Paul Mescal and Anjana Vasan in A Streetcar Named Desire. Photo: Marc Brenner

LAST year, I raved about Jamie Lloyd’s pared back version of Chekhov’s The Seagull.

Rebecca Frecknall attempts something similar with Tennessee Williams’ classic. A play about toxic masculinity and misogyny, this revival of A Streetcar Named Desire is timely given the recent furore about Andrew Tate.

When Blanche DuBois (Patsy Ferran) visits her sister Stella (Anjana Vasan) and husband Stanley Kowalski (Paul Mescal), she is shocked by their cramped living quarters, her brother-in-law’s uncouthness and vicious temper. Stanley, in turn, distrusts Blanche’s airs and taunts her at every opportunity.

After she falls for his poker-playing buddy Mitch (Dwane Walcott), Stanley sets out to derail the blossoming romance. Gradually we learn of Blanche’s tragic past, her desperate behaviour and fragile mental health.

It’s staged in the round on a bare stage, and props are supplied by members of the supporting cast when needed. This foregrounds the central performances, while Tom Penn’s dramatic percussion anticipates the violence in Williams’ play and punctuates the action.

The stylised movement and singing inject a nightmarish quality, creating a vivid sense of characters on the edge; torn between flight and fight.

Ferran (replacing Lydia Wilson due to an injury) is captivating as Blanche. She initially appears poised and arch, but gradually her vulnerability and anxiety seep out. Mescal’s pugnacious Stanley exudes menace. Stella is perhaps the weakest character of all – accepting her husband’s abuse and sacrificing her sister – but Vasan’s sympathetic performance keeps us on side. Compelling.

Until February 4
almeida.co.uk/