After sold-out runs in London and New York, multi-Olivier Award-winning director Rebecca Frecknall brings her adaptation of A Streetcar Named Desire (Tennessee Williams) to Amsterdam in an exclusive remake with the ITA Ensemble.
In this acclaimed production, created in 2023 at the Almeida Theatre in London and praised as “a seductive, intense revival” (Broadway World) and “a magnetic masterpiece” (Variety), Frecknall dissects the raw core of desire, power, and self-destruction. She exposes the emotional struggle between Blanche DuBois, Stanley Kowalski, and Stella with an intensity that is both physical and heartbreaking.
A Streetcar Named Desire is an intense and emotionally charged reinterpretation of the classic play by Tennessee Williams. We follow Blanche DuBois (Hannah Hoekstra), a young woman from the decaying South of the United States trying to hold on to her last shred of dignity after losing everything. She seeks refuge with her sister Stella (June Yànez) in New Orleans, who lives with her brutish and dominant husband Stanley Kowalski (Minne Koole).
Frecknall’s Streetcar is a performance for a new generation: seductive and dangerously vibrant, but also unflinching in its look at masculinity and domestic violence. As The Financial Times wrote: “Frecknall’s production distills the tragedy to a bruising, intensely physical struggle, sweaty with desire, simmering with violence.”
The traditional New Orleans jazz is replaced in this remake by a modern, pulsating soundscape, played live on drums. It gives the performance a nervous, almost hypnotic tempo. Additionally, Frecknall incorporates moments of stylized, almost dance-like movement and slow-motion, making the fear and despair visible in a physical and direct way. With her signature minimalist style and sharp eye for the vulnerability behind human behavior, Rebecca Frecknall once again proves she is one of the most intriguing voices in contemporary theater.
Content Warning: This production contains xenophobic language, domestic violence, alcoholism, mental health issues such as anxiety and depression, and references to sexual violence.