A Streetcar Named Desire – Almeida Theatre / Noël Coward Theatre, London (LAST CHANCE TO SEE)

Rebecca Frecknall’s take on A Streetcar Named Desire is powerful and poised in all the right places.

A Streetcar Named Desire

London was once again a city of second chances yesterday, as I saw A Streetcar Named Desire at the Noël Coward Theatre, having missed the production’s original run at the Almeida.  When I saw it was returning to the West End for just three weeks I assumed a Broadway run was in the works.  A warm-up before transferring across the Atlantic, if you will.  And such it transpired to be (almost): A Streetcar Named Desire heads next to the Brooklyn Academy of Music.  But I’ll happily take a warm-up if it means remedying an earlier oversight.

Now, I am of an age where my first exposure to Tennessee Williams‘ 1947 play was through its 1992 Simpsons musical parody, Oh Streetcar!  This was my first time seeing the real deal.  What drew me to it was Patsy Ferran.  We’ve seen her before on the blog; she’s a gifted actress who makes interesting choices.  And even more interestingly, she stepped into the Almeida production at the last minute after the previous actress pulled out.  She’s had time to settle in now, of course.  But what would her Blanche DuBois be like?

Well, having seen it now, I have no idea how she learned the part in under a week. I suspect she should have won some sort of honorary Olivier Award just for that feat. Blanche DuBois is a meaty role, on stage for almost the entire play, with a nervous disposition that ensures plenty of lines. And again Ferran makes interesting choices. Blanche, who shows up at her sister’s place in New Orleans with nowhere else to go, creating fictions for herself that are kinder than reality, is often portrayed as a faded Southern Belle, a sort of cougar. Ferran’s Blanche is something different. There’s still the sexuality as currency, but it’s more clearly an attempt to impose order on chaos. This Blanche is the civilisation and manners to Paul Mescal’s Stanley Kowalski, who is all animalism.

Next Stop, Brooklyn

And this is the central conflict between protagonist and antagonist. The play lasts for the duration of the visit to Stanley and Stella (Anjana Vasan), as Blanche’s presence disrupts their stable, if not peaceful, lives. Blanche seeks stability for herself and a better life for her sister, but ultimately fails on both counts. As she ultimately departs New Orleans, it’s unclear whether relationships and friendships will revert to the status quo or are irrevocably changed.

Under Rebecca Frecknall’s, A Streetcar Named Desire is a vibrant, pulsating, electric affair. Williams’ original stage directions call for a permeable set moving between indoors and outdoors: home is no certain sanctuary here. Madeleine Girling’s take on this is a bare backdrop of brick, with an exposed, raised stage. The cast mostly stay on the outskirts when they’re not in a scene. Sometimes they drop off or collect props, other times they pace the perimeter. As in other productions, this is an effective technique to ratchet up pressure. Speaking of techniques seen elsewhere, A Streetcar Named Desire’s original run must have been around the time when everyone was doing curtains of rain in their sets (see here and here). Frecknall uses this visually impressive backdrop thoughtfully: it felt much more relevant and less of a purely technical showcase.

I don’t suppose there are many tickets available, but if you are able to get your hands on one, this is well worth seeing. From the use of live music, song and movement to the mesmerising performances from Ferran, Mescal and Vasan to Frecknall’s intelligent and insightful direction, this is A Streetcar Named Desire done differently while being true to Williams’ original. It was almost enough to wipe the Simpsons’ musical numbers from this millennial’s memory.*

Salterton Arts Review’s rating: 4.5/5

A Streetcar Named Desire on until 22 February 2025 only

*Almost… There are some catchy tunes in there!