Theatre

A Streetcar Named Desire, Phoenix theatre, London, from tomorrow to 6 May This is a must-see, directed by the wonderful Rebecca Frecknall [which I saw at the Almeida theatre]. Audiences sat around a bare stage, and actors entered all the time from all sides. It created a claustrophobic atmosphere; you could smell the actors’ sweat. The highlight of the evening was the visceral and magnetic performance by Paul Mescal: he makes us forget the brilliant Marlon Brando and shows us Stanley Kowalski as a working-class man, a Polish immigrant who has to fight (literally) for a position in the US.