Great review - man I love your reviews, always so smart and passionate. More people need to find you! On the play, I’ve seen a few ‘contemporary’ stagings of it, and I always get stuck with that finale moment when Blanche gets taken away - never feels right, maybe for the time period when the play was written and originally took place, but setting it in the now - that moment comes off too easy of an ending. How did you feel about the ending on this one? Also thank you for bringing up pricing, it’s a fascinating topic and as a New Yorker there’s been plenty of times when I’ve gotten so frustrated with overpriced theater. A bit desperate on the theater producers if you ask me.
Thank you Javier, really appreciate you saying that!! I think the sudden-ness of the ending is maybe what makes it feel like an "easy" out? Let me ramble a bit; Through the play Blanche's world is a series of contradictions and dichotomies. Whether it's light VS dark, rich VS poor, reality VS "magic" as she says, truth VS lies, men VS women, youth VS age, etc. Everything she does is driven by her inherent *need* to be in the minority camp of these pairs, living in the magic, continuing the lies, and preserving control in her own pitiful way. She believes her version of reality, and when the doctor knocks at the door, we the audience have just a fraction of a moment to wonder if perhaps Shep *has* come for her after all, and Blanche was telling the truth in one area the whole time, and our siding with her is justifiwed and she'll get a happy ending she deserves. But alas, it's the doctor, not Shep, and her reality is banished irrevocably as soon as she realises that. The ending for me is the final acceptance that the charade is over, and each of those pairings has fallen in the world's favour, not in hers. She is cast into the light, her age is apparent for all to see, the magic is over, the men have won, etc. The tragedy of it all is that, for perhaps the first time in the play, this is the moment where we the audience *know* without any doubt that *her* version of events *is* the truth. She capitulates to a reality where Stanley can rape her and completely escape culpability, finally resigning herself to the grimness of the world that she has wrestled against for the preceding couple hours of the play. In this framing, I don't think it's "easy" per se, but possibly it's because this all happens in what feels like 90 seconds flat. If we were given time to grieve the injustice of the moment, maybe the weight of it, the unfairness, the revulsion at all the people around her too fearful to believe her or too naive or too careless, then maybe the "justified" resolution to the play would make itself more apparent. Instead, you're left with a whirlwind to peer through to try and understand the underlying implications, and it's not the easiest task haha! So that's more or less my rambly view of the ending! On pricing - I've heard that the problem is even worse in New York!! Here you can get a ton of shows on TodayTix Rush for £25, but I've heard it's often nearer $50 over there - is that true? Crazy if so, theatre really does price people out more often than I'd like :/
I saw Streetcar in our town’s local theater years ago and the set kept getting smaller. It was explained to me that was in Blanche’s mind and the further into madness she gets; the smaller her world gets.
I'm endlessly facinated by the decision to transfer this production to the West End, I saw the original production at the Almeida which was staged in the round where the Audience is much closer and I can't help but feel putting it on a West End stage fundamentally changes the feel of the show.
Brilliant review and I get completely what you mean. In terms of the play I studied it at college and university and have seen two productions so I can clear up a couple of things. Firstly, you are right in saying that Mescal's performance emulates others as the idea is originally the play was meant to be set Post War. It is often assumed as such that Stanley could have some army history. But the idea is particularly is he is part Polish and moved to America to find his way in life and pursue the American Dream. The reason why he has these outbursts is because aside from the fact that he is very animalistic (That is what Williams describes him in the text) he also finds the tension between him and Blanche because essentially it is often assumed that Blanche did not approve of Stanley and as such he finds it to be a battle to be with Blanche every second which is why the ending is that shocking come the end. The other thing is that normally you are correct in saying that Blanche is meant to be older. This is because to start off there is always that idea that Blanche looks more withered than Stella but the other thing is its to show the immaturity that she has and how vulnerable she is as a character.
Great review! I got a ticket in the nick of time as well but the play just wasn't for me for a number of reasons that I won't get into but have to agree about Patsy, what an electric, visceral performance. I was in awe.
I was trying to remember the word "visceral" through this entire recording and I couldn't get it for the life of me. Thank you for reminding me hahah this has been bothering me for ages! 😅😅🙏
I live in New Orleans and love hearing reviews of Streetcar produced in other places. Thanks for that great review! You make me jealous that i couldn’t see it!
You may not have much "book learning" about theatre, but I thought your review was wonderfully perceptive, insightful, and enjoyable. As a man who has spent his life on stage you give me hope about the future of the art form. Bravo. And, yes, ticket prices are getting very problematic.
Thank you so much David!! I indeed am light on my theatre book learning, but it's really wonderful to hear that you think the video wasn't inhibited by that. Really appreciate the comment :)
Does anyone know if there is a recording of this show? I'm French and I didn't have the opportunity to come to London for this production. Thanks for the amazing review!
Did Mescal come close to reminding you of Brando at all in this role? I wish I could go back in time and see Marlon Brando play this role on Broadway all those years ago. I saw an interview with Mike Nichols ( famed American director) and he said seeing Brando as Stanley on Broadway was like nothing he had ever seen. I have seen the movie Streetcar with Brando and it was so good. I am from Louisiana and I heard a snippet of Mescal from this and he really sounded authentic. In Louisiana you can hear and know IMMEDIATELY if someone is from New Orleans. They have a dialect all their own. I live about 4-5 hours North of New Orleans… that said, when I heard Mescal he sounded just like he was actually from New Orleans. It was insane!!!!!
Even though your comparison of Mescal to Oliver is more of an abstract thing, I can’t imagine Olivier doing justice to this role better than Mescal. Your standard here should really be Brando, who played Stanley in the film version.
This was a Streetcar stripped of romance, mystery, languor, emotion. It’s like the director skipped to the end and did the whole piece in the cold light of day. Coherent but not moving
I appreciate the review but if Patsy Ferran is the star of the show as you say, then I think she should also be mentioned in the title of your video (and not just Paul!).
agree with you, but there's a character limit in youtube titles and in order to try and get the review seen by more folks, I've been forced to pick the name that's likely to do better for SEO in this case sadly. If I had more characters she'd definitely be in there!
Oh wow, interesting to hear your praise of Ferran. I saw it at the Almeida and thought she was tremendously miscast in this role. It felt like a high schooler pretending to convey adult emotions that they've neither experienced nor understand. Overall a kind of 'meh', overrated, under-produced outing.
I'm currently a bit light on the social media theatre content I'm afraid - I intend to start posting a bit more on my theatrey tiktok tiktok.com/@milotheatre but that's all I've got right now which is still theatre focused. I have my personal insta instagram.com/milo_bc but it's got posts about all sorts of other random stuff on there so may not be to your interests. Working on figuring out a better solution, just currently have a lot of different channels (I run a few gaming channels too) so it all gets a bit difficult to manage!
