Tennessee Williams in Chicago

Through the Elevated Line – Silk Road Rising

 

In “A Streetcar Named Desire,” Tennessee Williams’ Pulitzer Prize-winning drama that made Blanche DuBois and Stanley Kowalski household names, an older sister travels from her beloved Louisiana childhood home to spend time with her married, younger sibling, living in with her husband in their New Orleans hovel. Stella Kowalski is pregnant with her first child and Blanche has ostensibly come to help her younger sister care for the new baby.

During her visit it’s revealed that Blanche actually has nowhere else to go now, having recently lost the family estate. We also learn that Blanche is haunted by the memory of her dead, younger husband and that she’s been fired from her teaching position for having sexual relations with one of her students. Blanche finds Stanley loud, vulgar and coarse and can’t understand why Stella continues to stay with him. Blanche strikes up a romance with Mitch, one of Stanley’s more gentlemanly poker buddies, but he’s shocked when he learns about her seedy past. Self-delusional and living in her own fantasy world of poetry, soft lighting and music, Blanche is a romantic. In the end, Blanche, who’s always depended upon the kindness of strangers, suffers an emotional breakdown and is taken away to a mental hospital.

In Novid Parsi’s captivating new play, enjoying a stellar world premiere in Chicago, the playwright honors the work of Tennessee Williams. This contemporary retelling of Williams’ drama is set in Chicago two years ago, when national immigration laws were becoming more stringent and the Cubs looked as if they’d finally win the Pennant. Razi is the older brother who shows up on his successful, married sister’s doorstep. Soraya is married to Chuck, an imposingly loud, brutishly crude man who’s employed in construction and real estate. She’s working on her degree as a dermatologist and is expecting their first child. Like Blanche DuBois, the audience learns that Razi has sold the family home in Iran. With the money from the sale almost gone, he’s traveled to Chicago to stay with his only living relative.

Razi can stay in America for only a short time because of his limited travel visa. He’s a young, gay man who, because of Iran’s brutal view of homosexuality, had been imprisoned for his lifestyle. There he lost the love of his life and is now alone and caught between two worlds. Razi’s only solace is in alcohol and the verses of his beloved Persian poet, Hafez. When Soraya and her friend Beth attempt to play matchmaker with Beth’s brother, Sean, it seems that Razi might find true love once again. The two men hit it off and seem destined to marry, thus allowing Razi to get his green card and stay in the United States. But unexpected complications arise and Novid Parsi’s story ends much in the same manner as Williams’ heartbreaking drama.

Carin Silkaitis has directed this moving play with grace, wisdom and unerring compassion. There’s also a constant atmosphere of danger that permeates this play, and the director allows the threat to always be lurking in the shadows. Through her sensitive guidance, we feel the pain and pressure experienced by both Razi and his sister Soraya. We see this vulnerable gay immigrant, a stranger in a strange land, trying to fit in and attempting to understand American customs, while still remaining true to his own Iranian culture. Razi must deal with both Iranian homophobia and American xenophobia. Love and familial dedication, however, is universal; this is what Ms. Silkaitis understands and focuses upon in her breathtaking production.

Staged within Joe Schermoly’s stylishly realistic, ever-evolving duplex apartment, Lindsey Lyddan and Jeffrey Levin have created a lighting and sound design, complete with original music, that complements the setting and helps make the Chicago locale feel authentic. Ms. Silkaitis’ cast is wonderful. Under her direction, they tell this story with grit and an honesty that makes it difficult to forget.

Salar Ardebili is mesmerizing as Razi. He fully captures a character who’s at first shy and intimated by his new surroundings. Then the actor traces his character’s emotional journey of dissatisfaction, repulsion, desperation and, finally, a loss of hope that takes over. As Soraya, Catherine Dildilian creates a likable, believably passionate young woman who’s truly assimilated into her new American home. While she loves and is strongly devoted to her visiting brother, Soraya is torn. Her sexual ties to her lusty lout of a husband are even more profound. Chuck, Soraya’s insensitive, uncouth Irish-American husband, is well-played with brut force, intimidation and foreboding danger by Joshua J. Volkers. Philip Winston is courteous and caring as Sean, a genteel, cultured lawyer who sees in Razi an unexpected kindred spirit. He eventually shares the pleasures of Boystown with his new friend and would-be lover, opening up a whole new world for his Persian Prince Charming.

This terrific production continues the company’s mission to unleash the audience’s curiosity and to help theatergoers understand how people from all cultures are inherently alike and linked together. Audiences who know the works of Tennessee Williams will immediately see the parallels between “A Streetcar Named Desire” and Novid Parsi’s new play. However, a familiarity with Williams’ classic isn’t necessary for patrons to become helplessly involved with and to understand Razi’s tragic tale. As the elevated line rumbles and roars above, with lights flashing and announcements to stand clear of the closing door, many audience members will harken back to 1940’s New Orleans, when a streetcar named Desire broke the dreamworld  tranquility of Blanche DuBois.

Highly Recommended

Reviewed by Colin Douglas

 

Presented March 17-April 15 by Silk Road Rising at the Chicago Temple, 77 W. Washington St., Chicago.

Tickets are available by calling 312-857-1234 x201 or by going to www.silkroadrising.org.

Additional information about this and other area productions can be found by visiting www.theatreinchicago.com.