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Article: A Streetcar Named Desire. (Circle in the Square Theater, New York)
- Article from:
- The Nation
- Article date:
- April 16, 1988
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1988 The Nation Company L.P. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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A Streetcar Named Desire
Ever since A Streetcar Named Desire first opened on Broadway in 1947, when it was directed by Elia Kazan, it has been widely misinterpreted and misunderstood. With Marlon Brando's performance, Stanley, a sneering bully, became an American icon--an inarticulate sex symbol with a tormented inner life. Blanche, a woman of ideals and a certain amount of culture, whose life collapsed when she walked into a room and found her husband embracing a man, has retreated into a world of fantasy. But she is most often played as a crazy fraud, caught up in a web of lies and mythical Southern gentility.
Many critics have considered the role of ...