Ballet British Columbia

I'm standing in front of the Scotiabank Dance Centre in Vancouver about to embark on an exciting new adventure. And everyone is invited to join me. Today John Alleyne is beginning the choreography for his new full-length ballet A Streetcar Named Desire, based on the sensational best-selling play by Tennessee Williams.

John Alleyne, Sylvain Senez and the dancers go through the ballet, scene by scene.

I'd be surprised if there's anyone reading this who doesn't know the story, after all it was the 1951 movie version that put Marlon Brando on the superstar map. If that doesn't ring any bells, perhaps the hilarious The Simpsons television episode starring Marge Simpson as Blanche touches a memory button. And now, almost 60 years after the play's Broadway premiere in 1947, John Alleyne will try to capture in dance the seedy decadence that is at the core of this story set in the city of New Orleans.

For those not familiar with Blanche, Stanley and Stella, here's a brief refresher on the major plot points. Blanche DuBois, a frail and somewhat mad Southern belle, arrives in New Orleans to visit her pregnant sister Stella and her blue-collar husband Stanley. Having lost the family mansion, Belle Reve, Blanche has nowhere else to go.

The situation is tense and the initial animosity between Blanche and Stanley sets the tone for the whole play. Blanche takes long baths, criticizes the squalor of the apartment and generally does nothing but irritate Stanley with her pretentious arrogance. Stanley's roughness and his treatment of Stella disturb Blanche. Very soon, Stanley overhears Blanche saying terrible things about him to Stella and from that moment on, he devotes himself fully to her destruction.

Streetcar's production team.

Stanley discovers Blanche's shady past and he passes the information on to Mitch, one of his poker buddies and Blanche's last chance at romance and happiness. Once he learns the truth, Mitch loses all interest in her. Stella fights with Stanley over the cruelty of his act, causing her to go into early labour, making hospitalization necessary.

Left alone with Blanche, Stanley mercilessly destroys her illusions, one by one, and then violently rapes her. Weeks later, during another poker game, it's clear that Blanche has suffered a mental breakdown. A doctor and nurse arrive to take Blanche away to the asylum where she can once again rely on what Williams called "the comfort of strangers." Stella weeps, and Stanley reassures her as the poker game continues as if nothing has happened.

Tennessee Williams' play is rife with major themes and conflict. Here's a brief look at some of them.

• Fantasy vs. illusion: Blanche sees things not as they are but as they ought to be. For her, fantasy has a liberating magic that protects her from the tragedies she has had to endure.
  

• The Old South vs. the New South: Stella and Blanche come from a refined world that is quickly dying. The sisters are symbolically the last living members of their family. Stanley represents the new order of the South and has mingled his blue-collar stock with Stella; Blanche will enter the world of madness.
  

• Cruelty: Throughout the play, we see the full range of cruelty, from Blanche's well-intentioned deceits to Stella's self-deceiving treachery to Stanley's deliberate and unchecked malice.

• The Primitive and the Primal: Stanley represents unrefined manhood, a romantic ideal of man untouched by civilization but possessed of a terrifying amorality. His desire is central to who he is and he has no qualms about driving Blanche to madness or raping her.

• Desire and loneliness: Desire is the central theme of the play. Blanche seeks to deny it while desire is the heart of Stella's relationship with Stanley. Desire is ultimately Blanche's undoing since she cannot find a healthy way of dealing with it. Loneliness is the cruel companion to Blanche's desire. She desperately seeks love and protection in the arms of strangers, having never recovered from the tragic loss of her young husband. Blanche desperately wants someone to defend her, someone to protect her from her dangerous illusory world. Instead she finds the predatory and merciless Stanley who ultimately destroys her.

The ballet version being created by John Alleyne and his team of artistic collaborators is based on Williams' play but with visual 'memory' elements that explain much of the back story told in dialogue in the play. John Murrell, the well-known Canadian playwright, has written a brilliant scenario for the ballet, injecting several sequences that allude to Blanche's past and the experiences that made her the woman she is.

Donald Sales and Chengxin Wei.
Reading through the scenario for the first time.

Next time I'll take an in-depth look at every dancer's day, beginning with ballet class, through many hours of taxing rehearsals, finally ending, I would hope, with an exhausted retreat that includes a beer and a great foot massage.