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A Streetcar Named Desire hits the West End – larger canvas, same vivid hues

Patsy Ferran, Anjana Vasan and Paul Mescal are burning brightly at the Phoenix!

Alex Wood

London

29 March 2023

Anjana Vasan, Patsy Ferran, and Paul Mescal at the West End opening night of A Streetcar Named Desire — Anjana Vasan, Patsy Ferran, and Paul Mescal at the West End opening night of *A Streetcar Named Desire*

Riding off the back of a major haul of Olivier Award nominations, this production of A Streetcar Named Desire essentially feels like a victory lap – six weeks of Olivier winner Patsy Ferran, Oscar nominee Paul Mescal and BAFTA nominee Anjana Vasan getting their teeth into director Rebecca Frecknall's revelatory take on Tennessee Williams' school staple.

Sarah Crompton said everything that needed to be said about the Almeida production during its initial run's opening night in January, but it's fascinating to see how the production translates to a larger stage space – the 1000-seat Phoenix Theatre is three times the size of the intimate 325-seat Almeida.

Watching actors who have bedded into the show (Ferran had taken over the iconic role of woe-ridden sister Blanche DuBois with barely any notice after original star Lydia Wilson dropped out in December) and across a broader canvas brings with it new insights. In a way, it feels a bit like listening to your favourite track through speakers rather than headphones: the balance shifts – new strokes shine brighter, unearthed counter-melodies ring out.

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This is Williams as spectacle rather than Williams as chamber show. Whereas the tale of two sisters born to wealth and living with financial and familial loss will always come with exquisitely high highs and lingering lows, the mental agony of Ferran's Blanche, the aggressive, predatory physicality of Mescal's brother-in-law Stanley and the tortured conflict of Vasan's sister Stella ripple across the larger space.

While the sisterly relationship between Stella and Blanche felt like the driving force at the Almeida, here it is the febrile world of New Orleans that seems on show. Mescal's Stanley also suits the space – prowling like an untamed animal with more space to roam. You can tell Mescal has chiselled away at the depths of Stanley Kowalski – his obsession with the Napoleonic Code and his wife's lost wealth seems like a much more significant driving force in the Polish immigrant's resentment towards her. What remains, therefore, is the carnal – a lustful, unrestrained muscularity that manifests itself all too readily in violence.

Will the show go on to reap rewards at the Oliviers on Sunday? We'd not bet against it – and Frecknall, already riding high from her record-haul-generating Cabaret, has cemented her status as the most exciting stage director working today.