'Lessons of multiracialism and migration in an American modern classic'

MANILA - Although I am more of a “The Glass Menagerie” fan, I should say Tennessee Williams’s “A Streetcar Named Desire” is also an adorable play.

Maybe this is because I got to translate “The Glass Menagerie” in Filipino when I handled a high school speech and drama class before.

I was able to absorb a lot of insights about poverty, social classes and the stigma that physical disabilities evoke.

Reading Williams's life story and some of his masterpieces gave me a thorough understanding of how his characters onstage behave and relate to other people, even if they emote in a claustrophobic atmosphere.

This was seemingly the same experience I got when I watched Floy Quintos’s adaptation of “A Streetcar Named Desire” at the Cultural Center of the Philippines’ (CCP) Little Theater, for Tanghalang Pilipino's 23rd Theater Season.

This is part of the CCP's 40th founding anniversary.

Filipinos essaying Americans?

Perhaps the CCP chose the English play to show how some concepts are universal, regardless of race or class.

This is exemplified in the lead character Blanche Bubois's strength and firmness in adhering to her independence, regardless of the contrast between her citizenship under an advanced nation (America) and a working class setting.

The main cast of Quintos’s edition include an array of wonderful thespians from Ana Abad Santos, who plays Bubois, and Paolo O’Hara, who tackled the wishy-washy Harold Mitchell.

As for the Filipino cast having to speak in "King's language", I think they don't have to try hard to speak in genuine foreign accents.

The original text and subtext of "A Streetcar Named Desire" is worthy of multi-lingual translations, while still conveying the play's message.

For example, I bet you that “Flores Para Los Muertos,” the Filipino version written by Orlando Nadres (produced in many theater companies a number of times) won’t change the tone and essence of what the author wants to say.

“A Streetcar Named Desire” in any language is a slice-of-life study of our ordinariness as people in any society, at any moment in time.

'A modern classic for postmodern times'

The play, being a modern classic, is widely popular and has been reproduced, in varying adaptations, all over the world.

Thus, American culture and history is no longer the play's only subject, but it has also become a "multiracial compendium" of many complex social realities, in what we now call the "postmodern era" where "anything goes."

“A Streetcar Named Desire” isn’t only a story of a woman who was reduced to delusion and insanity because of society’s cruel treatment of her, notwithstanding her own embrace to lies and illusions.

The characters themselves are outcomes of mixed marriages or various races' migration to America.

Consider the names "Stanley Kowalski" or "Blanche Bubois", both foreign-sounding surnames that suggest non-American roots.

Quinto's "A Streetcar Named Desire" might as well be a literary gem for the diaspora.

Yet, the original playwright (Williams) is an American who saw human interaction and values as universal concepts, applying to everyone, regardless of skin color, language, beliefs and birthrights. Report and photo from Boy Villasanta.