Ullmann om En sporvogn til begjær

8. desember 2009 av Morten Steingrimsen

New York Times har gjort et intervju med Liv Ullmann i forbindelse med at hun har regissert En sporvogn til begjær. Her er et lite utdrag fra intervjuet:

“This is a play about a woman who has visions, who is educated, knows a lot, wants to share it, and then she comes to a place where people are Twittering. [Laughs] There are people who are raw and just want to do the basic in life, and they are not interested in what she’s coming with. At the same time, she’s also threatening to them, because they do not like to be seen as somebody who is uncultivated. They get angry, she gets desperate and none of them see each other.

This is so right for our time. We have people in leading positions that don’t know how to phrase a thought in a way we can understand it and follow it. We have media and people in the media who do not know how to tell the truth. It’s easier to lie about the truth then to give the truth.

Blanche likes to make a story, likes to make life more beautiful. She’s a storyteller, but at the same time she’s also tremendously honest when she thinks someone has seen her, discovered her. For her, the truth is mortal. Each time she’s absolutely truthful it’s mortal, and it breaks her down.”

Avisen har for øvrig latt seg imponere av Ullmann og hovedrolleinnehaver Cate Blanchetts versjon av stykket: “Ms. Ullmann and Ms. Blanchett have performed the play as if it had never been staged before, with the result that, as a friend of mine put it, ‘you feel like you’re hearing words you thought you knew pronounced correctly for the first time,” skriver kritikeren Ben Brantley.