A Streetcar Named Desire at Almeida Theatre

I am something of a fan of Tennessee Williams but I had seen and heard versions of A Streetcar Named Desire a couple of times in recent years so the production at Almeida Theatre did not appeal immediately. Then the late casting of Patsy Ferran as Blanche piqued my interest mostly because she had been superb in another Williams play Summer and Smoke, also at Almeida.

A lot of other people were interested too and the complete run was showing at as Sold Out. I kept checking availability and a decent single ticket popped and I went for it. Seat B3 (front row) in the stalls cost me just £25 thanks to a generous discount for older 65s.

I had good plans to fit in some walking and eating before the matinee performance but things went a little wrong due to engineering works on the railways and I ended up walking there from London Bridge and having to miss lunch. No problem there, I just had a very expensive can of beer before the performance.

The arrangement of the theatre was different from usual with a square raised stage and seating all around it, that explained why row B was the front row, There was a gap all around the stage to allow actors to move easily around it and that gave me plenty of leg room and also made the look up to the performance area more comfortable.

The empty stage was a good sign as I like productions that use few props.

The opening of the play explained some of the stage arrangement and set the mood for the production with the cast all coming on stage which was then flooded with rain. I have no idea why they did that.

I found the production very mixed and am finding it hard to write about in a way which fairly reflects how I feel about it.

There were a lot of strengths, I loved the quieter moments where one or two actors on a bare stage let the words do all the work, the performance of Paul Mescal as Stanley was perfect, and 

Unfortunately there were some weaker elements and while these did little to detract from the overall drama they did enough to annoy, like a scratch on a new car; some elements of the production intruded on the drama, like the use of drums (!), and while Patsy Ferran got everything right I do not think she was old enough or, sorry, glamorous enough to be convincing in the role, the last person who I saw play Blanche was Gillian Anderson who had both the seniority and glamour.

I also think this production underplayed the main scene (no spoilers) and I am not certain that I would have guessed what had happened if I did not already know the story. And that matters because without the full import of that scene what follows makes little sense.

In list form there was more wrong with this production than was good about it but the good elements lasted much longer and I really enjoyed it overall.