ENDSTATION SEHNSUCHT

In the organizer's words:

STANDESDÜNKEL Blanche du Bois visits her sister Stella in New Orleans. However, she is not only shocked by the run-down neighborhood in which she lives, but also by Stella's husband, the Polish immigrant Stanley Kowalski, who is brimming with macho airs and graces. To Stanley, the hypersensitive Blanche emphasizes her superior origins from a noble family and laments the loss of the family estate "Belle Rêve". Stanley, on the other hand, makes inquiries about Blanche's past and uncovers a web of lies that exposes Blanche as a prostitute and alcoholic who has lost her job as a teacher. He cynically hands her a return bus ticket. But this is just the beginning of the family quarrel.

BRIGHT FIGURES Tennessee Williams (1911-1983) is one of the great playwrights of modern American theater alongside Arthur Miller. With his best-known work, Endstation Sehnsucht (1947), Williams returned to his main literary theme, the description of fragile characters who perish because of their shattered hopes and unfulfilled life plans. Williams himself also suffered from depression, which, together with drug and alcohol consumption, led to a physical and mental breakdown and eventually led to his temporary institutionalization.

AN UNUSUAL TITLE In the summer of 1945, Tennesse Williams initially chose the title TheMoth for this work, which was obviously meant as a metaphor for Blanche. Only shortly before the premiere in December 1947 did he decide on A Streetcar Named Desire. And indeed, there was a streetcar line called "Desire" that ran in New Orleans between 1920 and 1948. "I lived very close to the main street of the old neighborhood. Along this street, on the same tracks, there are two streetcars. One is called Desire, the other Cemetery. Their incessant journey up and down suddenly seemed to me to be symbolic of life in general."