Gate Theatre’s new production of A Streetcar Named Desire

IT’S been a rare Irish summer of glorious sunshine and so the Gate Theatre’s new production of A Streetcar Named Desire couldn’t arrive at a more apt time.

Tennessee Williams’s masterpiece is set against the backdrop of a sweltering hot New Orleans.

“It’s been very helpful to have the warm weather,” the show’s American director, Ethan McSweeny agrees. “But I have said to the cast: ‘You have no idea. The heat we’re experiencing now is like a winter day in New Orleans.’ Ireland just doesn’t get the same stifling humidity. But it’s been nice to let the cast go out and get a little sun.”