Find out what critics have been saying about Rebecca Frecknall’s production of Tennessee Williams’ play A Streetcar Named Desire, now officially open at the Almeida Theatre.
’An illuminating, inventive revitalisation of a familiar piece’: A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE – Almeida Theatre ★★★★★
However, Rebecca Frecknall’s production of A Streetcar Named Desire at the Almeida Theatre is an unusually youthful reading of a play usually marinated in the disappointments of middle age, which duly casts it in a bold, bracing new light.
‘Brings a devastating new clarity to the play’: A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE – Almeida Theatre
Director Rebecca Frecknall tackles one of the greatest plays of all time, Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire back in the intimacy of the Almeida Theatre and brings a devastating new clarity to it, eschewing the distraction of a heavy set and the cliches that tend to dog interpretations of Williams, from the exaggerated Southern accents to Blanche’s affected gentility.
Rev Stan marks the Young Vic’s 50th Birthday with a pick of her favourite productions
The Young Vic is celebrating its 50th birthday and while I’ve only been visiting since 2007-ish, I’ve seen many fantastic and memorable plays there in that time.
National Theatre at Home: Saving our lockdown & pointing the way for future engagement
The National Theatre really did save lockdown and made us appreciate our phenomenal creative industries, but they may also have inadvertently pointed the way for the future as surely as National Theatre Live did in 2009.
Streetcars, Smoke & Southern Belles: Taking on Tennessee Williams
As a great American dramatist, Williams’s timeless understanding of human emotion and the particularly explosive dynamics of family groups has always been such a notable feature of his writing.
NEWS: National Theatre at Home screens Tom Hiddleston’s Coriolanus & A Streetcar Named Desire with Gillian Anderson
The National Theatre has announced its third tranche of archive shows that will be streamed every Thursday at 7pm BST via its YouTube channel as part of lockdown initiative National Theatre at Home.
Decade Round-Up: The Plays
This isn’t a ‘best of’ list it’s my best-of list, these are the plays that shaped me this decade and will stay with me well into the next.
‘Full of energy from beginning to end’: A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE – Touring
A Streetcar Named Desire was full of energy from beginning to end, with some wonderful movement as well as acting, so much so that, at times, it was quite exhausting to watch. I thoroughly enjoyed it and found myself becoming really invested in the characters and what was going to happen to them.
‘Locates its troubling sexual dynamics in the gender politics of right now’: A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE – Touring
Chelsea Walker helms a blistering update of A Streetcar Named Desire for English Touring Theatre.
NEWS: David Walliams’ Billionaire Boy, Isango Ensemble & Women in Power in Southampton 2018 launch season
Director of Nuffield Southampton Theatres, Samuel Hodges, today announces their new season for 2018. This announcement also marks the opening of the brand new NST City, NST’s newly built theatre in Southampton’s city centre. Their 2018 season of work will be spread across both the new venue and their original home, NST Campus. The season is comprised of four world …
A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE – Touring ★★
Worthy but earthbound, Rapture Theatre’s touring production of Tennessee Williams’ classic A Streetcar Named Desire never really convinces.
14+ shows most likely to make critics’ #theatre2016 list of lists
I rounded up my personal choices in a recent blog and have enjoyed reading and publishing the scores of Year in Review blogs (nearly 30!) from My Theatre Mates colleagues in recent weeks. As an addendum, I’ve now rounded up critics’ round-ups in other publications.
Year in Review: Kristy Stott’s favourite productions of 2016
With Christmas in full swing, it feels like a good time to look back at the highlights of a busy year for theatre in Manchester. Here are Upstaged Manchester’s theatrical highlights of 2016. Which shows would make your list?
A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE – Manchester
This is a remarkably intense Streetcar and it is one that requires dedication throughout its 3 hours+ running time, Frankcom’s key conceit taking its time to play out as Peake charts Blanche DuBois’ startling decline in the New Orleans abode of her sister Stella and her virile but violent husband Stanley.
NEWS: Leicester Curve announces new artistic director Nikolai Foster’s inaugural season
Leicester’s Curve theatre announces the inaugural season from new Artistic Director Nikolai Foster. Curve shows directed by Foster include a new production of Tennessee Williams’ seminal work A Streetcar Named Desire, opening on 20 October 2015, with previews from 16 October, and running until 8November. The production features Charlie Brooks as Blanche (recently seen in Curve’s production of Beautiful Thing, …
Ultimate press pass: All the angles on 2015 #Oliviers shortlists
I offered my own take on yesterday’s 2015 Laurence Olivier nominations yesterday. But my view is only one, of course. The shortlists announcement was live-streamed across myriad platforms and attracted international headlines. So how did other commentators interpret the shortlists? Well, angles are varied, but they largely break down into the following five main thrusts: […]
2015 #Oliviers nominations: What’s in, what’s out? Full lists here
The biggest surprise for me at today’s Olivier nominations event at the ritzy Rosewood London hotel was just how much this event has grown in a few short years. Celebrating nominees: you’re all beautiful I remember so well when I held the first WhatsOnStage Awards Launch Party back in 2002. I believed then, as I […]
More Top 10 #theatre2014 lists: Mine and yours
Rounding up the best of the best of theatre 2014 highlights got me reflecting on my own year in theatre. Having unexpectedly left WhatsOnStage just before Christmas 2013, the shape and pace of my 2014 theatregoing was going to be inevitably different from the previous 16 years. For a time, I wasn’t even sure that […]
The best of the best of #theatre2014 round-ups
Can you keep up with all the 2014 theatrical year round-ups? I’ve rounded up the round-ups to give you a quick overview. The Guardian went ALL out looking back with a profusion of top 10 lists from its various critics, including eminence grise Michael Billington, fringe and festival queen Lyn Gardner, columnist Mark Lawson and […]