"That, drama fans, is how you perform Tennessee Williams in toe shoes;
how you capture one of the great emblematic characters of American
theater without uttering a word."
That's from today's Times-Picayune in response to last night's performance in New Orleans. Oh, this is killing Haglund, because he wanted to see it so badly. So badly.
"Can the Scottish Ballet’s
powerful, New Orleans production of “A Streetcar Named Desire” be
distilled to a single dance movement? On Friday, Oct. 5, at the Mahalia
Jackson Theater for the Performing Arts, the key to the magic often
seemed embodied in the many ways that Blanche DuBois went on and off
pointe.As danced by Eve Mutso, Blanche rose to her toes with
feline grace when playing the self-deluding seductress, rose like a
plant seeking sunshine when she contemplated her romantic past, teetered
desperately when drunk, sagged slowly amid disappointments, darted
desperately on the tips of her toes when pursued by the brutish forces
that crush her. Even from the balcony, one could read the meaning of
every phrase and gesture made by Mutso: the shaking calves and splayed
knees, the sudden whiplash turn and poised arabesques communicated
emotion as clearly as the tears shed by a friend in a neighboring seat."
Flowers to writer Chris Waddington of the Times-Picayune for that description. And this:
"Mutso didn’t do it alone. On Friday, before a stunned and silenced house
of 2,200 theater goers, the Scottish Ballet showed the depths of its
roster and the dramatic savvy of the team that assembled the project."
And finally this:
"It was a triumph in New Orleans, and for New Orleans, and one suspects
that Tennessee Williams would have been mighty pleased, too."
Gainesville and Tampa, you have your chance to see this next week. Don't miss it.