There are no words, beyond a wrenching cry of ‘Stella! Stella!’ from Tama Barry’s Stanley
* * * * *
- and yet this new dance-drama version of Tennessee Williams’s play speaks with a compelling grasp of the physical desires and psychological distress that destroy a woman who simply longed to love and be loved.
The opening image - Eve Mutso’s Southern belle, Blanche, shimmering pale like a moth drawn to a flame - is a succinct portent of what is to come in this thrillingly cohesive collaboration between director Nancy Meckler and choreographer Annabelle Lopez Ochoa.
As one scene flows into another, every element of the production - from the monochrome set design of building-block crates to the cunning mood swings of Peter Salem’s jazz-inflected score - meshes into a world where Blanche, always in her pointe-shoes, never really belongs.
Her tragic past will continue to haunt her, with Ochoa’s choreography deftly weaving the ghosts of Blanche’s dead husband and her subsequent lovers into the daily tensions of life in razzy New Orleans with sister Stella (Sophie Martin) and brother-n-law Stanley.
If Meckler and Ochoa have found various (very satisfactory) ways of using the whole company as a scene-setting chorus, the burden of revealing the inner processes of Williams’ main characters rests with Eve Mutso, Tama Barry and Sophie Martin.
All three rise to the challenge of nuanced complexity with a subtlety, intelligence and gut integrity that is so fierce and fine it hurts... Hurts to see Mutso’s Blanche striving to survive as reality slips down the neck of a bottle. And shocks when Barry’s powerful Stanley rapes her. A personal triumph for Mutso, and a tremendous premiere of a blazing new work for Scottish Ballet.
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