'A Streetcar Named Desire' Gets The Ballet Treatment At Harris Theater

By Michelle Meywes Kopeny in Arts & Entertainment on May 7, 2015 5:30PM

Sophie Martin as Stella and Tama Barry as Stanley in A Streetcar Named Desire. Photograph by Andrew Ross.

Tennessee Williams's classic play, A Streetcar Named Desire, gets the ballet treatment to close out the Harris Theater’s 2014-2015 season. The Scottish Ballet originally created this award-winning contemporary adaptation in 2012 with the help of choreographer Annabelle Lopez Ochoa and theater and film director Nancy Meckler, and tonight the two-act ballet will make it’s Chicago debut.

It’s always interesting to see how well-known narratives such as this are transformed into a presentation without dialogue. This story, while twisting and turning with detail in the play and movie, is still at it’s core a tumultuous drama that can be captivatingly expressed through dance. With set design and costuming created specifically for the ballet by Niki Turner, the audience is transported to 1930s New Orleans, and right into the lives of Stanley Kowalski and his wife Stella. Their already tough lives are upended with the arrival of Stella’s sister Blanche DuBois, who is escaping her own fall from grace in this tale of desperation and betrayal.

A Streetcar Named Desire opens tonight at 7:30 p.m., with additional performances on Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $10-$95. The Harris Theater is located at 205 E. Randolph.