STAGE REVIEW : ‘Creve Coeur’ Is Dull Shadow of ‘Streetcar’

A war constantly is being waged in Tennessee Williams’ plays. And the war is always over someone’s soul.

In “A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur,” which opened Wednesday at the San Diego Repertory Theatre’s Lyceum Stage, the object of the battle is a nervous, hyper-romantic schoolteacher named Dorothea Gallaway.

The combatants are her earthy German roommate Bodey Bodenhafer, who nurses hopes that Dorothea will settle into a life of hearth and home with Bodey’s twin brother Buddy, and Dorothea’s fellow teacher Helena Brookmire, who wants Dorothea to move into a tony apartment with her and start living the life of an elegant spinster.

If Dorothea reminds you of a late Blanche DuBois in her final, fragile stages of near-madness, that’s fitting.

“A Lovely Sunday” is a late play by Tennessee Williams, first produced in 1978, over two decades after he won a Pulitzer Prize for “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” his second of two. His first was for “A Streetcar Named Desire,” first produced in 1947.

He wrote it at a time when many critics thought he had lost his powers. Now, 12 years later, one cannot help but ask the same question.

The answer appears to be: Not as much as people at that time may have thought. But perhaps more than the San Diego Rep bargained on.

The play suffers from oversimplification, obviousness and a first act that’s all setup and no satisfaction. “Creve Coeur” is French for heartbreak which could apply to any of the actresses, but the greatest heartbreak here is the way this play summons up memories of Williams earlier, greater works--and fades in comparison with those memories.

Like Blanche, Dorothea is waiting for a phone call from a gentleman caller--here a high school principal--who never comes. Like Blanche’s sister Stella, Bodey wants to shield her from reality--at least until the time is propitious for Buddy to make his move. And, with the savagery of an upper-class version of Stanley Kowalski, Helena wants to disabuse Dorothea of her illusion that Prince Charming is going to come, caring little for the cost that such disillusionment may have for Dorothea’s mental health.

The battle lines are drawn, the points are reiterated and the entire first act deals with Helena threatening to tell Dorothea something about the high school principal and Bodey stopping her from doing so.

Despite the sensitive direction by Douglas Jacobs, artistic director of the San Diego Rep, the play does not make you care about Dorothea until near the end of the play. And so the ending, which is unusually sunny for Williams, does not come across as powerfully as it might have had Dorothea been more sympathetic from the beginning.

Williams’ sketchiness in drawing Dorothea is not helped by Darla Cash’s performance. She needs to show more of the battle within. For the entire first act and half of the second, she seems so cut out of the same icy cloth as Helena that you wonder why Body thinks her such a prize for her brother. There needs to be more preparation for her later, sudden demonstration of heart.

Rosina Widdowson-Reynolds’ Helena and Diana Castle’s Bodey are perfect foils for each other. Widdowson-Reynolds’ delivery lends a potent reminder of how words can slash. Castle brings a warmth and gutsiness to Bodey that makes her the most appealing person in the play. A fourth and final character, the grieving, German-speaking neighbor Sophie Gluck, is played by Kim Porter as a wall of quivering pain; Gluck is the loneliness incarnate that Body comforts, that Helena mocks and from which Dorothea tries to avoid and hide.

The show itself couldn’t have a more loving production, from the homey, cluttered set by Neil Patel, the fitting costume choices by Mary Gibson, the gentle lighting by Brenda Berry and the eclectic and satisfying sound design by Lawrence Czoka.

And it’s nice to see a Williams’ heroine not end her life in tragedy. But unfortunately this ending lacks credibility. And that’s the rub of “Creve Coeur.”

“A LOVELY SUNDAY

FOR CREVE COEUR”

By Tennessee Williams. Director is Douglas Jacobs. Set by Neil Patel. Costumes by Mary Gibson. Lighting by Brenda Berry. Sound by Lawrene Czoka. Stage manager is Julie A. Moore. With Darla Cash, Diana Castle, Rosina Widdowson-Reynolds and Kim Porter. At 8 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday and 7 p.m. Sundays with Sunday matinees at 2 through Oct. 13. Tickets are $18-$22. At 79 Horton Plaza, San Diego, (619) 235-8025.