Blacks in ‘Streetcar’

I’m fit to be tied over Ray Loynd’s Sept. 17 review of the LAAT’s “almost flawless” production of Tennessee Williams’ “A Streetcar Named Desire.” The flaw as Loynd squints to see it is the “beautifully played” performances by Neva Ruschell and Lance Nichols as the upstairs neighbors, which (to him) represent “tinkering” with the untinkerable author because “blacks wouldn’t be running in and out of the Kowalskis’ flat in 1947 New Orleans.”

This is outright racist hogwash. Williams says nothing about the racial composition of Stanley’s friends and neighbors who live “at the end of the trolley line.” It is poor, noisy and rough and, more than likely, especially in New Orleans--famous for its interracial mix of blacks, Creoles, Cajuns and whites--the Kowalski digs would reflect that diversity. I’ve personally seen a number of productions, including the original on Broadway, in which the street mise-en-scene was interracially cast.

FRED E. BAKER

Los Angeles