Does London’s Almeida Theatre have a contract stipulation that each and every one of their transfers must retain the building’s natural backdrop?

I wrote about how last season’s The Hunt at St. Ann’s Warehouse — and, for that matter, Patriots on Broadway — treated the Almeida’s circular brick posterior as an essential component of their set designs…

And this very same rear can now be seen behind A Streetcar Named Desire at BAM’s Harvey Theater. 

BAM neophytes could assume they’re looking at the Harvey’s untouched architecture, because those Almeida bricks are not explicitly specific to the production. In any obvious way, BAM’s natural backing would seem to be as fitting a visual container for this revival as the Almeida.

Which just goes to show: every single aspect of a production’s set design is thoughtfully intentional. 

As for the why of it all…that’s for us to consider. 

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Is it safe to interpret that this revival bleeds the boundary between corporeal reality and Blanche’s psychosis? The theatrical flights of fancy could be visual manifestations of her subjectivity — what “actually” happens, filtered through her depicted perception.

And the fact that the mental institution’s employees also provide the music that acts as an overarching guide to the entire production…seems relevant.

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Rebecca Frecknall’s revival of Cabaret positions The Emcee as a demonic figure, and maybe even the actual Devil…and the same can be said of her Stanley Kowalski.