'A Streetcar Named Desire' review — Paul Mescal headlines a theatrical thrill ride
Read our review of A Streetcar Named Desire off Broadway, an award-winning revival of the classic play starring Paul Mescal and directed by Rebecca Frecknall.
At 78, Tennessee Williams’s classic play A Streetcar Named Desire still has the power to leave you rattled. Credit excellent acting and director Rebecca Frecknall's visceral gut punch of a production for the bracing reminder.
The time-honored story charts the catastrophic collision of a fragile, if not cracked, Southern belle and her crude brother-in-law. Gladiator II hero and Aftersun Oscar nominee Paul Mescal is the marquee name in this revival imported from London to the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
Mescal’s rapid rise to celebrity comes courtesy of screen performances in which his thoughtful, sensitive side is ever on view. Here, as Stanley Kowalski, he abandons innate niceties and his Irish accent. Coiled with menace, Mescal brings the raw, primitive edge of a man who is destined to “hang back with the brutes.”
Blanche DuBois, is, of course, the object of his cruelty. She’s the former plantation resident with an unsteady grasp on reality upon arrival to the New Orleans home he shares with his wife, Stella (Anjana Vasan), her younger sister.
Roles don’t come juicier than Blanche, and Patsy Ferran squeezes every drop of blood and tears out of it. By turns delicate, delusional, and downright flirty (“You make my mouth water,” she coos to a young man), the Spanish-born English actress is the kind of stage discovery you wish for. Blanche’s scenes with Mitch (Dwane Walcott), Blanche’s last glimmer of hope, are shot through with ache. Blanche’s final breakdown is hard to bear.
Frecknall (Cabaret on Broadway) packs her staging with carefully considered theatrical flourishes. Shunning reality and her troubled past, Blanche desperately declares, “I want magic!” Board this Streetcar for exactly that kind of theatrical thrill ride.
A Streetcar Named Desire summary
In 1948, A Streetcar Named Desire won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, an accolade that cemented the play’s status as an influential American work. Williams's play has been on Broadway nine times.
The revival at BAM’s Harvey Theater was originally seen at the Almeida Theatre in London, where it won Olivier Awards for Best Revival, Best Actor (Mescal), and Best Supporting Actress (Vasan).
What to expect at A Streetcar Named Desire
Audiences accustomed to by-the-book revivals of this well-known Williams work might be initially taken aback by this show’s stylized, stripped-to-the-bone staging. No decorative grillwork suggests the shabby French Quarter environs. No “blue piano” motifs drift in and out.
From the get-go, Frecknall emphasizes the theatricality of her vision as the cast take the stage — the set is a bare wooden platform — and ready to play their parts. Above the stage, a percussionist pounds out a beat to underscore tense moments. Blanche’s memories of a former love haunt her as a choreographed dance of death.
Rain periodically pours, mirroring Blanche’s stormy mental state. A candle, a bottle of booze, and a telephone materialize exactly when needed in the script thanks to actors on the fringe of the stage. The device has a stirring effect over time, as though Blanche is summoning items in her troubled mind.
What audiences are saying about A Streetcar Named Desire
With a 97% rating on Show-Score at the time of publication, A Streetcar Named Desire has given theatregoers an exhilarating lift.
- “The staging, the cast. You can tell the hard work that went into this production. The 2:45 run time goes by quick.” Show-score user Member 728956
- “Seeing this play as a true ensemble piece (rather than a star turn for Paul Mescal) helped me appreciate the layering of the writing.” Show-score user Member 70402718
- “I was engaged in this production every second. Ferran, Mescal, and Vasan are just stunning and their portrayals are fresh.” Show-score user Rosemary Kelty
Read more audience reviews of A Streetcar Named Desire on Show-Score.
Who should see A Streetcar Named Desire
- Fans of Williams’ play and the author’s ripe, passionate language will want to see and hear it play out anew.
- Paul Mescal’s resume features a number of London stage credits. His movie admirers will want to catch his New York theatre debut.
- A lucky few theatregoers saw Patsy Ferran as Honey in the short-lived Broadway revival of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? led by Laurie Metcalf that shuttered in March 2020 due to the pandemic. More New York audiences will want to get to know her.
- Viewers of Frecknall’s Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club on Broadway who have a strong opinion one way or another about her handling of a classic musical will be keen to see her take on Williams’s drama.
Learn more about A Streetcar Named Desire off Broadway
Between the acting and the staging, the Williams classic comes to life with fresh beauty and fury.
Photo credit: A Streetcar Named Desire off Broadway. (Photos by Julieta Cervantes)
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