On Thursday 6th February the A Level English Language and Literature class visited the Noel Coward Theatre in London’s West End to see a production of one of their set texts, ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ by Tennessee Williams. This was a fantastic opportunity to deepen and extend their understanding of the play and see it come to life on stage. Two of the students, Maddie S and Jasper J, have written reviews of the performance:

A review by Maddie S, Year 12.

“It was a highly anticipated trip with weekly discussions about how excited we were to watch it… it certainly didn’t disappoint. A Streetcar Named Desire is a play set in 1940s New Orleans, and the staging and accents certainly did this setting justice. With the likes of Paul Mescal and Patsy Ferran playing Stanley and Blanche, it was already set up to be a play of terrific acting and fantastic characterisation. The award-winning play, produced by Rebecca Frecknall, was highly accurate to the Pulitzer Prize winning book, and undoubtedly served justice to author Tennessee Williams. With the play intending to be emotive and shocking, it encompassed all emotions present from the characters and made the audience feel as though they were one with the characters.

 

The staging being open and lighting being darkened, encapsulated the ominous atmosphere and ensured it could be felt by all, and having read the play in class, it was highly authentic to the desires of Williams stage directions in the play. A stark comparison could be made of the modernisation of some of the characters and speech, some things were left out in order to keep things suitable for the era we are in today, but despite this occurring, you didn’t feel like you were missing out on any key parts and the play was kept as strict to script as possible. The setting of the apartment on stage, whilst being sombre and dull, was contrasted by the vivid characters on stage and the acting was captivating.

 

Mescal showed an aggressive and assured performance of the bold character Stanley Kowalski, which considering his past roles being a part of the new Gladiator 2 film, must be a character of a similar combative ilk. Ferran gave a strong and touching display of Southern Belle Blanche, and her spiral into insanity was done tastefully yet distinctly through her passionate acting. Features such as a rain shower around the main stage square, was something that, whilst not named in the play when reading it, were that of a symbolic metaphor for the emotions felt by the characters. Yet something like the outfits worn by the characters, whilst potentially seeming accurate to those watching for the first time, as a reader, the lack of detail and accuracy to the book was slightly disheartening as I would think that, as an example, possibly showing Blanche with her classic white dress would be impactful to the audience and descriptive of her persona.

 

Overall, the play was one of many layers, and watching it felt like uncovering them and discovering the true characters. The transfer of written play to onstage was seamless and handled delicately by Frecknall and praise should be shown to that. To anyone interested in this play, I would highly recommend it as, despite it being based in 1940s America, the themes are very much relevant to today’s society and that makes it very enjoyable to watch and relate to. A Streetcar Named Desire is often credited as not being most people first choices for a West-End production, however I am here to discredit that and say that this is a play which everyone should have on their mind. This play is not one to miss out on.”

A review by Jasper J, Year 12

“It’s a brilliant summer’s day in London, the clouds are withdrawn, the buildings glimmering with the sunlight skimming over the top of them- yet one building outshines the rest- one theatre house makes its presence known to the people of London. The Noel Coward Theatre featuring “A Streetcar Named Desire.”

The titular play of Tennessee Williams has been recently revived in London’s theatre space, with a new cast standing beside Paul Mescal (the recent hit star) playing Stanley and Patsy Ferran playing Blanche. The actual play was written and set in the 1940s, however this performance in the Noel Coward Theatre is set in modern day, having their own spin at the superb story; done to emphasise themes of a generational disconnect, however it had a more negative effect on themes of cultural divide.

The play follows the character of Blanche finding her place in a modern society, after being forced out of her old life, however Stella, her sister, has a husband called Stanley, who begins to uncover the past she tried to desperately hide. The performance focuses on different themes including fantasy vs reality, loss, as well as insanity. Thanks to Williams’s stellar stage directions, the performance is able to encapsulate the essence of the story- with a standout feature being the water system used to symbolise the barrier between the character of Blanche and the people around her, as well as the semiotics with an example being Stanley slowly getting closer to Blanche to portray his predatory nature.

Although, the performance is not perfect. The adaptation is performed well, but some moments were removed as they could be considered offensive. A character had a multitude of moments mainly to present the diversity of New Orleans to show the difference between the New and the Old South. There was another moment in scene 10 where this character was used to present the selfishness of New Orleans with her taking items out of another person’s bag. With the removal of moments like this for political correctness, it can potentially reduce the number of themes present in the performance.

However, the play overall was done well thanks in part to Tennessee Williams’ writing ability, but also to the director of the performance. It makes me excited to see how the play is further presented in the future by different theatres. As I have always depended on the kindness of strangers and a good adaptation of A Streetcar Named Desire.”