WHEN Stanley’s anxious, seductive and fiercely clever sister-in-law Blanche DuBois comes to stay, her arrival upsets his entire way of life. As the summer heats up, and the games turn savage, a burning desire threatens to tear their world apart.

A Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams’ timeless classic of what it means to be an outsider in a society where we’re all desperate to belong, arrives at Mold’s Theatr Clwyd this week with memories of the likes of Marlon Brando, Jessica Tandy, Vivien Leigh, Gillian Anderson, Maxine Peake and Rachel Weisz, running through the play’s illustrious history.

This new Theatr Clwyd, Nuffield Southampton Theatres and English Touring Theatre (ETT) production brings the cloying air of Louisiana heat and the joys of Southern hospitality to North Wales, with acclaimed young director Chelsea Walker at the helm.

Chelsea won the prestigious RTST Sir Peter Hall Director Award last year, which gave her the opportunity to direct a tour of a classic play and it was Streetcar which won out.

“I’ve not directed a ‘classic’ play before, but Streetcar feels alive and kicking and young and muscular,” says Chelsea. “It speaks to me because of the way it explores toxic masculinity and the pressures we place on women. Williams uses it to rage against a community’s complicity in

a stream of violence against women, and that couldn’t be more relevant to the conversations we’re having this year.

“It’s rare to find a play that feels so completely contemporary and emotionally epic at the same time.”

Putting her stamp on the play by setting it modern day New Orleans, the young director hopes that audiences will look at Williams’ play as more than a period piece.

“We’ve set our Streetcar in a contemporary New Orleans, so we could explore just how it speaks to us now,” she explains. “I’ve also cast it to the characters’ ages in the script, which hopefully means an audience will be viewing some of those characters in a new light.

“For me, Streetcar is Blanche’s story - and Tennessee takes us inside her head. I’ve always been interested in how we can help an audience access her as a character, and understand the journey that she’s on. The play treads a line between realism and expressionism, and I’ve pushed the expressionism to help the audience stay with Blanche.”

Getting the chance to tour the play and visit towns like Mold is, according to Chelsea, vitally important for young people to get the chance to

see live theatre.

“I come from Gloucestershire and grew up going to see regional theatre and the occasional play in London,” she says. “NT Live screenings sell out in my home town because the audience want to see bold, exciting work. Myself and the ETT team are passionate about touring ground-breaking work and making sure we’re in dialogue with audiences around the country, not just the London bubble.

“It’s important to me to make theatre that attracts new audiences - we have to appeal to the Netflix generation and excite them with theatre’s liveness. I hope Streetcar shows a young audience that the classic texts don’t have to be approached with a dusty reverence or a company made up of all old, white men.”

Chelsea also hopes the play will make audiences think about the modern world, particularly now, in the era of the #MeToo moment. With relationships between men and women, sexual violence, and the fall out from the Harvey Weinstein scandal large in the public consciousness, perhaps Williams’ play, written in 1947, has never felt more close to us.

“I hope Streetcar will spark debate about the world we live in now,” she adds. “Particularly about the way we treat people who we consider to be ‘outsiders’.”

A Streetcar Named Desire is at Theatr Clwyd, Mold - Anthony Hopkins Theatre from Tuesday, May 15 - Saturday, June 2 2018 at 7.30pm with Saturday matinees 2.30pm, Wednesday matinee May 23, 2.30pm; Thursday matinee May 31, 2.30pm.

Tickets from £10. Box Office 01352 701521 / online booking (no booking fees) www.theatrclwyd.com