Kazan on Directing by Elia Kazan

Author:Elia Kazan [Kazan, Elia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-27141-9
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2009-07-11T16:00:00+00:00

SEPTEMBER 2, 1958

Dear Tenn:

As I see it, the play is about Chance. Its about Chance's desperate return to St. Cloud, desperately undertaken, desperately timed. It is about his return to St. Cloud in search of his youth and in search of what his youth means to him, his purity. You might say he is trying to regain his purity. Conversely, you might say he wants to be punished for his sins and thus be cleansed and purified. He hopes, first of all, to embrace the symbols of his youth and the cleanliness he has lost, to wit: Heavenly and His Mother.

But there is a joker, and the joker has several sides. 1. His mother is dead. 2. Heavenly is not Heavenly anymore. 3. His position, his own position, is one of extreme danger. He is psychically sick and crippled. Chance, you might say, is not Chance anymore. 4. Things have changed. He doesn't know it, but what he has come back for is impossible.

But he cannot leave. He has a chance to leave, albeit in a degraded position, and to escape with his “life.” But he knows it wouldn't really be his “life,” so he doesn't escape. He stays and he takes his punishment, be it castration or death.

In other words, the plot of the play, as I see it, is simple, straight, and sound. Now I'll oversimplify it. A man comes back to his home town. He is warned. He is warned again to get out of town. We see, and he discovers, that the threat is serious. And more serious. And still he doesn't go. And the threat looms. The knife is at his throat. The scissors at his balls. And finally, he has one last chance to go. And he lets this chance go. He allows his last chance to get away. Suddenly, we see he wants to be destroyed. He walks up to his destruction. Or rather, he allows it to come to him.

This is a good plot. It is as simple as Oedipus. It has a strong, simple line. And above all, it has its terror “built in.” The terror is in the story.

Now, I don't mention the Princess in the above outline. You can tell Chance's story without her.

But this does not mean she is an unimportant character. She is a most important character. But the play is basically not about her. It is about Chance. Hers is a parallel fate. Hers is a deep understanding of his fate. She provides an illumination. She is as important as hell. But the play is not about her.

A parallel. In Streetcar, which is a masterpiece of construction, the play is about Blanche. Her arrival starts it. Her “death” finishes it. Its about her. This does not make Stanley unimportant. He is most important, brilliant, and unforgettable. But the play is about Blanche.

Now the seventh scene of Streetcar is a two-character scene. The two characters being Stanley and Stella. Blanche is not in the scene, but its all about Blanche.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.