Elysian Fields

You've got to hand it to him: Chris Phillips has nerve. It's not everybody who would put his own versions of such iconic Tennessee Williams characters as Blanche DuBois, Catharine Holly, and Maggie the Cat and her alcoholic husband, Brick, on stage in serious dramatic scenes. To be fair, that's not the reason Phillips has written "Elysian Fields." His purpose is to examine three other characters, all of them homosexual: Allan, Blanche's fiancé; Sebastian Venable, Catharine's sexually predatory cousin; and Skipper, Brick's lifelong best friend and lover. Williams killed the lot off without ever allowing them on stage, where their presence would have undoubtedly caused more controversy than even this most provocative of playwrights might want, given the repressive era in which he was writing. The clearly talented Phillips does pretty well by these shadowy figures, creating persuasive, full-blooded incarnations. His downfall comes at the hands of those icons.

Basically, Phillips dramatizes the backstories of "A Streetcar Named Desire," "Suddenly, Last Summer," and "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" in three playlets that he links with scenes in the titular limbo land where dead characters go. The predictable, repetitive structure is a brake on interest, and the limbo scenes are far too short and sentimental to have much effect. We are always aware that Blanche, Catharine, Maggie, and Brick aren't being written up to Williams' level, and so despite Phillips' imaginative realizations of the offstage characters, the show never falls satisfyingly into place.

Phillips directs in tandem with John Michael Beck, artistic director of the Los Angeles–based Celebration Theatre, and they elicit some good work from the five-person cast, especially Aaron Hartzler's tenderly macho Skipper and Scott Hinson's cutting and rapacious Sebastian. Amanda Kruger has the hardest job, playing Blanche, Catharine, and Maggie, and she subtly uses her physicality in differentiating among them, but she can't make them as vivid as the originals.

Phillips' love and respect for Williams' work is palpable; this is not an act of exploitation or condescension. It's just that he has set himself a nearly impossible task. How do you out-Williams Williams?

Presented by Revolve Productions as part of the New York International Fringe Festival at the Kraine Theater, 85 E. Fourth St., NYC. Aug. 22–28. Remaining performances: Wed., Aug. 24, 4:30 p.m.; Fri., Aug. 26, 8 p.m.; Sat., Aug. 27, 3:30 p.m.; Sun., Aug. 28, noon. (866) 468-7619 or www.fringenyc.org.