“A Streetcar Named Desire”, BAM Harvey Theater 

Glenda Frank in New York
13 March 2025 

One of the ways to attract new audiences into theatres is to rejuvenate the classics – as Almeida Theatre has done with their powerful, pared-down revival of Tennessee Williams’ 1947 A Streetcar Named Desire now at the BAM Harvey Theater. 

Dwane Walcott and Gabriela Garcia.
Photo credit: Julieta Cervantes.

This production enjoyed two sold out runs in London’s West End (reviewed here) before transferring to the US, winning several Olivier awards and nominations, including Best Revival. The play has been edited to spotlight the emotional confrontations. Exchanges and exposition that diminish high points of raw conflict have been excised so that the focus remains sharp while some of the most brutal attacks, such as the rape, have been eased over by dance.  

The focus shifts from the physical to the emotional damage. The up-close almost bodily perspective demands that we live through the play, not merely observe it. Fortunately, the performers are up to the challenge. They are uniformly outstanding. Each offers a portrait of a character who is vividly alive. 

At the heart of the play is the battle between the new South, represented by the animal intensity of Stanley Kowalski, son of Polish immigrants and a working-class army veteran fueled by ambition and pride, and the decayed sensitivity of the Old South with its cultural masks and secret passions, represented by Blanche du Bois. Stella, Blanche’s sister and Stanley’s wife, is the prize. She is pregnant and the birth of the first Kowalski child is concurrent with Stanley’s rape of Blanche, the final battle. The raised square stage on the BAM performance space could easily represent a boxing ring. During key scenes, the denizens of the French Quarter, the run-down district where the Kowalskis live in a two-room apartment, gang up behind Stanley, not so much as support but as an invasion. It’s unsettling.  

Tom Penn on drums begins the evening by introducing a primitive element with his solos which punctuate scenes. The stage has two levels. On the lower one, the scenes unfold into tragic inevitability as Blanche slips deeper into alcoholism and delusion and Stanley garners arms against her. On the upper level sit Penn and a singer, who adds a subtle soundtrack. Both are designed to elevate our emotional response to the dramatic exchanges.  

As for the performers, this is the best Streetcar cast I have ever seen. For sure Paul Mescal (Gladiator II) is sexy, and he removes his shirt several times, but even better, he’s an actor with chops who makes precise choices. We can understand his Stanley as the erratic guy who broke all the coloured light bulbs in the apartment on his honeymoon but also as a natural leader, an articulate, rising sales representative. Patsy Ferran (Olivier Award for Summer and Smoke) is a compelling Blanche, a woman who struggles with ghosts and desire. This is the woman who stayed to nurse and bury three dying relatives in a crumbling mansion by herself. The woman who created a second chance for herself with Mitch (an appealing Dwane Walcott) but who did not crumble under his rejection. Ferran can bring us both Blanche’s strength and her vulnerability at once. In a smart move, director Rebecca Frecknall added rain to several scenes. A drenched Blanche becomes an avatar of her vulnerability. 

I am used to Stella disappearing in productions. After all, she’s not one of the two combatants, but Anjana Vasan (Killing Eve) does not vanish, and the production is stronger for that. Her conflicted emotions and distress remain centre stage and they reflect our own.