Tram Is one of a trilogy of stripped-back Williams Plays that FreckNALL has developed. First, there was her Almeida production of Summer and smoke, As Ferran won an Olivier. Most recently, frecnall took on Cat on a hot tin roof, Led by Mescal’s former Costar Daisy Edgar-Jones. (Mescal was “jealous” when he saw it.)

With Tram, FRECBNALL would overturn tropes that have dominated the productions of New Orleans – set the show since the film, starring in Marlon Brando, came out in 1951. Yes, her take follows the solution of Dubois, an aging Southern Belle, which she moves in with Her younger sister, Stella, and her rough angular brother -in -law, Stanley. Yes, Stanley’s need for truth and respect bristle against the fragile delusion and snobbery blanche protects himself with. But this production feels more intimate, more empathetic – fairer for its antiheroine.

“This is not about seeing the passing of a person with mental illness,” Freck Knall tells me. “This is about seeing someone who has survived great trauma since childhood.” The role crew is in the 20s and 30s, as Williams wrote them. “Blanche are often done with actors further into their careers. And I loved the idea of ​​recovering her youth, ”says Freckrim. A drummer on stage gives an increasingly frenetic sound image, while the ensemble surrounds an industrial set that passes props when needed; It’s all a claustrophobic island on which Blanche, Stanley and Stella are stranded.

“You can’t hide,” says Mescal. “You are completely exposed in a way that is both scary and exciting. And the audience feels it. “

It is perhaps from this pressure that Mescal’s scary Stanley grew. “It is catartic,” he says of the role that sees him shouting, howling and roaming the scene. “I think we all have anger in us. And I think sometimes my can be pretty close to the surface. “Freck Knall is reminiscent of a workshop where Mescal came down to all fours like a dog that snarled on Blanche. “I remember going,” it’s the most creepy I’ve ever seen, “she says. “We have to do it. ” ”

Still, it’s Mescal’s vulnerability that led to her throwing him. (“I don’t want to play a villain,” he says. “He’s just as hurt as Connell.”) “People are thinking about Tram As a theater piece about Blanche and Stanley, FRECKRILL explains. “But when Williams first threw it up to his agent, he said, ‘I write a spectacle about two sisters.’ “As one of three self is Freckruball, 38, possessed by sororal ties – and Ferran and Vasan are the dream actors, she believes to pull viewers into their relationship before it explodes, tragically. “They have a story together as actors and as friends, and you feel it.”