Wednesday 17 to Saturday 20 November

When will directors learn that there is something unsatisfactory about a whole production in which the actors speak in assumed accents? No matter how good they are -or how much coaching they have had - the effect will rarely be wholly convincing and when the accent is Southern states of America, it may be a tiny bit comic too. In this student production the accents are not wholly convincing and the result is unfortunate.

Written in the 1940s, Tennessee Williams’ play can seem rather dated and while it might be possible to revamp it and prove that it can still seem relevant to us now, this production has not attempted to do so. It offers the play as it was conceived, in post-war New Orleans, where genteel Blanche, a schoolteacher, comes to stay with her sister Stella, who shares a shabby two-room flat with her violent but virile truck-driver husband. Its characters and situations appear somewhat stereotypical and the play drags.

Did any sisters ever, anywhere, really say to each other, “Open up your pretty mouth and talk!” or “I tremble for you”? We know that sooner or later they are all going to reveal their shabby little secrets, and something shocking and violent will occur. We start to wish they would just get on with it.

The set does not quite capture a feeling of the lower-middle classes in the 1940s. There is something a little too smart about it, too Ikea, and the paper lampshade Blanche produces for the bare light bulb needs to be a concertina-type to be convincing. Stella’s underwear is far too modern and I suggest that when she strips off we should actually see a rigid bra, a roll-on, a suspender belt and stockings, which is what your long-suffering Granny wore in 1947.

James Corrigan plays Stanley Kowalski, the downright, hard-drinking, vest-wearing husband who knocks his wife down after a night of whisky and poker, and then rapes his sister-in-law. If you find Tennessee Williams exciting, then this play is for you, but if you are not already a big fan, you are unlikely to become one as a result of seeing this production.

http://www.oxfordplayhouse.com/

http://www.indigo-productions.co.uk/