A streetcar named Desire.

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- A streetcar named Desire. Tennessee Williams. 

The New Orleans French Quarter. Stanley Kowalski and his wife Stella (formerly DuBois). Into their lives of squalor, intense poker nights, wild lovemaking (currently expecting a child) and brutal fights —comes Stella’s older sister, Blanche. A once-glamorous but now fading Southern Belle, Blanche’s pretensions of glamour catch the eye of one of Stanley’s poker buddies, sensitive Mitch. But delusion and bigotry will prove no match for harsh revenge, leading to a memorably tragic finale. 

A multi-prized stage-play by Williams, adapted numerous times to television and cinema (as well as to stage, including musical and even ballet variations) —even presented in an infamous episode of the perennial pop culture product ‘The Simpsons’. It remains as powerful today as yesterday —if some of our sympathies have since shifted and others have acquired a certain nuance (but this IS a deeply nuanced stage-play). The raw exhibition of prejudice (racism, homophobia, classicism) on the part of Blanche can make her hard to like —yet she is such a complex character it is hard not to pity her eventual doom. Or to rage against the abuse she ultimately suffers. But the other characters have plenty to discuss about, all as well being sympathetic one moment and loathsome the next. They feel like, wonder of wonders —real people. People who as often fight and gleefully betray each other —and as often make up and genuinely love each other. 

A very thought-provoking play, then, more than worth a read. Is it a deservedly true Classic? Without  a doubt, but even more important is to read for ourselves and find out. To discuss amongst us and discover what we can see of ourselves in it. 

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