A review by emmareadstoomuch
A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams

4.0

Whoa.

I did not consume this play as I was intended to. I mean, honestly, you're not supposed to read a play. Tell that to any high school English teacher ever, but still. Tennessee Williams didn't write this like "Hopefully in sixty years a girl will read this alone in her room in one sitting so she can fulfill her goal of reading a classic every month." That's not his ideal.

That being said.

THIS MADE ME FEEL SO MUCH.

A play is supposed to be acted, obviously. Reading it leads to a less emotional rendering, with less full characters, in an imagined version of what is supposed to be a concrete setting. It's a lesser experience - like reading a screenplay. (Cough cough, f*ck you JK Rowling, cough.)

And still this was incredible! Blanche and Stella and Mitch were heart-rending. There's so much tension here, and the revelations and the moments of climax and action are just unreal. I don't even know what to say beyond whoa.

Guess I should've stopped this review after the first word.

Bottom line: FANTASTIC FANTASTIC FANTASTIC. This reading-a-classic-a-month thing is the best thing I'm doing this year.