A Streetcar Named Desire

Who it's for

Blanche DuBois arrives with nothing left but her manners and her stories, and the play slowly shows the grief, shame and losses underneath her performance.

Feelings it meets

• Shame
• Class

What it is

Tennessee Williams's play, which premiered in New York in 1947 and won the 1948 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, follows Blanche DuBois, a former Southern belle who has lost her family's plantation and arrives at the modest New Orleans apartment of her sister Stella. Stella's husband Stanley Kowalski is suspicious of and hostile toward Blanche.

Where to find it

In print (New Directions; Penguin in the UK), in libraries (Libby/Hoopla); audio recordings of the play exist. Not public domain. The 1951 film adaptation is widely available.

Before you start

Heads up: Rape and a recalled suicide.

Age: Ages 16+

Where there is sorrow there is holy ground.Oscar Wilde, De Profundis