Blanche DuBois arrives at Elysian Fields Avenue via the Desire Street streetcar line in the opening of the Tennessee Williams classic.
In “The Felt Menagerie,” Blanche Dubious arrives at a church rec room in a small Southern town populated by puppets. The Tennessee Williams Theatre Company of New Orleans dubs the work, “The Sesame Streetcar Named Desire.”
The comedy gets its live premiere at Zeitgeist Theatre & Lounge in Arabi on May 10, and the portable show then heads to UNO and New Marigny Theatre on subsequent weekends.
In “The Felt Menagerie,” Blanche crashes a meeting where there’s already some ruffled feathers. Violet Vengeable has been the group’s elected chair, but before the group can approve the minutes of the last meeting, Amanda Wingstop petitions to elect new officers. She imagines herself right for the job. Maggie the Cat is happy to weigh in, though she has no interest in the position. Sissy and Flora also have a few quips of their own.
It’s a meeting of the Daughters of the American Revolution, in a chapter in the tiny town of Tennessee, Mississippi.
The strong-willed women are, of course, versions of Williams’ most iconic women characters. Amanda is like the former debutante in “The Glass Menagerie,” who fantasizes about having lived a more glamorous life and struggles with her disappointment in her children.
“Williams did a great job presenting different types of people, but the Blanches, the Maggies, the Amandas, the Violets I think really stand out, even if you don’t know Williams’ plays,” says Augustin Correro, who wrote and directs the work. “They are archetypes, and they also are very Southern and New Orleans characters.”
Violet is like the New Orleans matriarch in “Suddenly, Last Summer.” She also had a stake in running her son’s life and is fiercely committed to maintaining some of the illusions or delusions surrounding it.
Maggie the Cat is closest to the Williams’ version, the frustrated wife in “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.” Here she is indeed catty, and she spends most of her time looking for a scratching post.
“It’s fun to expand on these characters,” Correro says. “They often take up a lot of real estate, and now they have to share a small room with each other. What happens when you put them together and they’re clashing?”
The campy humor is not about running the DAR chapter meeting. It’s more about dirty laundry.
“All of them are in denial about one thing or another, and everyone else in the room knows what they’re in denial about,” Correro says. “How Southern is that? It’s almost an Olympic sport the way each character talks around their own stuff while picking on the others for their stuff.”
What works as tragedy in the plays works as comedy with puppets. And there are other characters and happenings offstage.
The idea for a puppet show came up during the pandemic. After the enthusiasm for Zoom play readings quickly subsided, the company was looking to try something else. When the Tennessee Williams & New Orleans Literary Festival asked if the company had any ideas for its 2021 online festival, they came up with the idea, opting for the comedy/parody route instead of trying to do a serious drama online. They also wanted to stream a live show, and puppets made it easier for participants to play multiple characters.
The pandemic had forced the company to postpone productions of a couple of parodies of Williams plays by Christopher Durang (who died April 2). He’s known for the award-winning comedic dramas “Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike” and “Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You.” But he also wrote the more absurd “Desire, Desire, Desire,” parodying “Streetcar,” but with intrusions by Maggie from “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” and “For Whom the Southern Belle Tolls,” lampooning “Glass Menagerie.”
The show runs May 8-25.
Inspired by Durang, Correro decided to put more Williams heroines onstage together. And to do it as a puppet show, they turned to Kenneth Thompson, who’s created large-scale puppets for local theater companies. The hand and rod puppets have a Sesame Street aesthetic, Correro says. But he also notes the show is not for children.
“If ‘Avenue Q’ taught us anything, it’s that puppets are often for kids but not always for kids,” he says.
Big Bird is not going to come out and explain the repressed desires that drive Williams’ plays or what secrets the women are hiding.
“Not everybody is rational and makes good choices,” Correro says with a laugh. “But when you watch the puppets make these choices, it’s a trip to whatever back alley is around the corner from Sesame Street in the French Quarter.”
The company is doing the show on top of its regular season in response to demand for more shows, Correro says. It’s presenting the show at Zeitgeist (May 10-12), UNO’s Nims Theatre (May 17-19) and New Marigny Theatre at Church of Arts & Sciences (May 24-26). Though it’s done several shows at the Marigny Opera House, it’s trying to present work in neighborhoods where it hasn’t previously done productions to introduce itself to new audiences.
For tickets and information, visit twtheatrenola.com.
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