2019 – A Streetcar Named Desire

Production of 2019 – A Streetcar Named Desire

Production description

ABOUT THE PLAY

• When Written: 1946-7
• Where Written: New York, Los Angeles, and New Orleans
• When Published: Broadway premiere December 3, 1947
• Literary Period: Dramatic naturalism
• Genre: Psychological drama
• Setting: New Orleans

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire is the tale of a catastrophic confrontation between fantasy and reality, embodied in the characters of Blanche DuBois and Stanley Kowalski.

Fading southern belle Blanche DuBois is adrift in the modern world. When she arrives to stay with her sister Stella in a crowded, boisterous corner of New Orleans, her delusions of grandeur bring her into conflict with Stella's crude, brutish husband Stanley Kowalski. Eventually their violent collision course causes Blanche's fragile sense of identity to crumble, threatening to destroy her sanity and her one chance of happiness.

The play is set in the shabby but rakishly charming New Orleans of the 1940s. The set is that of the downstairs flat of Stanley and Stella’s apartment, the interior and exterior of which will be depicted on stage.

Tennessee Williams's steamy and shocking landmark drama, recreated as the immortal film starring Marlon Brando, is one of the most influential plays of the twentieth century.