Anderson Has X Factor In Streetcar Named Desire — londonist.com

Gillian Anderson bristles with sex appeal, charm and fragility. Sex sells — and in the case of A Streetcar Named Desire, it’s the destructive side of it that is the strangely compelling proposition of this Pulitzer-winning play. In the latest London production, Gillian Anderson nails it as Blanche duBois — one of Tennessee Williams’ most perceptively and painfully-wrought female heroines. Director Benedict Andrews has chosen to set this Streetcar in the present day. We rather enjoy 1940s deep south settings for Tennessee W, but Andrews provides a refreshing twist. A starkly-furnished set suggests a contemporary Mississippi flat, inviting us to be voyeurs for the night — the set’s gradual rotation exposing and sometimes obscuring characters. At times this can be a barrier for the claustrophobia we should share with them, yet at others, it creates a moving prison that words bounce off with new-found resonance.

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