Tennessee Williams’s masterpiece, one of the great plays of the 20th century. opened on Broadway in 1947 with Jessica Tandy and Marlon Brando in the lead roles and ran for 855 performances, winning every major honour.
Williams has written one of the great female roles. Blanche DuBois, the faded, frail Southern belle, fleeing from a sordid past, whilst desperately trying to cling to an earlier, more gracious period in her life, comes to New Orleans to stay with her sister Stella and attempts to break up her sister’s marriage.
“I don’t want realism,” says Blanche. “I want magic.” Rebecca Frecknall directs an expressionistic production and her Streetcar Named Desire is like no other Streetcar I have seen. It’s not lyrical. There is no New Orleans, no Southern drawl; it’s much more brutal. The stage is in the round and bare. There is no scenery. When props are needed, they are handed or placed on stage by the supporting cast.
Aloft, a drummer beats his drum, constantly punctuating the text. The ghost of Blanche’s husband, who died young, is ever present. The most theatrical scene is the lead-up to and including Blanche’s rape by Stella’s husband, Stanley. The only scene which doesn’t work is the final one when the doctor and the nurse arrive to take Blanche to the lunatic asylum.
Many fine actresses have played Blanche; but it is Marlon Brando’s brute performance as Stanley, preserved on film for all time, which is remembered most and the hardest act to follow. Paul Mescal, so good in Aftersun on film and Normal People on television, is one of the best Stanleys.
Patsy Ferran, no faded Southern belle, is giving a performance, which is quite unlike any Blanche I have seen. Ferran is particularly unpleasant when she is patronising her sister and deliberately trying to break up the marriage. Anjana Vasan as Stella and Dwane Walcott as Mitch, a potential suitor for Blanche, are also original performances quite different to what you might expect.
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