“Her delicate beauty”, said Tennessee Williams of Blanche DuBois, “must avoid a strong light. There is something about her uncertain manner, as well as her white clothes, that suggests a moth.”
Rachel Weisz captures that part of Blanche to perfection in the early scenes of Rob Ashford’s atmospheric production, where the sounds of New Orleans impinge at all times on the action and a ghostly choreography recreates both the sexual playing away of Blanche’s homosexual toy boy husband and Blanche’s brutal back entry rape by Stanley Kowalski.
Stanley, the Marlon Brando role, is the most difficult part, and never fully realized on the British stage. He’s a brutish offspring of Polish immigrants, not a time-warped reject from Chariots of Fire which is what Elliot Cowan seems to be playing in his chaotically accented performance.
The Polish, says Blanche, are something like the Irish only not so highbrow. But Ashford’s production makes more of the cinematic fluency of the action than it does of the musicality, and indeed humour, of the text. You don’t really feel the play bursting through the actors, more parceled out in small doses, like nips of Southern Comfort.
Blanche and her sister Stella, watchfully and touchingly played by Ruth Wilson, are both suitably young. Weisz is transparently shocked at the realization that Stella and Stanley are living in just two rooms, and the proximity between the tenement dwellers, erupting in shouting matches and thrown crockery, is well gauged on Christopher Oram’s set, with its tall spiral staircase and wrought iron decoration.
The haunting scene where Blanche takes brief comfort in the presence of a young man (Jack Ashton) collecting for charity is here an evocation of her own lost marriage. Weisz does that very well and is always best when she’s drifting away on her own fantasies. She’s less convincing when dealing with Barnaby Kay’s insistent Mitch, who might offer an alternative, or in conveying the tragic absurdity of her lost status as both schoolteacher and scion of a large plantation family.
Ashford creates some memorable ensemble moments in the community – aided by sharp-edged contributions from Daniela Nardini and Gary Milner as neighbours – and Oram’s design is beautifully lit by Neil Austin and underpinned with a low-level rumbling soundtrack of jazz and street sounds by Adam Cork. It’s a good production, not a great one.
Fantastic production (for a choreographer) but Rachal Weisz, good at the start, rather missed the mark and lost focus. Also a slightly miscast Stanley who bravely tried to put 'Polack' into his accent but didn't quite pull off the depth of the character. Both were eclipsed by the Stella of Ruth Wilson who really soared and a very subtle performance from Barnaby Kay. Nice to see Daniela Nardini on stage again but will someone please give her a better part. - Joesmith
03 Oct 09
Rachel Weisz is surely now the definitive Blanche DuBois. I have never before seen an actress capture so perfectly such an imperfect character and display her complexities and contradictions with such seamless ease. Superb production. Superb cast. - soobert
11 Sep 09
Rachel Weisz rises triumphantly above what could have been spectacular miscasting. From the proximity of the front row it's clear that Ms Weisz is astonishingly beautiful and so should be totally unsuited to coveying the faded glamour of Blanche DuBois who is afraid to be seen in clear light. But this is a remarkable pereformance, birdlike as Blanche desperately waivers between her awful reality and alcoholic fantasy building to panic stricken hysteria by the dreadful conclusion. Rob Ashford's production is powerful and almost too intense for this intimate space. Elliot Cowan is palpably dangerous as Stanley Kowalski and Ruth Wilson provides excellent support as Stella. Above all though this is Rachel Weisz's triumph, utterly mesmorising and engendering a terrible sympathy for poor, deluded and ultimately tragic Blanche. - David Baxter
10 Sep 09
Just want to agree with the starry reviews below and suggest rds sticks with the movie as obviously no different interpretation is going to make it happen for him/her. This Streetcar has greatness and Weisz is the greatest of them all. - Mikey
04 Sep 09
Terrific set apart from the spiral staircase to nowhere which made the scenes involving the Kowalski's neighbours awkward and most probably invisible to all those sitting stage left. Stanley, Elliot Cowain, wasn't right in the part and I don't think it was the direction so much as he didn't have it in him - OK, he had the physique, of sorts, but one that's more gay gym rat than Brando butch. Rachel Weisz made a huge effort to be Blanche but again missed the mark and probably not in the direction either but by the fact that she too doesn't have it in her. Yes she did the Southern Belle bit alright, but that was about it - it was acting with a capital A and sadly became monotonous. I was desperately wanting this production to work being a huge fan of the Donmar, but it didn't happen. This is very much a case of style over substance and as I have seen a fair number of Street Cars over the years that just ain't good enough. - rds
28 Aug 09
Tenessee Williams doesn't usually do it for me but this was excellent. The last time I saw Streetcar it had Glenn Close as a somewhat improbable Blanche and, for me, it just didn't work. But this production is perfectly pitched and I found it gripping.
Rachel Weisz seems to just vanish in the character and brilliantly makes Blanche look and feel like damaged goods. It's one of those performances that seems to exist almost at the molecular level.
While it's quite hard for the other performances to match up to hers, the beautiful Ruth Wilson is excellent, really conveying how Stella is torn between loyalty to Stanley and to her sister. I'm a huge fan of her but Weisz walked off with it. Elliot Cowan as Stanley is a great brooding physical presence, but his accent was truly bizarre.
As has been said, the design is excellent and I liked the use of music. - Sycamore Flint
28 Aug 09
All the great playwrights and plays of the 20th Century were American - O'Neill, Williams, Miller - and this is one of the best by one of the best. Given it is choreographer Rob Ashford's second directorial outing, his achievement is astonishing. You gasp yet again at Christopeher Oram's design, which makes you feel like you are actually in New Orleans - with a gas street lantern, three story spiral staircase and more wrought iron than you've clapped eyes on in a long time! The three central performances are all spot on - Elliott Cowan's Stanley and Ruth Wilson's Stella are terrific interpretations, and Rachel Weisz's Blanche is simply sensational. I've seen the late Sheila Gish, Jessica Lange and Glenn Close all put in great performances as Blanche, but this one tops them all. This is the Donmar at its absolute best and I doubt I'll ever see a better Streetcar. - Gareth James
18 Aug 09
Faultless production. The casting of a younger Blanche makes such sense, it's amazing that it is not normally done. Rachel Weisz is just superb. - fred
13 Aug 09
Well it is a rich 3 hours and the whole Donmar space is well used, excellent, very well dirceted.
Have to say Ruth Wilson as Stella blew me away, WOW.
Yes Rachel good but for my money Ruth is the star. - jamie tate
05 Aug 09
Rachel Weisz truly gives the performance of the year. A great and powerful play. - Carol
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