A Streetcar Named Desire at Noel Coward Theatre

I saw this production of A Streetcar Named Desire at Almeida Theatre just over two years before and, despite some misgivings, I really liked it. Then I had seen it on my own but its brief return gave me the chance to take my wife as her birthday treat.

The move to the west end upped the price a lot and having paid £25 for a front row seat the first time I paid £56.7 for Grand Circle C25.

My two previous visits to Noel Coward Theatre were also to Grand Circle and for similar prices so I knew that this was a reasonable place to sit and a fair price to pay. Being able to check where I have sat before is one reason that I note that part of the experience.

Seat C25 was end of the row and gave me an excellent view. The brain quickly adapts to static obstacles like the safety rail and it made no difference to my enjoyment.

Like last time, Streetcar got off to a bad start with some excessively loud and pointless drums and some equally pointless choreography. 

Then Blanche DuBois started to speak and the play started for real and everything was alright.

Possibly because I had seen this play a few times and this production once before, I was able to immerse myself in the dialogue and revel in its richness rather then having to spend any effort following the story.

It helped immensely that the dialogue was delivered with extreme skill; Patsy Ferran spoke frenetically and at length while waving her arms while Paul Mescal was blunt and loud.

There was some more distraction from drums and rain but these were minor and while these were unnecessary and unhelpful they were little and did nothing to detract from sheer brilliance of the script.

This was (almost( perfect theatre and I loved (almost) every minute of it.