A Streetcar Named Desire (Alternate Ending )

 

From the Desk of Tennessee Williams
21.1.83

I have been plagued for many years by the hardships I unleashed upon Blanche. I felt each with her. The sleepless nights we endured, her twisted face haunts me. I must allow Blanche to have her recollection of the events to be told, for Blanche and Stanley to have their final showdown. I have found a way to satisfy my guilt and keep the same ending. By adding an additional scene I can parallel the original ending with a second perspective, that of Blanche. By introducing blanches reality, I remove any final closure possible for the viewer. The ending becomes the choice of the viewer; do they remain loyal to the original and consider the final scene to be Blanches imagination or retelling of events from her perspective? Or do they consider the additional scene to be the new ending? Where justice is finally served and Blanche is granted her sanity through the guise of freedom. Some lines throughout the earlier scenes may need to be altered to facilitate the new ending.

 

See attached.

Streetcar Named Desire.

 

Alternate Ending.
Scene 12.

 

It is some weeks later. Stella is packing Blanches suitcases. Sound of water can be heard running in the bathroom. Stanley is in the kitchen, looking out the window, down onto the street. He seems to be looking for someone or something in particular. The building is framed by a turquoise sky. Stella has been crying as she arranges the flowery dresses in the open trunk.

 

[STANLEY walks from the kitchen into the bedroom. He looks anxious]

 

STANLEY: They’re late!

 

STELLA: Why are you in such a rush for this to happen, she is going. Are you enjoying this? [She closes the latch on the trunk and turns angrily towards STANLEY]

 

STANLEY: I’m just thinking of poker night. I just want her out before play starts. Why don’t you take the baby, go up and sit for a while with Eunice and calm down. I’ll call you when she is out.

 

STELLA: [She looks down, exhausted] Ok. But I want you to call me the moment she gets out of the shower. [Pausing] I want to be with her for what little time we have left.

 

STANLEY: Sure honey.[STELLA picks up the baby and leaves going through the kitchen and upstairs. STANLEY watches her all the way then turns his eye on the bathroom door][BLANCHE gets out bathroom a moment later]

 

BLANCHE: Why Stanley [Surprised], we are alone. We have been kept apart these last few weeks. Why is it, today we are finally alone together?

 

STANLEY: Stella’s took the baby upstairs to be out the way. She packed your bags ready for Lord Hunter-Lee [Mocking tone]

 

BLANCHE: So we have time for our final goodbye?

 

STANLEY: [Bluntly] Alright, have a nice time on your cruise.

 

BLANCHE: [Looking upset] That’s all you have to say after what we shared?

 

STANLEY: I’m done with you Blanche, we all are. We don’t want you back here no more.

 

BLANCHE: don’t worry, once I leave that door I do not intend to return, I will have no need to, I will have my Shep. But now, [Pause] I have some unfinished business with you.

 

STANLEY: What you want from me? What more could you want? [Starts raising his voice] You eat my food. Drink my whisky. [Yells]I’ve let you sleep here in my home for months.

 

BLANCHE: [Calmly]I never drank your whisky. I merely poured it down the drain when you turned your back so you, [pause] wouldn’t drink it. I was protecting my sister. I have been keeping Stella safe, with my presence. Directing your anger towards me until the time was right. And today… today is that day of reckoning.

 

STANLEY: So what do you want? Blood, Blanche? Huh?

 

BLANCHE: Our date. The date we have had from the beginning.

 

STANLEY: You want a date? You really have gone crazy.

 

BLANCHE: [Not listening to STANLEY] I’m here to settle an old wound you gave to me years ago.

 

STANLEY: Years ago? Years ago Blanche? I didn’t know you years ago.

 

BLANCHE: Don’t you remember me? Have you blocked out all memory? Interesting, I know you met my Allan.

 

STANLEY: [Shrugs] I know lots of Allans. [STANLEY walks into the kitchen and looks out the window. BLANCHE follows keeping a safe distance.]

 

BLANCHE: You murdered my husband, my Allan. [She begins to talk faster.]For so long I thought I was the one who drove him to suicide, that night on the dance floor when I told him I had seen you two. He ran from me or so I thought. He was running to you. [She pauses, looking to the window. She continues slowly.] Allan would never have taken his own life. It took me years to realize that. It was you, little soldier boy; Mr. master sergeant engineers corps. Your secret couldn’t get out; if people knew you were homosexual your life would never be the same.

 

STANLEY: [angry but curious] What makes you think it was me?

 

BLANCHE: [coolly] Mr. Shaw of Laurel.

 

STANLEY: Mr. Shaw? Shaw said your nothing but a whore.

 

BLANCHE: Mr. Shaw told you exactly what I asked him to; it’s all a fabrication. Your friend is saving himself by lying to you. I am no whore.I remember you army boys parading drunk at Belle Reve under my window. It seems Shaw was the only one of you who used his real name. He told me about you and Mitch, army buddies. He told me about your crime or as he so vulgarly put it, ‘homo killing’.

