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A Streetcar Named Desire at the Donmar Warehouse gets the thumbs up from the critics
Rachel Weisz
Rachel Weisz's "magnificent" Blanche DuBois
"Both Glenn Close and Jessica Lange recently played Blanche DuBois in London, but neither had the charisma of Weisz."
A Streetcar Named Desire, perhaps Tennessee Williams's greatest play, opened at the weekend at the Donmar Warehouse (until October 3), with Rachel Weisz starring as Blanche DuBois. Now, all the leading critics' verdicts are in on the production and Oscar-winner Rachel Weisz's performance.
Charles Spencer (Telegraph): "Great play though it undoubtebly is, A Streetcar Named Desire is an exceptionally tough nut to crack. The mixture of brutal realism and haunting stage poetry can make for grinding, dramatic gear changes, and the role of Blanche DuBois has defeated many an actress. Rachel Weisz rises to the challenge magnificently. Her undoubted beauty is combined here with a fluttering, birdlike nervousness and sudden moments of desperate panic that wrench the heart".
Michael Coveney (Independent): "Rachel Weisz starts vague and wispy, with that glinting, cunning deceptiveness of the dedicated drinker, but she misses an awful lot of the role's cutting cruelty. As Stanley, Cowan is simply too English, too public school even. He doesn't sound very New Orleans, or even New Jersey, more New Forest. You certainly get the rush of despair breaking through the gentle facade. But this isn't a great Streetcar".
Michael Billington (Guardian): "With Rachel Weisz playing Blanche DuBois there is also no doubt this production will be a popular success. Yet, for all the evening's merits, the perfectionist in me questions Rob Ashford's production, which is often stronger on externals than the drama's inner core. The sinuous drawl of the American south sometime eludes Weisz. But what she brings to the role is a quality of desperate solitude touched with grace. One ends up marvelling again at Williams's play, but I emerged impressed without quite being overwhelmed".
Benedict Nightingale (Times): "Both Glenn Close and Jessica Lange recently played Blanche DuBois in London, but neither had the charisma of Weisz. You can see the torment of the past in her face, and the stress of the present that finally, movingly breaks her. Does she underplay Blanche's preciosity and squeamish affectations? Maybe. But she has the intelligence, the wry humour, the yearning for love and the capacity to express it".
Paul Callan (Express): "Rachel Weisz does not let us down. She brings us a Blanche, seemingly emboldened at first by endless references to her classy past. Then, in one of the most exceptional performances seen this this year, she proceeds to bare the character, slowly paring it like the skin of an apple. Elliot Cowan is an outstanding Stanley. This tall, extremely muscular actor cleverly builds up the character to an almost screaming pitch. This is surely one of the highlights of the present West End theatre".
Quentin Letts (Mail): "What an overwhelmingly miserable, maddening, helpless husk Rachel Weisz delivers in this wrist-slitter of a play. Miss Weisz plays Blanche DuBois, one of the great female roles of crumbling beauty and hopelessness. Though youthful (and glamorous) for the part, she scores a considerable success. Depressing theatre, done here with great artistry".
