The Poetry’s in Motion

At one tender point in Deaf West Theatre’s revival of “A Streetcar Named Desire,” the slowly cracking Mississippi belle Blanche DuBois (Suanne Spoke) hears some music she likes on the radio, in the tiny New Orleans flat occupied by her sister (Terrylene) and brother-in-law, Stanley (Troy M. Kotsur).

Blanche takes the hand of her beau, Mitch (Bob Hiltermann), and places it on the radio so he can absorb the music’s rhythm. Like the other characters in this production, Mitch is deaf. Blanche is not. Her rudimentary sign-language capabilities serve as a fluttering indicator of her state of mind. Blanche, touchingly played by Spoke, has more or less lurched in from another world. Elysian Fields, the street to which she has come, turns out to be her last stop on the streetcar.

This mixture of deaf and hearing actors works as an easy, vibrant part of the larger stew, eternally on the boil in Tennessee Williams’ 1947 classic.

American Sign Language is naturally poetic and theatrical. As such, it’s no surprise this “Streetcar” brings out new flavors in the material.

As Kotsur’s Stanley bellows and threatens his prey via ASL, a second actor (John Ireland) speaks the lines simultaneously, leaning on the second-story railing above the action. Signing and hearing actors work together harmoniously. Sparingly, the signing actors speak--inevitably, for example, when Kotsur emits a mournful cry of “Stella!!!”

The new Deaf West theater, on Lankershim Boulevard in the North Hollywood theater district, provides a wonderfully scaled experience for this French Quarter tragedy. I’ve never seen “Streetcar” in so intimate a space. Director Deborah LaVine maximizes that intimacy. Robert Steinberg’s scenic design jams together two rooms, a suggestion of back stairs, a three-sided second-story balcony bordering the upstairs flat. Everyone’s right on top of each other, inches apart, increasingly at odds.

LaVine and her actors keep the florid conflicts to come in the shadows early on. Blanche’s introduction to the hunky primitive, Stanley--sympathetically inhabited by Kotsur--is acted with wry, shy, glancing touches, a case of polar opposites trying to make the best of things. Too many “Streetcars” play the ending right at the beginning. This one doesn’t. Though its three-hour running time has its longueurs, by the end you feel like you’ve been somewhere and gotten to know two or more sides of some familiar stage creations.

The dualities relate foremost to this production’s dual modes of language. Williams is a naturally fragrant writer; in the Deaf West staging, the poetry achieves visual beauty as well as verbal. Spoke, Kotsur, Terrylene (whose smile lights up the French Quarter), Hiltermann, the best of the voicing actors--all are part of something quite special.

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“A Streetcar Named Desire,” Deaf West Theatre Company, 5112 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood. Thursdays-Fridays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays, 2 and 8 p.m.; Sundays, 3 p.m. Ends April 9. $20. (818) 762-2773 (voice) and (818) 762-2782 (TTY). Running time: 3 hours.

Olav Axelsen: Steve

Mark Brudney: Newsboy, Pablo

Bryan Buckey: Voice of Steve, Mac

Maureen Davis: Voice of Stella

Phil Di Pietro: Voice of Mitch

Bob Hiltermann: Mitch

John Ireland: Voice of Stanley

Troy M. Kotsur: Stanley Kowalski

Wanda LaCoure: Eunice

Donne McRae: Voice of Eunice

Donna Scarfe: Woman, Nurse

Ted Schumacher: Musician

Suanne Spoke: Blanche DuBois

Terrylene: Stella Kowalski

David Willis: Doctor

Written by Tennessee Williams. Directed by Deborah LaVine. Set by Robert Steinberg. Costumes by Diane Graebner. Lighting by Ken Booth. Sound by Bill O’Brien. ASL masters Phyllis Frelich, Linda Bove, Bob Daniels. Production stage manager Pat Loeb.