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.

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.

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.

Summer and Smoke at Almeida Theatre was beautiful

I had one simple reason for wanting to see Summer and Smoke and that was Tennessee Williams wrote it. Almeida Theatre is awkwardly situated half way between Angel and Highbury Islington so it takes something a bit special to get me there.

The layout of the theatre had been slightly different every time that I had been there so I was not sure where to book my seat. I was a little late so some of the options were taken from me. In the end I chose Circle A29 for a humble £32. I had not been on that side of the theatre before and the seat proved to be reasonable and there were only a few moment when the action took place out of site below me.

I loved the stage from the moment I took my seat. The centre was bare, apart from a old style microphone in the centre, it was ringer with pianos and the brick wall at the back of the stage was harshly lit to show every facet of its uneven surface.

The simplicity was maintained throughout the play with the only props allowed to make an appearance being some chairs, a few white pills and a child's jigsaw puzzle. I like simplicity.

I like music and light when they help a performance too and they both did here. The pianos were put to effective use at select moments throughout the evening in both quiet and noisy moments and the lighting change subtly, almost imperceptibly, to encourage the mood.

The centre of the stage was dominated by Alma and John and their story. They were neighbours with little in common, she was a nervous preacher's daughter with no expectations and the was a brash doctor's son who was expected to become a doctor too. Disturbing their story were their families and a few friends.

I thought that it was a nice touch to have some of the cast play multiple similar roles without changing their costumers; one actor played their two fathers and another played three of John's girlfriends.

It was a coming of age story, of sorts, filled with the loves, lusts and mistakes that we all make at that age. There were some moments of humour, sadness and anger and even more of acute embarrassment.

The pacing was superb too and I particularly liked the long slow scenes where little, if anything was said.

All that was very good but was as nothing to the performance of Patsy Ferran as Alma. She dominated the stage for two and a half hours with her touching performance that was packed full of little gestures and expressions. She was stunning and an obvious star in the making.

Summer and Smoke brought all the elements of theatre-craft together and made something quite beautiful.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at Apollo Theatre was blistering

There are several names on the poster for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and the one that made me buy a ticket was Tennessee Williams. I love modern theatre but I like seeing the classics too, especially if I have not seen them before, and so this was an obvious choice to make.

It was a Young Vic production at a west end venue so it came with eye watering west end prices and so I found myself up in Grand Circle, seat B12, with part of the safety rail obstructing my view and still paying £35 for the privilege (top price was £99). The play had to be pretty good to justify that.

It was pretty good.

In a format I am beginning to think of as American Standard we watched a family in almost real time across an evening in one room.

In what felt like the first of three acts (and the internet suggest that it might be that) there was a long conversation between Maggie (Sienna Miller) and Brick (Jack O'Connell) where Maggie did most of the talking and Brick did a lot of drinking. His drinking was one of the things they discussed. Sienna Miller rose highly in my estimation (admittedly from a position of obscurity).

There was also a fair amount of nudity which felt unnecessary to the story and a little distracting. They were in their bedroom, and Brick was having a shower, so the nudity was natural but unhelpful.

In the second act the main conversation was between Brick (still drinking heavily) and his father, Big Daddy Pollitt (Colm Meaney). Colm I did know because he had appeared in several great films including Layer Cake and, or course, Under Siege. This was a more equal conversation about the future. Big Daddy was celebrating his 65th birthday and had big plans for the future. Women featured in these.

In the final act all the family dramas came together and the other people at the party became more prominent, including Brick's mother, brother and his wife who had designs on Big Daddy's substantial wealth, and a couple of old family friends.

The plot helped to move things along and gave a point to the conversations but, as with other American Standard plays, it was the conversations themselves that mattered with the crisp use of language to convey emotions and ideas. The dialogue fizzed because Tennessee Williams wrote a great play and the cast did it full justice.