A Streetcar Named Desire
After sold-out runs in London and New York, multiple 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, produced in 2023 at the Almeida Theatre in London and praised as “a seductive, intense revival” (Broadway World) and “a magnetic masterpiece” (Variety), Frecknall exposes the raw core of desire, power, and self-destruction. She reveals the emotional struggle between Blanche DuBois, Stanley Kowalski, and Stella with an intensity that is both physical and heartbreaking.
duration 2 hours 45 minutes, including one intermission
genre Theater
language Nederlands
surtitles English, every night from 11 till 22 Mar
premiere 8 Mar
A Streetcar Named Desire
A Streetcar Named Desire is an intense and emotionally charged reinterpretation of Tennessee Williams’s stage classic. We follow Blanche DuBois (Hannah Hoekstra), a young woman from the decaying American South who tries to maintain the last shred of her dignity after losing everything. She seeks refuge with her sister Stella (June Yànez) in New Orleans, who lives with her rough and domineering husband Stanley Kowalski (Minne Koole).
Frecknall’s Streetcar is a production for a new generation: seductive and dangerously electric, yet unflinching in its gaze 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.”
-|-In this remake, traditional New Orleans jazz gives way to a modern, pulsing soundscape performed live on drums. It lends the production a jittery, almost hypnotic rhythm. Frecknall also incorporates moments of stylized, dance-like movement and slow motion, making fear and despair visible in a physical and immediate way. With her signature minimalist style and sharp eye for the vulnerability behind human behavior, Rebecca Frecknall once again proves herself one of the most intriguing voices in contemporary theatre.
Reviews
The Times
‘Outstanding’
The Observer
‘This Streetcar is transporting’
The I
‘A mesmerizing revival’
The Sunday Times
‘A superb show’
The New York Times (Critic’s Pick)
‘An electrifying ensemble production of “Streetcar”’
Variety
‘She (Frecknall) brings the classic roaring back to electrifying life.’
Vulture
‘Frecknall revivifies Streetcar as a true ensemble piece — a haunting jazz symphony with a devastating trio at its center.’
Rebecca Frecknall
Rebecca Frecknall is an award-winning British director who has worked extensively in the UK and internationally. She is Associate Director at the Almeida Theatre in London through 2025, and will take on the same role at The Old Vic from 2026. In 2024, she made her acclaimed ITA debut with Julie. Starting in 2025, Frecknall will join ITA as the Ibsen Artist in Residence, a position supported by the Philip Loubser Foundation. As part of this residency, she now directs The Architect — a timely, contemporary adaptation of Ibsen’s classic The Master Builder. In addition, she is bringing her acclaimed production of A Streetcar Named Desire, which she originally created at the Almeida Theatre, to Amsterdam for a remake with the ITA Ensemble.
-|-Her productions are known for their profound psychological depth, compelling character development, and strong social and political resonance. Frecknall’s reinterpretations of classic works effortlessly highlight underlying social issues, making them strikingly relevant for today’s audiences.
She directed Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club (winner of seven Olivier Awards, including Best Director and Best Musical Revival 2022, as well as the Critics' Circle Award for Best Director 2022), and the critically acclaimed A Streetcar Named Desire and Summer and Smoke. Both productions won the Olivier Award for Best Revival and were nominated for Best Director. They are now also being staged in New York.
Rebecca Frecknall is a multi-Olivier Award-winning director, who has directed in the UK and internationally. She is Associate Director at the Almeida Theatre, and the incoming Associate Director at the Old Vic. Rebecca was listed as one of ‘The Stage’s Most Influential Figures working in Theatre’ in 2023 and 2024.
From January 2025, Frecknall was appointed Ibsen Artist in Residence at ITA, an initiative of the Philip Loubser Foundation, which gives directors with an international ambition the opportunity to develop themselves artistically.
In season 25/26, her direction of The Architect will premiere at ITA.
Credits
by Tennessee Williams
directed by Rebecca Frecknall
set design Madeleine Girling
costume design Merle Hensel
light design Lee Curran
sound design Peter Rice
composer Angus MacRae
fight director Jonathan Holby
-|-originally produced by Almeida Theatre Productions
with special thanks to ATG Productions, Gavin Kalin Productions & Wessex Grove
private producers Mike Vermeer & Ernst ten Damme and Joost Houtman & Jeffrey Ong
supported by Brook Foundation
Supported by
