The Scottish Ballet heightens the eroticism of Tennessee Williams’ A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE in a Los Angeles premiere this weekend at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.
“Instead of what was once a reflection of a misogynistic society where feminism had no say, choreographer Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, working closely with acclaimed theater director Nancy Meckler, lends a unique female voice to the choreographic process.” — Rachel S. Moore, president and CEO of the Music Center
“Stylistically, [STREETCAR’s] inventive minimalism looks just as good a second time around. The sets are constructed out of packing cases, deftly maneuvered by the dancers to shunt the action from a streetcar to a New Orleans club, to the grimly sparse interior of Stanley’s apartment. Unfussy lighting and costumes provide pitch-perfect period detail as well as the symbolic underpinning of the plot: the bloom of bright red blood on Alan’s shirt, the crimson flowers for the dead, the naked lightbulb under which Blanche flutters.” — Judith Mackrell*
SCOTTISH BALLET—A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE, Friday and Saturday, May 19 and 20, at 7:30 pm. Sunday, May 21 at 2 pm.
DOROTHY CHANDLER PAVILION, Music Center, downtown Los Angeles
musiccenter.org/about/Our-Programs/Glorya-Kaufman-Dance/1617-Season/Scottish-Ballet-A-Street-Car-Named-Desire/
*Judith Mackrell, “Erotic and Tragic Ballet,” The Guardian, April 1, 2015:
theguardian.com/stage/2015/apr/01/streetcar-named-desire-sadlers-wells-scottish-ballet-review
Eve Mutso as Blanche Du Bois in the original 2012 Scottish Ballet production of A Streetcar Named Desire, directed by Nancy Meckler and choreographed by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa.
Photographs by Andy Ross
Image credit: Scottish Ballet