hence the emphasis on familiar titles and classic works.Which brings us to Tennessee Williams' masterful "A Streetcar Named Desire," the penultimate play in a Metropolis season heavy on music and comedy. One of the 20th century's pre-eminent American dramas, it's an iconic work of theater and film (Elia Kazan's classic 1951 movie version starring Vivien Leigh and Marlon Brando still looms large). As such, high expectations accompany any production of this eloquent, multi-layered play in which the collision between fantasy and reality, the old South and urban America bring about devastating results.

Happily, Metropolis meets and in some cases exceeds those expectations with a well-acted, keenly directed, briskly paced show that looks and sounds as good as any you'd see downtown.

Director Matt Reeder, seemingly following to the letter Williams' explicit stage directions, has cast in the principle roles an able trio of twentysomethings lead by Brenda Barrie. The poised and promising young actress plays fading southern beauty Blanche DuBois, a woman desperate to remake her life, whose failure to do so loosens her increasingly tenuous grip on reality. Yet Blanche is not entirely a victim, at least not initially. Shortly after arriving, she manipulates her sister, flirts with her sister's husband and toys with a potential suitor. When we first meet her, she appears as a snob who sugar-coats her condescension and a hypocrite who reproaches others for their appetites while indulging those appetites herself.

Tempering nervous tension with subtle sexuality (Blanche's "epic fornications" have contributed as much to the family's ruin as anyone else's), the willowy actress suggests the character's vulnerability without wallowing in it, delivering the famous "I don't want realism. I want magic!" line assertively with the conviction of someone determined to get what she desires. But she lingers too long at a failing plantation. She overstays her welcome at her sister's house. She rebuffs her would-be beau once too often. Timing is everything and Blanche's time is over.

Erin Ordway is very good as Stella, Blanche's younger sister, who abandoned family pretensions of gentility to find contentment with the coarse, brutish, passionate Stanley Kowalski, played by Frank Zito. A powerfully compact actor, Zito's brisk, clipped performance provides a striking contrast in tempo to Barrie's graceful legato and Ordway's measured moderato.

Metropolis' production also features Tony Bozzuto, who nicely underplays Stanley's buddy Mitch, an unsophisticated but fundamentally decent man who falls for Blanche, and Karin McKie, spot-on as Eunice, the Kowalski's neighbor, whose unexpected compassion and resigned pragmatism strengthens Stella's resolve.

The desire and despair plays out in a New Orleans' two-flat, set designer Dustin Efird's slightly askew, ramshackle home with its dirty fridge, bare bulbs and gaping holes in its slatted walls. Lighting designer Yousif Mohamed bathes the stage in deep blue, balmy orange and violent red lending the production a sultry feel.

Tickets and information here

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