A Streetcar Named Desire (2014)

Like plenty of people out there, my most potent exposure to A Streetcar Named Desire was through the classic film; we studied the play for a class I was taking in high school, and we followed up reading the play with watching the movie. I remember being pulled in by it. However, I only ever saw it that one time, and by my reckoning, that was at least 15 years ago. As such, when I came to this National Theatre Live production, I was able to approach it with relatively fresh eyes that weren’t hung up on those classic performances we all know.

 

Blanche DuBois is in a delicate state when she comes to stay with her sister Stella and brother-in-law Stanley. She’s recently left her job, is no longer in possession of the family estate, and has experiences she won’t talk about. Terrified of aging and desperate to valued, Blanche creates a new ecosystem within a household that already has its own issues to deal with. While Stella tries to accommodate Blanche’s self-declared fragile nerves, Stanley doesn’t think Blanche is as helpless as she purports to be and goes digging around at old wounds.

 

I don’t feel like that summary quite covers it, but if you’re familiar with the play or the film, you don’t need my description, and if you’re not, just know that the what of the plot is secondary to the who. Rather than details and story beats, this is about getting into the heads of these characters – primarily Blanche and Stanley, and to a lesser extent Stella – seeing what drives them, what haunts them, and what they do to one another. Tennessee Williams provided exquisite material rife for mining, and any production is going to be about what these actors do with the roles.

 

The biggest headline here is Gillian Anderson as Blanche. She’s not someone I would’ve ever thought of for this role, because I’m used to seeing her play characters who are very self-possessed – quite the opposite of the needy, fragile Blanche. But, seeing her here with Vanessa Kirby as Stella, I was reminded that these two previously shared the screen in a Great Expectations miniseries as Miss Havisham and Estella respectively, and Miss Havisham has a decent amount in common with Blanche when you get down to the roots of it. As such, it makes more sense to see Anderson’s nervous energy as Blanche, the way she fishes for compliments and invites pity while at the same time coquettishly deflecting deeper scrutiny.

 

We then have Ben Foster as Stanley – again, not a name that would’ve immediately jumped to mind for me, even though I’ve definitely seen him play dangerous roles of that sort before. I’m not sure if these notes were always there and I didn’t notice them before or if this production brings them out more, but I appreciate the allusions that Stanley most likely has PTSD from his time in the service and that’s in part what’s fueling his moments of rage. He and Anderson have a great interplay together, tense and volatile.

 

Kirby may be less of a “name” than Anderson or Foster (and Anderson is of course quite a bit bigger than either,) but she still holds her own. Her Stella is solid, trying to keep the peace between two much larger personalities and somewhat at the mercy of both to different extents but never fully losing track of herself in the process.

 

Warnings

 

Violence (including domestic violence and rape,) drinking/smoking, sexual content, language, and strong thematic elements (including references to suicide.)