A Streetcar Named Desire

Tennessee Williams’ Pulitzer Prize-winning play ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ fired its way into the hearts and minds of those in Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre this week. Director Josh Seymour has directed an incredibly faithful and loving retelling of this classic story. The 2 hours and 45 minutes show never has the audience anything less than completely gripped and enthralled. Based in 1940’s New Orleans, the play revolved around the lives of Southern Belle Blanche Dubois and her estranged sister Stella. What follows is an intimate, poignant, tragic and often harrowing dive into their lives and the fantasies and realities that they construct to cope with the world around them.

Each actor in the show puts so much love and care into the craft of their performances that it’s hard not to become completely immersed into their worlds and inner thoughts and feelings. Their worries and fears become our worries and fears. The characters typical southern accents and mannerisms are performed with a fantastic amount of skill and realism.

The undisputed star of the show is the stunning performance of Joanna Vanderham as Blanche DuBois. Vanderham has the audience hanging and waiting on to her every word. It’s impossible not to fall in love and empathize with her character. Vanderham inhabits Blanche faithfully and lovingly and her performance is the axis that the entire production revolves around. It is incredibly rare to see a performance filled with so much passion, fire and energy whilst also being balanced with so much subtlety, sorrow and sincerity. As Blanche herself poignantly says ‘sorrow makes for sincerity’ and Vanderham does an assured and impassioned job of navigating such a complex character with care, heart and the range of emotions that the character deserves.

Vanderham is helped to achieve such a monumental performance by the excellent writing, directing and the flawless performances of her co-stars. Jake Dunn, in particular, shines as Stella’s husband Stanley and his chemistry and friction with Vanderham is as gripping as it is believable. Sound designer Alexandra Faye Braithwaite and musical director Lauren Dyer also deserves credit for the understated but incredibly effective job with the sound and music that echoes throughout the show.

The evening was capped off with an impassioned, deserved standing ovation with nobody receiving a louder cheer than Vanderham herself. This is certainly not one to be missed. ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ runs at Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre from Saturday 1st March to Saturday 29th March.