A Streetcar Named Desire returns to Liverpool
The Playhouse has revealed details of its first in-house production of 2012, A Streetcar Named Desire, which opens on February 17. Tennessee Williams’s tender yet powerful Pulitzer Prize-winning 1947 play has long been considered a landmark of 20th century theatre, and some of Liverpool's best-known talent is on hand to bring it to life once more. The venue's artistic director Gemma Bodinetz directs Amanda Drew as Blanche Dubois, Sam Troughton as Stanley Kowalski and Leanne Best as Stella Kowalski, in the first Tennessee Williams produced by the venue in over thirty years. Desperate times call for desperate measures as faded southern belle Blanche Dubois escapes to the heat and the heart of New Orleans. But a dark past is hard to leave behind and when confronted for the first time with her brother-in-law Stanley Kowalski, the present soon turns ugly. Amanda Drew’s recent stage credits include Enron (Headlong Theatre), Butley (Duchess Theatre) and Faces In The Crowd (Royal Court). She has also appeared in Parlour Song, A Chain Play and Enemies at the Almeida. Her screen credits include The Other Man and Dr. May Wright in EastEnders. Sam Troughton has played lead roles in Romeo & Juliet and Morte d’Arthur for the RSC, while his other theatre credits include As You Like It (Sheffield Crucible) and Buried Child (National Theatre). His film and television credits include roles in Vera Drake, Robin Hood and Silent Witness (both BBC). Leanne Best’s stage credits include The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, The Hypochondriac and Our Country’s Good at Liverpool Playhouse, as well as the national tour of Corrie! Her television credits include Moving On and Wire In The Blood. The cornerstone of the Playhouse’s spring season, A Streetcar Named Desire, will also feature Annabelle Apsion (Shameless, Channel 4; Moving On, BBC One), Matthew Flynn (Macbeth, Liverpool Everyman; As You Like It, West Yorkshire Playhouse), Russell Bentley (Death of a Salesman, West Yorkshire Playhouse; Three Sisters on Hope Street, Liverpool Everyman), Stephen Fletcher (Dead Heavy Fantastic, Eric’s both Liverpool Everyman), Mandi Symonds (The Knitting Circle, Soho Theatre; Amazonia, Young Vic) and Alan Stocks (Tartuffe, Liverpool Playhouse & ETT; Dead Heavy Fantastic, Liverpool Everyman). After highly acclaimed productions of classics Macbeth and Tartuffe this year, Gemma Bodinetz returns to 20th century American drama following the critical success and popularity of All My Sons (2006) and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf (2005). Streetcar will reunite Gemma with designer Gideon Davey (All My Sons, Liverpool Playhouse; Radamisto, English National Opera) and lighting designer Paul Keogan (Tartuffe, Liverpool Playhouse; The Taming of The Shrew, RSC). The creative team also includes sound designer Fergus O’Hare and composer Peter Coyte who worked on Bodinetz’s Macbeth in 2011. The production runs until March 10. For more information, visit the Playhouse's website at www.everymanplayhouse.com.
