Explore how Williams’ use of stagecraft in ASND. Make reference to context.
Characteristic plastic theatre - Polka/varsouviana
Elements of naturalism makes play more believable - audience feels integrated into story
(New Orleans setting)
Blue piano operates as naturalism and plastic theatre
Lighting - builds tension, motif of lantern and lighting in general is symbolic of B’s mental
state
Setting - Not really set in New Orleans - set in the Kowalski’s apartment building - makes it
feel more constricting and overcrowded, allows audience to experience how B would have
felt. Epicentre for all the destruction of the play - location as evil.
Costume - B’s costumes betray her mental state, S’s on his masculinity and working class
status.
Stanley and B’s own curation of stagecraft clashes with each other - she attempts to create
performance through using her own music (ie. the radio) which he “tosses..out the window” -
represents their wider conflict, and the fact her fantasies and romanticism clashes with his
brutal realism (New vs Old South).
Stanley throwing package at “a red stained package” “Red” - colour imagery represents his lively
Stella “Meat!” sexuality and masculinity. Symbol of coming
home bearing “meat” paints him as predator
(lugging home defeated prey) and alludes to B’s
later soliloquy, or represents him fulfilling his
role as a provider.
Monosyllabic “Meat!” emphasises his simplicity.
Blanche’s sexuality, scene 3 “Moves back into the streak of Colour imagery - sexuality is what makes her
light” powerful, and she manipulates this.
“dark red satin wrapper”
Blanche’s exit, scene 11 “They go round the corner of the She’s both emotionally and physically
building” inaccessible to Stella. AO3 - divide between
New and Old South has been cemented (the
interloper, ie the plantation owner, has been
exiled)
Uses stagecraft to emphasise divide between characters
In ASND, Williams uses various aspects of stagecraft, including his characteristic Plastic
theatre, to emphasise the divide between characters.
Blanche and the rest of the world
Varsouviana (“The Varsouviana? The polka tune they were playing when Allan -” - attempts
to allow Mitch into her delusions but this only serves to reject her further (“Are you boxed out
of your mind?” - AO3, stigmatisation of mental illness)
Motif of the lantern: Represents her insecurity and need for fantasy (“what I want. Magic!”) “I
can’t stand a naked light-bulb”, “seizes the paper lantern…She cries out”. AO3 - symbol of
Characteristic plastic theatre - Polka/varsouviana
Elements of naturalism makes play more believable - audience feels integrated into story
(New Orleans setting)
Blue piano operates as naturalism and plastic theatre
Lighting - builds tension, motif of lantern and lighting in general is symbolic of B’s mental
state
Setting - Not really set in New Orleans - set in the Kowalski’s apartment building - makes it
feel more constricting and overcrowded, allows audience to experience how B would have
felt. Epicentre for all the destruction of the play - location as evil.
Costume - B’s costumes betray her mental state, S’s on his masculinity and working class
status.
Stanley and B’s own curation of stagecraft clashes with each other - she attempts to create
performance through using her own music (ie. the radio) which he “tosses..out the window” -
represents their wider conflict, and the fact her fantasies and romanticism clashes with his
brutal realism (New vs Old South).
Stanley throwing package at “a red stained package” “Red” - colour imagery represents his lively
Stella “Meat!” sexuality and masculinity. Symbol of coming
home bearing “meat” paints him as predator
(lugging home defeated prey) and alludes to B’s
later soliloquy, or represents him fulfilling his
role as a provider.
Monosyllabic “Meat!” emphasises his simplicity.
Blanche’s sexuality, scene 3 “Moves back into the streak of Colour imagery - sexuality is what makes her
light” powerful, and she manipulates this.
“dark red satin wrapper”
Blanche’s exit, scene 11 “They go round the corner of the She’s both emotionally and physically
building” inaccessible to Stella. AO3 - divide between
New and Old South has been cemented (the
interloper, ie the plantation owner, has been
exiled)
Uses stagecraft to emphasise divide between characters
In ASND, Williams uses various aspects of stagecraft, including his characteristic Plastic
theatre, to emphasise the divide between characters.
Blanche and the rest of the world
Varsouviana (“The Varsouviana? The polka tune they were playing when Allan -” - attempts
to allow Mitch into her delusions but this only serves to reject her further (“Are you boxed out
of your mind?” - AO3, stigmatisation of mental illness)
Motif of the lantern: Represents her insecurity and need for fantasy (“what I want. Magic!”) “I
can’t stand a naked light-bulb”, “seizes the paper lantern…She cries out”. AO3 - symbol of
