Anne-Marie Duff stars as Blanche DuBois in BBC Radio 3's landmark production of Tennessee Williams' masterpiece



Tennessee Williams's iconic play tells 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 drama is 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 the 1951 film adaptation picked up four Oscars. In this compelling radio dramatisation, Blanche is played by Olivier Award-winning actress Anne-Marie Duff, with a stellar cast including Matthew Needham as Stanley and Pippa Bennett-Warner as Stella.



Cast:

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



Dramatised by Sarah Churchwell

Produced and directed by Sasha Yevtushenko



Duration: 2 hours approx.

Tennessee Williams (Thomas Lanier Williams) was born in 1911 in Mississippi where he was brought up before moving to St Louis. He studied at the Universities of Washington and Iowa, and in New York while embarking on a career as a playwright. He achieved popular and critical success with many of his plays including The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. He also wrote a novella, and some collections of poems and short stories. His Memoirs appeared in 1975. He died in 1983.