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The Theatreguide.London Review
A
Streetcar Named Desire
Almeida
Theatre Winter 2022-2023
The Almeida has certainly assembled an impressive cast and company for its production of A Streetcar Named Desire. Directed by Rebecca Frecknall, who had already created a sensation with Williams's play Summer and Smoke, it includes as the character Blanche the award-winning actor Patsy Ferran.
Ferran is a last-minute stand-in for Lydia Wilson who had to withdraw from the show due to an injury. Alongside her is the star of the series Normal People Paul Mescal as Stanley.
An enjoyable performance, the lyrical text is clear and moving, the cast confident and entertaining with Patsy Ferran able to find facial expressions and verbal delivery that bring out the humour in the play.
The stage, a slightly raised square platform with the audience on four sides, is bare. Any props (chair, phone, shirt etc) needed for a scene are unobtrusively delivered by cast members. Sound, shifts of light and movement are used to give external expressionist emphasis to Blanche’s troubled mind.
As she talks to Stella about her frustrations with Stanley, other male characters lean into the stage, and at the moment of rape tightly envelop her, reminding us that Blanche’s trauma is a product of a society of men rather than simply one or two men.
However, not all of the director’s expressionist gestures are quite so clear or useful in conveying the emotions of Blanche or the situation she is in. Very loud drumming in the first scene drowns out the voices of neighbours chatting near the home of Blanche’s sister Stella (Anjana Vasan) in Elysium Fields.
The occasional drum explosions are not the only distractions. There are also at times slow moving or dancing figures wandering across the stage.
In a key scene Blanche and Mitch (Dwane Walcott) begin to confide to each other after a disappointing night out. As Blanche speaks about the sudden appalling suicide of her young husband, a balletic male dancer drifts across the stage, a supposed manifestation of Blanche’s troubled mind despite her husband never having attempted such exercises.
Another problem with that scene is the misstep of the very fine actor Patsy Ferron in this part. She gives us Blanche in two distinct modes.
She arrives in the first scene as a very disturbed Blanche close to a breakdown. For the rest of the play, she seems far from fragile, her competent humorous sparring with Stanley often generating audience laughter.
However, this does tend to miss the complexity of the character. Thus her key speech to Mitch lacks the rhythms and shading that imply a history of trauma.
The two-mode approach is more noticeable and dramatic in Paul Mescal’s performance as Stanley. He can seem the non-reactive bystander who suddenly becomes the animalistic aggressor crawling on all fours or violently hitting Stella. This emphasises the dangerous oppressive masculinity but it can seem a bit exaggerated.
Nevertheless, this is an enjoyable production. Not a great one but all the same a reasonable night out with a good cast.
Keith McKenna
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