A Streetcar Named Desire Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh 25th October 2024 Review
A Streetcar Named Desire is at the Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh until Saturday 9th November, and if you like the work of Tennessee Williams, then this production of his most famous stage play has to be on your go to see list.
First performed on Broadway in December 3, 1947 this classic story has in over 75 years lost none of its power. This work still has the ability to surprise and unsettle audiences with some of its scenes and subject matter. Many people will also know “Streetcar” from the now classic 1951 film starring Marlon Brando and Vivien Leigh. If you have seen the latter and not the stage play, then be prepared for a story that has not been watered down by the film censorship codes of the time, and for a different ending.
The part of Blanche DuBois is one that must be on pretty much every actress’s “want to play” list and little wonder why. With Blanche, Tennessee Williams has created one of the great characters in 20th century fiction, a woman of incredible depth and complexity, and it takes someone with exceptional performance skills to get this part just right.
Here, Kirsty Stuart is such a person and her depiction of Blanche has to take its place with some of the great names who have performed this role before. Kirsty clearly understands that Blanche is not a delusional fading southern belle. In fact, the truth is far from this as Blanche is acutely well aware of the huge change in her financial fortunes and her slowly fading looks. This Blanche may be trying to convince everyone around her that her life is very different from what it now is, but she is never fooling herself. Kirsty Stuart gives us all of this in her Blanche whilst also giving us a woman who is very fragile in her mental health at the best of times, as traumas from her youth and trying to cope with what she has to do to survive in a world she was always ill-prepared for eventually take their toll upon her well-being.
Tennessee Williams created some iconic characters in “Streetcar” and for Blanche to be the woman that we all expect her to be, there has to be a very strong cast around her for the tensions between them all to work well. Here tonight, Nalini Chetty as Blanche’s sister Stella is perfect as someone who is never really strong enough to stand up to her sister and, in doing so, never someone who challenges the reality of the make-believe world that is being woven around her. Her husband Stanley (Matthew Trevannion) was exactly how I wanted him to be in this story. Without a Stanley this angry, this unpredictable, and this dangerous, the tensions between all three in this small and cramped space in a poorer part of New Orleans would never have worked properly.
There are no weak links in this production on-stage. Everyone has the ability to pull the audience into their world and a big part of this illusion is also down to very detailed direction from Elizabeth Newman, and Emily James (Set & Costume Designer) for a very evocative period setting which makes full use of a revolving stage for different sets and scenes. Jeanine Byrne (Lighting Director) and Pippa Murphy (Sound Designer) also add much to the atmosphere of the world that Blanche unwittingly finds herself now living in.
This is New Orleans and music of course has to be a big part of this story. Here Pippa Murphy has also as a composer created a fine soundtrack to this New Orleans world. The classic “It’s Only a Paper Moon” song also weaves its way throughout this story, making its own powerful statement too.
A Streetcar Named Desire pulls no punches in its depiction of domestic violence to women behind closed doors and it is as relevant now as it has always been.
Review by Tom King © 2024
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
First performed on Broadway in December 3, 1947 this classic story has in over 75 years lost none of its power. This work still has the ability to surprise and unsettle audiences with some of its scenes and subject matter. Many people will also know “Streetcar” from the now classic 1951 film starring Marlon Brando and Vivien Leigh. If you have seen the latter and not the stage play, then be prepared for a story that has not been watered down by the film censorship codes of the time, and for a different ending.
The part of Blanche DuBois is one that must be on pretty much every actress’s “want to play” list and little wonder why. With Blanche, Tennessee Williams has created one of the great characters in 20th century fiction, a woman of incredible depth and complexity, and it takes someone with exceptional performance skills to get this part just right.
Here, Kirsty Stuart is such a person and her depiction of Blanche has to take its place with some of the great names who have performed this role before. Kirsty clearly understands that Blanche is not a delusional fading southern belle. In fact, the truth is far from this as Blanche is acutely well aware of the huge change in her financial fortunes and her slowly fading looks. This Blanche may be trying to convince everyone around her that her life is very different from what it now is, but she is never fooling herself. Kirsty Stuart gives us all of this in her Blanche whilst also giving us a woman who is very fragile in her mental health at the best of times, as traumas from her youth and trying to cope with what she has to do to survive in a world she was always ill-prepared for eventually take their toll upon her well-being.
Tennessee Williams created some iconic characters in “Streetcar” and for Blanche to be the woman that we all expect her to be, there has to be a very strong cast around her for the tensions between them all to work well. Here tonight, Nalini Chetty as Blanche’s sister Stella is perfect as someone who is never really strong enough to stand up to her sister and, in doing so, never someone who challenges the reality of the make-believe world that is being woven around her. Her husband Stanley (Matthew Trevannion) was exactly how I wanted him to be in this story. Without a Stanley this angry, this unpredictable, and this dangerous, the tensions between all three in this small and cramped space in a poorer part of New Orleans would never have worked properly.
There are no weak links in this production on-stage. Everyone has the ability to pull the audience into their world and a big part of this illusion is also down to very detailed direction from Elizabeth Newman, and Emily James (Set & Costume Designer) for a very evocative period setting which makes full use of a revolving stage for different sets and scenes. Jeanine Byrne (Lighting Director) and Pippa Murphy (Sound Designer) also add much to the atmosphere of the world that Blanche unwittingly finds herself now living in.
This is New Orleans and music of course has to be a big part of this story. Here Pippa Murphy has also as a composer created a fine soundtrack to this New Orleans world. The classic “It’s Only a Paper Moon” song also weaves its way throughout this story, making its own powerful statement too.
A Streetcar Named Desire pulls no punches in its depiction of domestic violence to women behind closed doors and it is as relevant now as it has always been.
Review by Tom King © 2024
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com