THE critically acclaimed A Streetcar Named Desire returns to the NST City on Tuesday.

The adaptation of Tennessee Williams classic is embarking on its final run after an eight-week tour, reaching an audience of over 18,000.

Every man is a King and Stanley is no exception, until one summer when his sister-in-law Blanche comes to stay.

Anxious, seductive and fiercely clever, Blanche is just about keeping it together. Her arrival threatens Stanley’s entire way of life.

As the summer heats up, and the games turn savage, a burning desire threatens to tear their world apart.

The director of this timeless classic revival, Chelsea Walker, won the Royal Theatrical Support Trust Sir Peter Hall Director Award in 2017. After never directing a ‘Classic’ play before, Chelsea hopes to bring the play from the 1940’s to a modern-day setting.

“We’ve set our Streetcar in a contemporary New Orleans,” she says. “So we could explore just how it speaks to us now. I have also cast it to the characters’ ages in the script, which hopefully means an audience will be viewing some of those characters in a new light.

“The play treads a line between realism and expressionism, and I’ve pushed the expressionism to help the audience stay with Blanche… I hope Streetcar will spark debate about the world we live in now, and particularly about the way we treat people who we consider to be ‘outsiders’.”

The wonderful Patrick Knowles, who plays Stanley Kowalski, believes to succeed in the play he must approach his character from a personal outlook.

“When you take on a role as famous as Stanley,” he says. “You have to try not to think about the gravitas of the role but instead approach it from a personal and truthful perspective.

“I’ve played parts before that have been labelled ‘tricky’ or ‘hard to play’. I find that breaking it down into smaller aspects of their character very helpful.”

The production is in its second stint at NST City, and will run until June16.

By Ben Bonsey