It’s easy to understand why critics of the first Broadway production of A Streetcar Named Desire in 1947 were shocked by the overt references to sex, violence, alcohol abuse and mental illness and found the play’s outlook bleak. Indeed the weighty themes and flawed characters in Tennessee Williams’ tragic tale still pack a punch today.

While the play primarily deals with the symbolic culture clash which takes place when Blanche DuBois, a pretentious, fading belle of the Old South, goes to stay with her sister, Stella and her brother–in–law Stanley Kowalski, a rising member of the industrial, urban immigrant class, it is also a richly layered character study examining differing perceptions of reality.

Brett Adam will direct a new production of Explorations: A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams at the MTC Sumner Theatre from September 3–11. Brett and his cast of Stephen Phillips, Georgina Capper, Katherine Tonkin and Jay Bowen, will present key scenes from the play, interspersed with commentary designed to enhance students’ understanding of the text.

This production is aimed at Year 12 students studying Streetcar in VCE English, but is also a fantastic introduction to Williams’ writing for Drama and Theatre Studies students from Years 10 to 12.