A Streetcar Named Desire
A Streetcar Named Desire is a play written by Tennessee Williams and first performed on Broadway on December 3, 1947.[1] The play dramatizes the experiences of Blanche DuBois, a former Southern belle who, after encountering a series of personal losses, leaves her once-prosperous situation to move into a shabby apartment in New Orleans rented by her younger sister Stella and brother-in-law Stanley.
For other uses, see A Streetcar Named Desire (disambiguation).A Streetcar Named Desire
- Blanche DuBois
- Stella Kowalski
- Stanley Kowalski
- Harold "Mitch" Mitchell
December 3, 1947
English
The French Quarter and Downtown New Orleans
A Streetcar Named Desire is one of the most critically acclaimed plays of the 20th century[2] and Williams's most popular work. It still ranks among his most performed plays, and has inspired many adaptations in other forms, notably a critically acclaimed film that was released in 1951.[3]
Name[edit]
Blanche is mentioned in the play to arrive at Stella's apartment riding in a streetcar of the Desire streetcar line. Tennessee Williams was living in an apartment on Toulouse Street in New Orleans’ French Quarter when he wrote A Streetcar Named Desire. The old Desire streetcar line ran only a half-block away.
In the 1951 film Blanche is shown riding the car. In the interim between writing the play and shooting the film, though, the line was converted into a bus service (1948), and the production team had to seek permission from the authorities to hire out a streetcar with the "Desire" name on it.[4]
"A Streetcar Named Success"[edit]
"A Streetcar Named Success" is an essay by Tennessee Williams about art and the artist's role in society. It often is included in paper editions of A Streetcar Named Desire. A version of this essay first appeared in The New York Times on November 30, 1947, four days before the opening of A Streetcar Named Desire. Another version of this essay, titled "The Catastrophe of Success", is sometimes used as an introduction to The Glass Menagerie.