Almeida, London
Rebecca Frecknall’s stark production brings out the rage in Williams’ play through powerful performances, but fails to plumb all its emotional depths

‘A family crisis brings out the best and the worst in every member of it,” reflects a character in Tennessee Williams’ explosive 1955 drama about mendacity and marital love. This family, headed by a dying cotton-plant magnate in the Mississippi delta, certainly know how to gouge bits out of each other in their moment of crisis.

It opens with marital malaise and follows up with family implosion. The former manifests as a chill between alcoholic ex-football star Brick and his wife, Maggie.