Originally published by L.S. Media. February 22nd 2012.
L.S. Media Rating *****
Cast: Leanne Best, Amanda Drew, Annabelle Apsion, Russell Bentley, Stephen Fletcher, Matthew Flynn, Alan Stocks, Mandi Symonds. Sam Troughton.
Tennessee Williams’ play, A Streetcar Named Desire, is one that can cast dread into any Director charged with keeping the flame alive of one of the most accomplished American playwrights of his generation. In Gemma Bodinetz there is such a Director who not only has the honesty to go through every single pause, every full stop and understand how complex Williams and his writing actually was, but to install this attentive belief into the acting fraternity who are in the play.
A Streetcar Named Desire is not only compelling theatre, it is a claustrophobic experiment tangled up in intensity and drains the soul of any fight and leaves the audience entranced and questioning the nature of who to feel any empathy for. There are too many deep seated and unlikeable qualities throughout the four main protagonists that the audience could find their sympathies changing with almost every sentence. This is the complexity of Tennessee Williams!
A play is nothing without its actors and its background company. In this play, there really was none finer. In the years that Gemma Bodinetz has been Artistic Director at the Everyman/Playhouse she has guided, cajoled, inspired a multitude of actors. In Sam Troughton and Leanne Best, Gemma was able to work with two of the best of their own generation. Leanne Best is well known to Liverpool audiences with some superb performances in such plays as Flint Street Nativity, The Hypochondriac and Macbeth and is an utter joy to watch on stage.
Mr. Troughton on the other hand, is almost unknown to Liverpool Theatre goers; however in the world of National Theatre and much admired and much loved television appearances, he is without doubt the leading and finest actor of his generation. Surrounded by the excellent cast that put everything into the play and putting their own individual stamp on the characters, including learning how to play the game of poker, Annabelle Apsion, Russell Bentley, Amanda Drew, Stephen Fletcher, Matthew Flynn, Mandi Symonds and Alan Stocks made this particular drama at the Playhouse the finest and most visually impressive show ever to be directed by the incredible talent that is Gemma Bodinetz.
A Streetcar Named Desire is not just a play to savour but to immerse yourself in; feel the oppressive heat of the deep south and it’s oppressive and suffering as worlds collide and the fallout shatters easier than a well-aimed bottle of cheap bourbon.
Ian D. Hall