Taking a seat before the show begins, one can't help but notice the actors, in 1940s-era dresses and neckties, strewn about the various nooks and crannies of the stage as if passed out drunk. Is this "The Wild Party"? A loud, insistent banging begins, the cast members snapping to its jazzy beat, then rising to their feet with clunky, mechanized movements. Thus begins ion theatre company's journey into the steamy New Orleans of Tennessee Williams' "A Streetcar Named Desire." It's a heart-pounding, exciting start, but little that follows these first few moments is as interesting.

Brian Mackey, Monique Gaffney, Sara Beth Morgan and Matt Scott

Copyright©2008 Claudio Raygoza

There's the set, designed by director Claudio Raygoza, a suitably cramped tenement apartment in the Faubourg Marigny (which even makes creative use of a seesaw-type set piece to approximate an upper floor in ion's low-ceilinged Lab). Tim Boyce's expressive sound design includes that clanging, chugging streetcar and the jazz music that Williams so painstakingly describes, coming "from a tinny piano being played with the infatuated fluency of brown fingers." Mr. Raygoza's lighting design keeps a great deal of the action in shadows, befitting the dimly lit paper lantern with which Blanche livens up her spare surroundings and keeps the harsh light of the world at bay. At times, though, the lights are so dim as to render the facial expressions of the hard-working crew of actors unseen.

Those actors, under Raygoza's direction, do their best to bring Williams' tale of fragile illusions and brutal reality to life. The sultry (for San Diego) summer night on the date reviewed and lack of air conditioning added to the feel of a long New Orleans summer. Somehow, though, this "Streetcar," which chugs along at around three hours (including two intermissions), doesn't capture that Southern essence so integral to most of the Williams oeuvre.

The colorblind casting of Monique Gaffney as Blanche (French for "white") would seem problematic at first glance. She is, after all, supposed to be the sister of Stella (played here by Sara Beth Morgan), and both sisters purportedly come from the same landed gentry that would own a plantation like the one in Mississippi that Blanche has "lost," Belle Reve. Debbie Allen recently directed an all-black Broadway revival of Williams' "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," though, starring James Earl Jones, Phylicia Rashad, Terrence Howard, and Anika Noni Rose, and it's hard to argue with a production stocked with acting powerhouses like that, or one with the likes of Gaffney and Morgan. The oddness of Gaffney and Morgan embracing as sisters in the first scene soon gives way to a willingness to accept that such a thing, even in this long-ago time and place, is possible. But much like that first exciting prologue that is followed by a mostly predictable interpretation, the casting of a black actress as Blanche would seen to present many an interesting opportunity for Raygoza that still feel unexplored here.

Gaffney in and of herself masterfully portrays the desperation of Blanche, as she loses her grip on the world of white columns and genteel suitors that she has known, and Morgan captures that uncomfortable place of someone caught between a rock and a hard place (or, in this case, a rock and a fine piece of china, perhaps).

In the unenviable position of filling the workboots of the blue-collar Stanley Kowalski (a role inextricably defined by its creator, Marlon Brando) Matt Scott is all bark -- and bite, too. The alcohol-abetted shouting and manic behavior dominate his interpretation. Missing is the glimmer of sexual attraction seething beneath the surface of Blanche and Stanley's relationship, and we're hard-pressed to see why anyone on stage would be attracted to him, sexually, subtextually or otherwise.

Rounding out the cast are Morgan Trant, Bebe Black, Rich Carrillo, Colin Simon, Kevin Koppman-Gue, and the lithe Brian Mackey, who cannot possibly come close to the "two hundred and seven pounds" that Williams attributes to Mitch, but who fills the role of Blanche's gentle suitor admirably.

It's an admirable attempt at an American classic, but coming on the heels of the likes of ion's recent "Request Programme" and "The Pillowman," this "Streetcar" might be better left in Blanche's -- and our own -- memory.

VIEW PROGRAM HERE (PDF)