Tuesday, 8 September 2009
Review: A Streetcar Named Desire
I filed my review for A Streetcar Named Desire on the night of the premiere live from the foyer.
It was published on the Sydney Morning Herald website and can be found HERE.
There's something to be said for filing for immediate publication. Maybe with our new media capabilities, it might be long-lost theatre reviewing practice that could get resurrected.
Posted by Nicholas Pickard at 11:43 am
Labels: Review, Sydney Theatre Company
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
8 comments:
I dunno - I think your review could probably have been written better if you had more time and in a different environment than a crowded post-show foyer. And to simply call Blanche's actions "sociopathic behaviour" (the phrase used three times) shows little insight or analysis. I think you used too many words summarising the plot and not enough actually critiquing the performance. I prefer Jason Blake's review for the same paper.
I think immediate response reviews are a good idea (after all that used to be a theatre critic's skill--to have a response in print for the first edition of the paper in the early hours of the next morning) but it requires expertise. I have seen critics in Berlin with their laptops on the knees writing during the show, and with beautifully written pieces appearing the next day, but I doubt they would choose the shmoozy boozy sycophantic atmosphere of a post-show party in which to write. Although I agree with you that Blanchett's otherwise excellent performance was too frenetic, to me it was a failure of the director to rein her in rather than Blanchett's attempt to depict a sociopath. Why not try again at your next opening, but go sit in the car or somewhere quiet to think and write rather than at the party?
I think you're right Anna - and in fact I think I have been doing far too much of plot summary's over the last few months.
The other review to read is John McCallum's in The Australian - I think that is one of the best reviews he has written in quite a while. Absolutely beautiful.
And thanks for your insight John.
It does put a whole different pressure on the reviewer when you have to turn around a review in 45 minutes. I was hiding upstairs away from the party in a corner of the theatre tapping away, battling with Sydney Theatre staff who wanted me to move downstairs so a car would have been a god-send.
I should mention that the brilliant publicist of the STC saw me at one stage and kindly offered me space to sit, but I was just about to finish up by then.
Sociopath, sociopath, sociopath.... altogether too broad and superficial a reading of these characters, the kind of easy clinical judgement of human behaviour that Williams was railing against
And he even wrote it three times in the review!
A fascinating argument about this play is going on right now on James Waites' theatre site. You may wish to weigh in Nicholas, as he challenges the reviews we all read in the papers.
Thanks John - there's really nothing like a big juicy James Waites response...
http://jameswaites.com/?p=4494#more-4494
Post a Comment