A Transnational Streetcar Named Desire

An Omnibus Premiere, Mexico City, 1948

Abstract

The 1948 premiere production of Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire in Mexico was an international event. This first Mexican-Spanish production was directed by the Japanese director Seki Sano, who had immigrated to Mexico from Japan in 1939. An avid student of the theatrical technique of the Russian Stanislavski, Seki Sano founded the Mexican semi-professional Teatro de la Reforma. This was the group that performed the Spanish premiere of Williams’ Streetcar in the Palacio de Bellas Artes of Mexico City between December 4 and December 12, 1948 (ten performances in all). The extraordinary success of this Streetcar not only introduced Tennessee Williams to Mexican audiences in Spanish, it also made it possible for the Japanese immigrant Seki Sano and his group to revolutionize Mexican theater. Adding to the international dimension of this Spanish-language premiere of Williams’ Un tranvía llamdo deseo was the Polish-Mexican actor, and friend of Tennessee Williams, Wolf Ruvinskis in the lead role of the play’s Stanley Kowalski. The significance of this event for Tennessee Williams’ work as an international phenomenon cannot be overestimated.