HEAT WAVE

A seductive, feverishly celebrated revival of A Streetcar Named Desire arrives in Brooklyn with a blockbuster cast—including an antihero for the ages.

-  Kate Lloyd

It’s a bitter afternoon in January, so early in the year that London hasn’t quite shaken off its New Year’s hangover. But in a tiny casting room in the far corner of a bare-bones rehearsal studio, lethargy has been left at the door.

The Oscar-nominated actor Paul Mescal is leaning toward me with quiet intensity. “There was definitely a feeling of unfinished business,” the Irish 29-year-old says, his blue eyes locked with mine.

Mescal is talking about the role he’s most proud of. Not the sensitive, working-class student Connell in Normal People, the Sally Rooney adaptation that, in 2020, turned him into a heartthrob. Or vengeful Lucius in the recent Gladiator II. But his turn as Stanley Kowalski in one of the most frenzy-inducing productions of A Streetcar Named Desire to ever hit UK stages.

Created by Rebecca Frecknall, an award-winning director known for the Eddie Redmayne-led revival of Cabaret and her talent for injecting new (often feminist) energy into classics, this adaptation of the Tennessee Williams play—published in 1947 and said to be inspired in part by the playwright’s sister’s struggles with mental health—opened in 2022 at London’s Almeida Theatre. Costarring stage stalwart Patsy Ferran as Blanche DuBois and Killing Eve star Anjana Vasan as sister Stella, it was, as Mescal puts it, “an old-school sellout.” Angelina Jolie came to see it. Nicole Kidman loved it so much she visited Mescal backstage (“I was in my underwear for the entire exchange,” he says, cringing.)