What might be the symbolic meanings of the names of the places: Desire Elysian Cemeteries?
And so it was I entered the broken world
To trace the visionary company of love its voice
An instant in the wind (I know not whither hurled)
But not for long to hold each desperate choice
The Broken Tower by Hart Crane
SCENE ONE
The exterior of a two-story corner building on a street in New Orleans which is named Elysian
Fields and runs between the L & N tracks and the river. The section is poor but unlike
corresponding sections in other American cities it has a raffish charm. The houses are mostly
white frame weathered gray with rickety outside stairs and galleries and quaintly ornamented
gables. This building contains two flats upstairs and down. Faded white stairs ascend to the
entrances of both.
It is first dark of an evening early in May. The sky that shows around the dim white building is a
peculiarly tender blue almost a turquoise which invests the scene with a kind of lyricism and
gracefully attenuates the atmosphere of decay. You can almost feel the warm breath of the brown
river beyond the river warehouses with their faint redolences of bananas and coffee. A
corresponding air is evoked by the music of Negro entertainers at a barroom around the corner.
In this part of New Orleans you are practically always just around the corner or a few doors
down the street from a tinny piano being played with the infatuated fluency of brown fingers.
This Blue Piano expresses the spirit of the life which goes on here.
Two women one white and one colored are taking the air on the steps of the building. The white
woman is Eunice who occupies the upstairs flat; the colored woman a neighbor for New
Orleans is a cosmopolitan city where there is a relatively warm and easy intermingling of races
in the old part of town.
Above the music of the Blue Piano the voices of people on the street can be heard overlapping.
[Two men come around the corner Stanley Kowalski and Mitch. They are about twenty-eight or
thirty years old roughly dressed in blue denim work clothes. Stanley carries his bowling jacket
and a red-stained package from a butchers. They stop at the foot of the steps.]
STANLEY [bellowing]:
Hey there! Stella Baby!
[Stella comes out on the first floor landing a gentle young woman about twenty-five and of a
background obviously quite different from her husbands.]
STELLA [mildly]:
Dont holler at me like that. Hi Mitch.
STANLEY:
Catch!
STELLA:
What?
STANLEY:
Meat!
[Be heaves the package at her. She cries out in protest but manages to catch it; then she laughes
breathlessly. Her husband and his companion have already started back around the comer.]
STELLA [calling after him]:
Stanley! Where are you going?
STANLEY:
Bowling!
STELLA:
Can I come watch?
STANLEY:
Come on.
[He goes out.]
STELLA:
Be over soon.
[To the white woman]
Hello Eunice. How are you?
EUNICE:
Im all right. Tell Steve to get him a poor boys sandwich cause nothings left here.
[They all laugh; the colored woman does not stop. Stella goes out.]
COLORED WOMAN:
What was that package he thew at er?
[She rises from steps laughing louder.]
EUNICE:
You hush now!
NEGRO WOMAN:
Catch what!
[She continues to laugh. Blanche comes around the corner currying a valise. She looks at a slip
of paper then at the building then again at the slip and again at the building. Her expression is
one of shocked disbelief. Her appearance is incongruous to this setting. She is daintily dressed in
a white suit with a fluffy bodice necklace and earrings of pearl white gloves and hat looking as
if she were arriving at a summer tea or cocktail party in the garden district. She is about five
years older than Stella. Her delicate beauty must avoid a strong light. There is something about
her uncertain manner as well as her white clothes that suggests a moth.]
EUNICE [finally]:
Whats the matter honey? Are you lost?
BLANCHE [with faintly hysterical humor]:
They told me to take a streetcar named Desire and then transfer to one called Cemeteries and
ride six blocks and get off atElysian Fields!
EUNICE:
Thats where you are now.
BLANCHE:
At Elysian Fields?
EUNICE:
This here is Elysian Fields.
BLANCHE:
They mustnt have understood what number I wanted.
EUNICE:
What number you lookin for?
[Blanche wearily refers to the slip of paper.]
BLANCHE:
Six thirty-two.
EUNICE:
You dont have to look no further.
BLANCHE [uncomprehendingly]:
Im looking for my sister Stella DuBois. I meanMrs. Stanley Kowalski.
EUNICE:
Thats the party.You just did miss her though.
BLANCHE:
Thiscan this beher home?
EUNICE:
Shes got the downstairs here and I got the up.
BLANCHE:
Oh. Shesout?
EUNICE:
You noticed that bowling alley around the corner?
BLANCHE:
Imnot sure I did.
EUNICE:
Well thats where shes at watchin her husband bowl.
[There is a pause]
You want to leave your suitcase here an go find her?
BLANCHE:
No.
NEGRO WOMAN:
Ill go tell her you come.
BLANCHE:
Thanks.
NEGRO WOMAN:
You welcome.
[She goes out.]
EUNICE:
She wasnt expecting you?
BLANCHE:
No. No not tonight.
EUNICE:
Well why dont you just go in and make yourself at home till they get back.
BLANCHE:
How could Ido that?
