STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE (POWER AND CONTROL)

ANNABELLE

STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE

I saw a production of A StreetCar Named Desire on digital theatre. Blanche moved into her sister's house in working class New Orleans after losing the family home (Belle Reve).. A constant theme in the play is the power struggle and control between Gillian Anderson playing blanche and ben foster playing stanley.

Anderson slowly exited the bathroom at the start of the scene and said seductively, “how do i look” as she moved the gauze and threw her arms out wide, smiling, and swinging her hips from side to side, staring intently at Stanley, biting her bottom lip. I felt Anderson successfully was using her body at this moment to gain Stanley’s attention. I felt she was seeking approval, in order to gain power over him.

Anderson used her body a second time to create a gain of power when she then approached Foster and ordered him to do up her buttons on her dress: “Now the buttons” she demanded softly. Anderson leaned forward provocatively over the table so her back became arched and her chest tilted forward and her bottom pushed outwardly, swaying her bottom slightly from side to side and looking in Stanley’s direction over her shoulder. Anderson showed again an assertion of power through her body language. She then tried for a third time to seek his attention, on the line “ would you think it was possible that i was once considered attractive.” as she grabbed a fox wrap fur from Stanley and threw it carelessly round her neck, tottering high kitten heels and batting her eyelids.

After three attempts of baiting Stanley with her her body she tried to ascertain his attention and gain power over him by using her higher status and mocking Stanley saying “you're …a little bit on the primitive side” with a derisory tone, walking slowly over to the table to perch next to him, her level above his seated position, and looking him up and down dismissively. I thought she was successfully undermining Stanley's masculinity and intellect. Provoked, Foster then yelled “lets cut the rebop” angrily and violently, emphasising the plosives in “cut”. He suddenly stood from his seat and rammed Blanche off the table, clenching the edge and scraping it along the floor, with his fingers tightly gripping the table lip. At this point Foster successfully showed his violent and short temper, taking the power back through his strength and violent tendency. I felt scared for Blanche as she seemed vulnerable in his anger, squealing as she reeled from him, holding onto her ears tightly to deafen his furious voice.

As the scene progressed, Stanley started to question Blanche, he rummaged through her case roughly, until he discovered some papers, Stanley intrusively delved into personal love letters of blanche. Foster circled around the using a wide gait, turning his back to Anderson to block her reaching for the letters. As the letters dropped carelessly out of Foster's hands Anderson fell to her knees and rushed scrambling on the floor around to retrieve every one, as Stanley stood inert above her. By falling to her knees Anderson effectively represented the shifting power struggle by the use of proximity and levels. Blanche seemed to submit to Stanley, giving over her control to him, as positioned on her knees she reached out her right hand and with a forced whisper she quietly said “ im sorry”. She had a seconds pause before she said the word “sorry” to emphasise the reluctant tone and how she was forcing the apology out. I felt the change in tempo from fast paced to still for a second as the scene successfully showed Blanche handing over power and losing the control she had left. I felt sorry for her.

This scene ended with the announcement that Stella was pregnant. On the line “ Now that she is going to have a baby” Stanley had his back to Blanche not looking at her and walking slowly around the table, revealing the news casually as if to provoke. Blanche put her hand to her chest and the other braced herself on the door frame, shaky and stuttering, murmuring to herself as she whimpered. In this scene this was a pivotal ending as it successfully showed blanche and stanley's ongoing struggle, both equally using their body and stature as a power. But in this moment Blanche looked vulnerable as life was moving on with the birth of a child and she was getting older, foreshadowing the end of life eventually,