Full Casting Announced For Nuffield Southampton Theatres, Theatr Clwyd And English Touring Theatre's Production Of A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE

Nuffield Southampton Theatres, Theatr Clwyd and English Touring Theatre today announce casting for their co-production of Tennessee Williams' masterpiece A Streetcar Named Desire. 2017 RTST Sir Peter Hall Director Award winner Chelsea Walker directs Nicole Agada (Woman/Nurse), Will Bliss (Steve), Dexter Flanders (Mitch), Kelly Gough (Blanche), Amber James (Stella), Patrick Knowles (Stanley), Marai Louis (Eunice) and Joe Manjón (Pablo/Doctor/Paperboy). The second production in the inaugural season at NST City, A Streetcar Named Desire opens at Nuffield Southampton Theatres on 28 March with previews from 23 March, running until 31 March. The production will tour the UK with English Touring Theatre ahead of opening at Theatr Clwyd, where it plays from 15 March until 2 June, before returning to NST City.

"Every man is a king." Stanley is no exception.

Until one summer, when his sister-in-law Blanche comes to stay. Anxious, seductive and fiercely clever, Blanche is just about keeping it together. But her arrival threatens Stanley's entire way of life.

As the summer heats up, and the games turn savage, a burning desire threatens to tear their world apart.

After the run at Nuffield Southampton Theatres, and preceding a run at Theatr Clwyd, A Streetcar Named Desire tours to Theatre by the Lake, Malvern Theatres, Bristol Old Vic, New Wolsey Theatre Ipswich, Cambridge Arts Theatre and Oxford Playhouse before returning to Southampton.

Tennessee Williams (1911 - 1983) was one of the greatest American Playwrights. His principal works include A Streetcar Named Desire (Pulitzer Prize), The Glass Menagerie (New York Critics' Circle Award), The Rose Tattoo (Tony Award for Best Play), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Pulitzer Prize), Suddenly Last Summer, Sweet Bird of Youth, Orpheus Descending and The Night of the Iguana (New York Critics' Circle Award).

Nicole Agada plays Woman/Nurse. For theatre her credits include Ivanov (National Theatre); and for television The Commuter.

Will Bliss plays Steve. Theatre credits include Dido, Queen of Carthage, Titus Andronicus, Antony and Cleopatra, The Alchemist, Doctor Faustus and Don Quioxte (RSC) and Magnificence (Finborough Theatre). For television his credits include Lucky Man, Mr Sloane, Jo, Utopia, Dave Shakespeare, Heat and Oh My God.

Dexter Flanders plays Mitch. For theatre his credits include King Lear (National Theatre), What Happens Behind the Bar and Market Boy (Lost Theatre). For television his credits include Not Going Out; and for film, Kat and the Band.

Kelly Gough plays Blanche. For theatre her credits include All in the Timing (Inis Theatre), Big Love (Abbey Theatre), Falling Out Of Love (Yew Tree Theatre), The Playboy Of The Western World (Druid Theatre) and Phaedra, Vinegar Tom, Terrorism, Three Sisters, Twelfth Night and Yeats Trilogy (Samuel Beckett Theatre). For television her credits include Call the Midwife, The Fall, Strike Back, Broadchurch, Vera, Law & Order, Class, Country Woman, Raw, Scup, Belonging to Laura, This is Night Live and The Clinic; and for film, Taking Stock, Cry Rosa, Out Of Innocence, Kill Command and Jump.

Amber James plays Stella. Her theatre credits include Antony and Cleopatra, Titus Andronicus and Dido, Queen of Carthage (RSC), Two Gentlemen of Verona (Shakespeare's Globe & international tour), Much Ado About Nothing (Queen's Theatre) and The Gathered Leaves (Park Theatre).

Patrick Knowles plays Stanley. For theatre his credits include Imperium, Two Noble Kinsmen and Titus Andronicus (RSC), Look Back in Anger (Derby Theatre), Saturday Night Sunday Morning and The Grapes of Wrath (Mercury Theatre Colchester), In Quest of Conscience and The Northerners (Finborough Theatre) and Paradise Regained (Royal Court Theatre). For television his credits include Call the Midwife, Murder on The Home Front and Mutual Friends; and for film, The Rizen, Deny Everything, Pelican Blood and Heart of the City.

Marai Louis plays Eunice. Her theatre credits include Chicken Palace and Selfie Rules (Theatre Royal Stratford East), Free (Southwark Playhouse/ Director's Cut) and Low Level Panic (The Albany/ StoneCrabs Theatre Company). For television his credits include White Gold, Kiss of Death, Coconut and People Just Do Nothing; and for film, Six From Eight and Follow Me.

Joe Manjón plays Pablo/ Doctor / Paperboy. In Spain his theatre credits include Muros and Articulo 47 (Teatro a Voces), Como Si No Hubiera Mañana (Paraninfo 58), El Patito Feo (Mulambo) and El Mar (Bemfica Sentado). For television his credits include Reinas, Still Star-Crossed, The Refugees, Webcam, Space Invaders Invaders, El Internado; and for film Nasty Woman, After the Lethargy, The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, Framed and Clavius.

Chelsea Walker directs A Streetcar Named Desire as the winner of the 2017 RTST Sir Peter Hall Director Award. She directed the first major revival of Low Level Panic by Clare McIntyre at the Orange Tree Theatre last year. Her previous directing credits include P'yongyang by In-Sook Chappell and Chicken Dust by Ben Weatherill (Finborough Theatre), Klippies by Jess Sian (Southwark Playhouse) and Lean by Isley Lynn (Tristan Bates Theatre). She was also the Assistant Director on Wild by Mike Bartlett (Hampstead Theatre), Routes by Rachel de-lahay (Royal Court Theatre) and The Little Mermaid, adapted by Joel Horwood (Bristol Old Vic). She was a runner up in the JMK Young Directors' Award 2016, is a director on the Old Vic 12, and is a script reader for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize.

The Royal Theatrical Support Trust (RTST) operates an annual award scheme for up-and-coming theatre directors, the RTST Sir Peter Hall Director Award Scheme. The Scheme provides a rare opportunity for an up-and-coming director who succeeds in a competitive process to direct a fully-funded production of a play as part of a main season of productions at a British regional theatre. The RTST Sir Peter Hall Director Award Scheme is designed for the benefit of directors who have already built up a track record of professional directing experience and who are ready for the opportunity provided by the Scheme to progress to directing a production in the main house, or a comparably high-profile auditorium, of a regional theatre.

The Scheme involves a collaboration between the RTST and a regional theatre selected by the RTST. The RTST makes a significant grant to the participating regional theatre to be applied towards the costs of the Award winner's production. It is a condition of the grant that the regional theatre facilitates the implementation of the Scheme and the realisation of that production.

This year, the RTST ran the Scheme with Nuffield Southampton Theatres. At the end of a rigorous competitive process, Chelsea Walker was selected as the winner of the 2017 RTST Sir Peter Hall Director Award by a highly distinguished panel of panel of theatre professionals comprising Sam Hodges (Director of Nuffield Southampton Theatres), Howard Brenton, Tamara Harvey (Artistic Director of Theatr Clwyd), Patricia Hodge, Stephanie Street, Richard Twyman (Artistic Director of English Touring Theatre) and Danny Lee Wynter. Walker won the opportunity to direct A Streetcar Named Desire. The RTST is making a significant grant to Nuffield Southampton Theatres towards the production costs.

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