EUNICE:
We own this place so I can let you in.
[She gets up and opens the downstairs door. A light goes on behind the blind turning it light
blue. Blanche slowly follows her into the downstairs flat. The surrounding areas dim out as the
interior is lighted.]
[Two rooms can be seen not too clearly defined. The one first entered is primarily a kitchen but
contains a folding bed to be used by Blanche. The room beyond this is a bedroom. Off this room
is a narrow door to a bathroom.]
EUNICE [defensively noticing Blanches look]:
Its sort of messed up right now but when its clean its real sweet.
BLANCHE:
Is it?
EUNICE:
Uh huh I think so. So youre Stellas sister?
BLANCHE:
Yes.
[Wanting to get rid of her]
Thanks for letting me in.
EUNICE:
Por nada as the Mexicans say por nada! Stella spoke of you.
BLANCHE:
Yes?
EUNICE:
I think she said you taught school.
BLANCHE:
Yes.
EUNICE:
And youre from Mississippi huh?
BLANCHE:
Yes.
EUNICE:
She showed me a picture of your home-place the plantation.
BLANCHE:
Belle Reve?
EUNICE:
A great big place with white columns.
BLANCHE:
Yes
EUNICE:
A place like that must be awful hard to keep up.
BLANCHE:
If you will excuse me. Im just about to drop.
EUNICE:
Sure honey. Why dont you set down?
BLANCHE:
What I meant was Id like to be left alone.
EUNICE:
Aw. Ill make myself scarce in that case.
BLANCHE:
I didnt mean to be rude but
EUNICE:
Ill drop by the bowling alley an hustle her up.
[She goes out the door.]
[Blanche sits in a chair very stiffly with her shoulders slightly hunched and her legs pressed close
together and her hands tightly clutching her purse as if she were quite cold. After a while the
blind look goes out of her eyes and she begins to look slowly around. A cat screeches. She
catches her breath with a startled gesture. Suddenly she notices something in a half-opened
closet. She springs up and crosses to it and removes a whiskey bottle. She pours a half tumbler
of whiskey and tosses it down. She carefully replaces the bottle and washes out the tumbler at the
sink. Then she resumes her seat in front of the table.]
BLANCHE [faintly to herself]:
Ive got to keep hold of myself!
[Stella comes quickly around the corner of the building and runs to the door of the downstairs
flat.]
STELLA [calling out joyfully]:
Blanche!
[For a moment they stare at each other. Then Blanche springs up and runs to her with a wild cry.]
BLANCHE:
Stella oh Stella Stella! Stella for Star!
[She begins to speak with feverish vivacity as if she feared for either of them to stop and think.
They catch each other in a spasmodic embrace.]
BLANCHE:
Now then let me look at you. But dont you look at me Stella no no no not till later not till
Ive bathed and rested! And turn that over-light off! Turn that off! I wont be looked at in this
merciless glare!
[Stella laughs and complies]
Come back here now! Oh my baby! Stella! Stella for Star!
[She embraces her again]
I thought you would never come back to this horrible place! What am I saying? I didnt mean to
say that. I meant to be nice about it and sayOh what a convenient location and suchHaa-ha!
Precious lamb! You havent said a word to me.
STELLA:
You havent given me a chance to honey!
[She laughs but her glance at Blanche is a little anxious.]
BLANCHE:
Well now you talk. Open your pretty mouth and talk while I look around for some liquor! I
know you must have some liquor on the place! Where could it be I wonder? Oh I spy I spy!
[She rushes to the closet and removes the bottle; she is shaking all over and panting for breath as
she tries to laugh. The bottle nearly slips from her grasp.]
STELLA [noticing]:
Blanche you sit down and let me pour the drinks. I dont know what weve got to mix with.
Maybe a cokes in the icebox. Lookn see honey while Im
BLANCHE:
No coke honey not with my nerves tonight! Wherewherewhere is?
STELLA:
Stanley? Bowling! He loves it. Theyre having afound some soda!tournament
BLANCHE:
Just water baby to chase it! Now dont get worried your sister hasnt turned into a drunkard
shes just all shaken up and hot and tired and dirty! You sit down now and explain this place to
me! What are you doing in a place like this?
STELLA:
Now Blanche
BLANCHE:
Oh Im not going to be hypocritical Im going to be honestly critical about it! Never never
never in my worst dreams could I pictureOnly Poe! Only Mr. Edgar Allan Poe!could do it
justice! Out there I suppose is the ghoul-haunted woodland of Weir!
[She laughs.]
STELLA:
No honey those are the L & N tracks.
BLANCHE:
No now seriously putting joking aside. Why didnt you tell me why didnt you write me honey
why didnt you let me know?
STELLA [carefully pouring herself a drink]:
Tell you what Blanche?
BLANCHE:
Why that you had to live in these conditions!
STELLA:
Arent you being a little intense about it? Its not that bad at all! New Orleans isnt like other
cities.
BLANCHE:
This has got nothing to do with New Orleans. You might as well sayforgive me blessed baby!
[She…
