It was the film that launched Marlon Brandos career, and the play that earned Tennessee Williams his first Pulitzer. It is a timeless tale of fading beauty, the New Orleans working class, rape, and a dude in a wifebeater who belts out one of the most famous scenes in showbiz history. It is A Streetcar Named Desire. And a theater troupe really has to have guts to take on one of the all-time great plays. The New Theatre is up to the challenge with its production of Williamss classic yarn about aging Southern belle Blanche DuBoiss clash with Stanley Kowalski, her sisters beer-chugging, brutish, yet handsome husband. Filled with sexual tension, tragic turns, and layered symbolism, Streetcar is a landmark work worth seeing on the stage. Catch Blanche as she depends on the kindness of strangers.
Thursdays-Sundays, 8 p.m. Starts: May 27. Continues through June 12, 2011