FringeNYC Previews

Blanche Survives Katrina in a FEMA Trailer Named Desire

Produced by Kind Strangers (AKA FKA Merchant / Kiefaber Prod)

Author: Mark Sam Rosenthal

The show imagines Tennessee Williams' tragic New Orleans heroine, Blanche DuBois, was still in town and got sent to the Superdome when Katrina hit. In this production, "she" is played by a "he" — me! A gay comedian with a hairy chest and a blonde wig. The show gender-bends its way through the heartless bureaucracy of FEMA, Blanche’s eventual adoption by an Arizona megachurch, and her subsequent '‘job placement' at Popeye's. I’ve written in the language of Williams, but my tone is political, sick, and twisted. This is the Katrina refugee story no one's told. At least not through the eyes of the desperately deliberately fragile, alcoholic, co-dependent, sex-addicted Blanche DuBois — America’s most broken woman™. Played by a man!

People still may not realize it, but after Katrina part of America is gone. And as we near a pivotal election, the events of Katrina will no doubt become more obscenely politicized. I believe that — paradoxically — a fictionalized account of those events actually offers a means of reconnecting to the true humanity of what happened, away from the spin and the pointing of fingers that you see on CNN.

I'm a seventh-generation Louisianian, so the saga of Katrina is very personal to me. When I saw the orange X spray-painted on my aunt's house by the National Guard, my heart caught in my throat. How … ? I’ve channeled my response through Blanche DuBois because I find her heartbreakingly hilarious and somehow more able to infiltrate the consciousness of a New York theater audience than many of the real people ravaged by Katrina — who seem too easily "less familiar." Besides, Blanche is inside me. I think she's inside a lot of men. Of course…maybe not as many as have been inside of her!

Mark Sam Rosenthal, writer/performer