A Streetcar Named Desire (c) Julieta Cervantes
Theater: A Streetcar Named Desire
At BAM (closing on April 6)
When the audience first enters the theater, they are greeted with a metallic square on the stage of the Harvey Theater at BAM. It doesn’t take long once the play starts that you get director Rebecca Frecknall’s concept for Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire: It’s a prison. The first two pages of dialogue are yelled in rapid succession and every so often a loud series of bangs and crashes are played by an onstage drummer, giving the illusion that there is never peace in this prison. So, when poor, fragile Blanche DuBois (Patsy Ferran) shows up in her sister’s unadorned apartment, I mean cell (cast members occasionally leave essential props on stage, mainly an overburdened bottle of malted whisky), she is naturally taken aback. Stella (Anjana Vasan) doesn’t know it yet, but her sister had some troubles in their hometown of Laurel and was hoping to find some shelter with her. Unfortunately, caged animals occasionally attack each other, especially when one of the beasts is Stanley Kowalski (Paul Mescal), a Polish brute with much love for Stella, but also a short fuse, especially when he suspects something fishy with Blanche’s explanation of how the family plantation was lost. The prison metaphor has always been touched on in most productions, but it being so literal here sort of dilutes the poetry and the tragedy of Williams’ 1947 masterpiece, even with some creative but severe choreography and a musical underscore punctuating emotional moments. In this century, many Streetcars arrive in Brooklyn via transfers from other countries with celebrity Blanches like Cate Blanchett (my favorite) and Gillian Anderson (in modern dress). This sold-out production was a West End hit, mainly on the star casting of Mescal, a recent Oscar nominee (for Aftersun) and star of All of Us Strangers (with his co-star Andrew Scott, coincidentally also in New York in Vanya) and Gladiator 2 (with his co-star Denzel Washington, coincidentally also in New York in Othello). And while Mescal is fantastic and primal in the role made famous by Marlon Brando, the play has always belonged to Blanche, who gets all the best lines and tragic backstory, and newcomer Ferran is amazing in the role, at some points no-nonsense but at others painfully brittle. One of Blanche’s famous quotes is that she doesn’t want realism, “I want magic!” Frecknell, who directed the recent Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club has ignored Blanche’s wishes and instead locked her in a cell with no possibility of parole.
