This essay seeks to explain a bit more about what plastic theatre is, how it is used by Williams, and how it adds to the overall effect of the play. The essay explores the 3 key concepts within plastic theatre; light, sound, costume. The essay is of an A-Level A to A* standard with the only minor c...
If we understand that Plastic Theatre utilises props, sound, stage direction, and costume to
present poetic truths about symbolism, and is not intended to be realistic, but symbolic, what is
the effect of Williams’ use of plastic theatre in ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’?
Written by renowned postmodern playwright Tennessee Williams in 1947, A Streetcar
Named Desire is a Southern Gothic which utilises expressionism and Plastic Theatre to
present poetic truths to audiences. The collection of elements that represent stagecraft in
the play serve to exhibit visual explanations of concepts to audiences whereby Williams
expresses the line between fantasy, delusion and reality. This is seen most prominently in
Blanche’s character where, through use of costume, sound and set, the boundary of
interiority and exteriority in her mind is blurred. In this way, the effect of Williams’ Plastic
Theatre rejects realist conventions in order to intensify the evoked emotions and amplify
symbolism to create a better connection between actor and audience.
In regards to Blanche, light and colour are significant elements of Plastic Theatre which are
used to symbolise the facade of innocence she maintains. We discern from the beginning of
Scene one that Blanche makes a conscious effort to avoid direct light in the hope she
remains appearing fruitful and young as she demands ‘Turn that light off! I won’t be looked
at in this merciless glare!’. Williams’ repetition of the exclamation here and his use of the
adjective ‘merciless’ emphasise a genuine insecurity in Blanche that she persistently
attempts to hide, this represents further the extended metaphor of light as the unfiltered
truth and haunting thoughts of her past in which Blanche seeks to escape; her life before
she lost Belle Reve, her husband and purpose in life. Moreover, Blanche’s constant desire to
appear youthful suggests the conventions of American patriarchy in the mid C20th
measured a woman’s value against her reproductive capacity, Blanche therefore attempts
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