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align=center><FONT face="Times New Roman"><B><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi'>Mamaí’s
</SPAN></B><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: ">‘<B
style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal">Streetcar’ is stellar despite understated
STELLAAAA!!!</B> </SPAN></FONT></P>
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style="FONT-FAMILY: "><FONT face="Times New Roman"></FONT></SPAN> </P>
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align=center><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'><FONT
face="Times New Roman">Bob Abelman</FONT></SPAN></P>
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align=center><I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'><FONT
face="Times New Roman">Cleveland Jewish News, The News Herald, The Morning
Journal</FONT></SPAN></I><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'></SPAN></P>
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align=center><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'><FONT
face="Times New Roman">Member, International Association of Theatre
Critics</FONT></SPAN></P>
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style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; tab-stops: 1.0in 5.25in"><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'><FONT
face="Times New Roman"></FONT></SPAN> </P>
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style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'><FONT
face="Times New Roman"></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: "><FONT face="Times New Roman">So iconic is the scream
“Stella!<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>STELLAAAA!!!” from
Tennessee Williams’ 1948 Pulitzer Prize-winning play “A Streetcar Named Desire”
that the highlight of each annual meeting of the Tennessee Williams/New Orleans
Literary Festival is the “Stanley and Stella Kowalski Shouting Contest.”
</FONT></SPAN></P>
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style="FONT-FAMILY: "><FONT face="Times New Roman"></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: "><FONT face="Times New Roman">Affectionately known as the
“Stell-off,” the competition reenacts the torrid scene early in the play in
which working class Stanley – the brutish tormentor of his visiting Southern
belle sister-in-law Blanche DuBois – remorsefully shouts for his pregnant wife
Stella to return after she was slapped during his drunken tantrum.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></FONT></SPAN></P>
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style="FONT-FAMILY: "><FONT face="Times New Roman"></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: "><FONT face="Times New Roman">Judges use the raw, primal
performance turned in by Marlon Brando during the show’s Broadway premiere and,
more notably, in the classic 1951 film adaptation as their benchmark.
</FONT></SPAN></P>
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style="FONT-FAMILY: "><FONT face="Times New Roman"></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: "><FONT face="Times New Roman">Entire productions of the
play can be similarly evaluated, for Stanley’s scream serves as an early
indicator of an actor’s insight into this key character’s mindset, defines the
tenor of his confrontations with the intrusive and deeply troubled Blanche, and
gives shape to his relationship with the highly compromised Stella.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It could be argued that the scream is
also a viable barometer of a director’s approach to the emotional truths that
lie between it and other outbursts.</FONT></SPAN></P>
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style="FONT-FAMILY: "><FONT face="Times New Roman"></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><FONT
face="Times New Roman"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: ">In the current </SPAN><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold'>Mamaí</SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: "> staging of “Streetcar,” Jason Kaufman’s scream is a
comparatively understated affair that is more inebriated anger than agony and
more hurt pride than passion.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It
seems inspired by Stanley’s want and desire rather than his need and
desperation.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And so does this
production under Mitchell Fields’ direction</SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: "><FONT face="Times New Roman"></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'><FONT
face="Times New Roman">For the rest of this review, go to </FONT></SPAN><A
style='href: "http://www.clevelandjewishnews.com/columnists/"'><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'><FONT
color=#0000ff
face="Times New Roman">www.clevelandjewishnews.com/columnists/</FONT></SPAN></A></P></DIV></DIV></BODY></HTML>