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Episode details

Radio 3,26 Mar 2017,114 mins

A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams

Available for 22 days

Anne Marie Duff stars in Tennessee Williams's iconic play. It's the story of a catastrophic confrontation between fantasy and reality, embodied in the characters of Blanche DuBois and Stanley Kowalski. Blanche DuBois arrives unexpectedly on the doorstep of her sister Stella and her explosive brother-in-law Stanley. Over the course of one hot and steamy New Orleans summer, Blanche's fragile façade slowly crumbles, wreaking havoc on Stella and Stanley's already turbulent relationship. Embodying the turmoil and drama of a changing nation, A Streetcar Named Desire strips Williams's tortured characters of their illusions, leaving a wake of destruction in their path. Tennessee Williams's 1947 play is justifiably one of the most loved and well-known stage plays of the 20th century. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award in 1948, and picked up four Oscars when it transferred to the screen with largely the same cast three years later. When it made its London debut, the Public Morality Council denounced it as "salacious and pornographic". Not coincidentally, the production was booked solid for nine months. Blanche ........ Anne-Marie Duff Stella ........ Pippa Bennett-Warner Stanley ........ Matthew Needham Mitch ........ John Heffernan Steve ........ David Sturzaker Eunice ........ Sarah Ridgeway Pablo ........ John Dougal Mexican Woman ........ Leila Arias Collector ........ Tom Forrister Nurse ........ Georgie Glen Director Sasha Yevtushenko First broadcast on BBC Radio 3 in March 2017.

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