Photo Courtesy of MTSU via Facebook
Story by Tim Jenkins / Staff Writer
The MTSU Theatre department took a trip down to New Orleans in their recent performance of Tennessee Williams’s A Streetcar Named Desire, which opened Thursday night and ran over the weekend in Tucker Theatre.
The play focuses on Blanche DuBois (played by Hannah Ewing) who’s arrived to visit her sister Stella (played by Megan Castleberry) and brother-in-law Stanley (played by Conner McCabe). From the first interactions between these characters the chemistry — or lack thereof, in the case of Stanley and Blanche — is felt immediately. Ewing and Castleberry did an incredible job portraying the relationship between their characters; you can feel the love and concern they have for one another. Meanwhile, McCabe captured the character of Stanley, showing through his loving gentleness toward his wife or annoyance and anger with his sister-in-law that manifested itself in belligerent behavior. He nailed it.
Ewing’s performance in particular deserves much praise. She did a great job portraying the overdramatic, often insecure character of Blanche. As the play progresses and Blanche becomes even more insecure, Ewing really captures her character’s descent into a nervous breakdown, which ultimately causes her to be sent away to a mental institution.
The set, designed by Scott Boyd and Lisa Loso, further added to the magic of the show. The simple one-bedroom apartment that Stanley and Stella live in served as the setting for the play, and the set designers really captured the atmosphere of it. Adding to that was the background, which various characters were often seen walking past, mimicking them walking down the street and adding a glimpse of the city beyond the apartment.
Overall, the play was quite enjoyable. Despite the serious nature surrounding most of the story it had light moments of comedy throughout. All of the cast members’ performances were excellent, and I could not find anything about the performance that I disliked.
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