Choreography: John Alleyne

Live Music: Original Jazz Score by Composer Tobin Stokes

Queen Elizabeth Theatre


April 6 7 8, 2006 • 8PM

April 8, 2006 • 2PM)
(*NEW! Tea Matinee
Complimentary tea and cookie between 1 and 2 pm)

A Streetcar Named Desire tells the story of Blanche DuBois who arrives unexpectedly at the New Orleans tenement home of her sister and brother-in-law, Stella and Stanley Kowalski. She is shocked by the disreputable look of the place and frankly criticizes both Stella and Stanley for their living arrangements. Blanche’s faded gentility violently clashes with Stanley’s animal vitality, setting up a contest of wills between the two, with Blanche vying with Stanley for Stella’s allegiance. Through the course of the story, she finds herself no match for Stanley’s sexual hold over her sister.

When Streetcar hit theatres in 1946, the play cemented Tennessee Williams' reputation as one of the greatest American playwrights, winning him a New York Critics Circle Award and a Pulitzer Prize for drama. Among the play's greatest achievements is the depiction of the psychology of working class characters, portrayed on their own terms without having them been romanticized.

"The setting of New Orleans is important to the story of Streetcar because of its powerful contrasts: old French architecture and the new rhythms of jazz; Old World refinement mixed with the grit of poverty and modern life; decay and corruption alongside regenerative powers of desire and procreation."

John Alleyne

Check out the Streetcar blog by Richard Forzley, including exclusive video clips, costume sketches, sound bites from the original score and the ballet script.

World Premiere
Ballet British Columbia, April 6, 2006, Vancouver, BC