 

STANLEY: [Becoming nervous, but trying to stay nonchalant] And why would he say a thing like that?

 

BLANCHE: [Smiling] I told him we have a witness and his fingerprints on the gun.

 

STANLEY: Do you?

 

BLANCHE: Of course not, but I hardly think he would help if he himself wasn’t in dire trouble.

 

STANLEY: [Quickly] So you can’t prove anything. [Smiles] Maybe it was Mitch.

 

BLANCHE: Mitch? [Giggles lightly] A lady does what needs to be done to assure justice has been served. I may have been telling little white lies but my intentions were honest. He is a pawn in this unfortunate game. I tried to get the answers I needed from Mitch but he is innocent and clearly oblivious to what you have done.

 

STANLEY: [Agitated] You have nothing, and you’ll have less than that when they come get you.[STELLA walks downstairs carrying the baby and stops in the doorway when she hears STANLEY and BLANCHE talking]

 

BLANCHE: Do you mean when Shep arrives and takes Stella and I to Belle Reve?[BLANCHE smiles, STANLEY looks at her as if she is crazy] I was surprised when you had heard of the Napoleonic code. I couldn’t let you get your grubby little Pollack hands on my dear Belle Reve. I needed you gone. Luckily, I have a family friend at Ambler and Ambler make some fake documents as proof that I had lost Belle Reve, they were convincing enough to fool you. [Smiling]

 

STANLEY: [Yelling] If that’s the truth why have you been here for five months?

 

BLANCHE: I will not lie; I have been intentionally toying with you. I couldn’t just tell Stella how despicable you were to break this spell you have over her. I needed to prove it. [disappointed look] You raped me and she does not believe. She chose you over me. I had to wait for the evidence.

 

STANLEY: [Smirking] You want evidence? Ok I’ll let you in on the little secret you’ve been waiting to hear. I killed your Allan. [He pauses to watch Blanches reaction to the truth] And I enjoyed it too, he was my first kill but not my last. That was a long time ago. You think I go out of town for work?[He laughs] I got a lover in every city, men and women, I don’t care. When I’m finished with them I finish them. You like that Blanche? The truth. It won’t help you where you’re going.[Stella slowly enters the room]

 

STELLA: [Shaken] There are some men here. [She says to no one in particular]

 

BLANCHE: [Surprised by the entrance of STELLA] Oh, is it the gentleman I was expecting from Dallas?[STELLA sits at the table and stares off into the distance without responding. Shep followed by three men enters and walks straight towards

 

BLANCHE]SHEP: [Smiling, happy] So lovely to see you Blanche after all these months.

 

BLANCHE: [Smiling, happy] It’s lovely to see you too. I was beginning to wonder if you were coming at all.

 

SHEP: Of course, I’ve thought of nothing else since we last spoke. [He pauses, STARING into BLANCHES eyes] Is it, finished?

 

BLANCHE: [Smiling, looking relieved] Yes, I just need a moment.[Keeping constant eye contact with STANLEY , BLANCHE crosses the room and collects a black box from beside the window, three feet from where STANLEY is standing. She returns to SHEP and hands him the box]

 

STANLEY: [Confused by SHEP and the turn of events] What you got there Blanche?

 

BLANCHE: This is The Minifon Investigator, latest model I’m told. [Smiling] I don’t know how it works but I do know that you say something and this little box will record it and play it back to you. Mister Huntleigh has friends in the FBI who would very much like to hear the information it contains.

 

[STANLEY looks shocked and confused, unsure what to say or do. SHEP turns to the two men who accompanied him]

 

SHEP: [Whispers] He is a violent psychopath with histrionic personality disorder. Sedate him quickly. [The ORDERLIES approach STANLEY on each side, cornering him. A fight breaks out but ORDERLY ONE manages to pin STANLEY while the other administers a sedative]

 

STANLEY: [Screaming] I’ll kill you Blanche! I’ll kill you!

 

BLANCHE: Why? I don’t want to kill you. I want you to live. I want you to feel what I have felt every day. The anger I have felt living with the man who killed my dear husband. I have always depended on the kindness of strangers like these fine young gentlemen here, you will not be so lucky. I will see to it that you forget the meaning of the word kindness.

 

STANLEY: [Pinned but thrashing, trying to get free] I’ll kill you! Wherever you take me I´ll get out! I’ll find you and I´ll kill you![The TWO ORDERLIES drag STANLEY from the house out onto the street. STELLA , BLANCHE and SHEP follow at a safe distance]

 

STANLEY: STELLA!! STELLA!! STEL…[The sedative takes full effect as STANLEY is loaded into the back of a white wagon. BLANCHE puts her arm around STELLAS shoulders and looks down at the BABY]

 

STELLA: [Crying. Repeatedly muttering the line] This can’t be true. This can’t be true. This can’t be true.

 

BLANCHE: [Soothing, calming tone] Let’s return home, to Belle Reve. I will take care of you.

 

[Curtain]

 

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