W&L Presents Screening of the West End’s ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ The Feb. 10 screening features Gillian Anderson and Vanessa Kirby in this 2014 adaptation of a timeless masterpiece.

Gillian Anderson. Photo by Johan Persson

The Lenfest Center for the Arts at Washington and Lee University continues its National Theatre Live series with a screening of “A Streetcar Named Desire” at 7:30 p.m. on Feb. 10 in Stackhouse Theater in Elrod Commons.

The screening of “A Streetcar Named Desire” is the next installment of the Lenfest Center’s Outreach & Engagement (O&E) series. Tickets are required and can be purchased online or in person at the Lenfest Center box office.

W&L’s National Theatre Live series features screenings of seven top British theater productions, connecting university knowledge and art experiences on the W&L campus and beyond to the local community in a mutually beneficial partnership. Most recently, “Dr. Strangelove” was screened on Jan. 20; future screenings from the series include “Inter Alia” on March 10 and “The Fifth Step” on April 14.

Gillian Anderson stars as Blanche DuBois in this adaptation of Tennessee Williams’ timeless masterpiece. When her fragile world crumbles, DuBois travels to New Orleans to find solace in her sister, Stella, played by Vanessa Kirby, and comes face to face with Stella’s brutal, unforgiving husband, Stanley Kowalski, played by Ben Foster. Anderson received an Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Actress and was nominated for the Olivier Award for Best Actress for her performance, which the Independent described as “shatteringly powerful.”

“A Streetcar Named Desire” debuted on Broadway in 1947, striking a deep chord in the postwar United States as people struggled to find their places in a rapidly changing social order. Audiences had lived through one of the most violent periods in human history, and, to many, the name of the lost ancestral home in the play, “Belle Reve” (“beautiful dream”), evoked fading prewar notions of morality and societal convention.

Filmed live during its 2014 run at The Young Vic on London’s West End, “A Streetcar Named Desire” is directed by Benedict Andrews.

Order your tickets online today or call the Lenfest Center box office at 540-458-8000 for ticket information. Box office hours are 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. The cost is $20 for general admission and $8 for W&L students.

The National Theatre Live performances are sponsored in part by the Class of 1964 Performing Arts Fund.

For a full list of this season’s performances, visit the Lenfest Center’s website.

The Lenfest Center for the Arts, home of the Department of Theater, Dance, and Film Studies and the Department of Music and Department of Art and Art History, is a multi-use facility designed and equipped to accommodate a broad spectrum of the performing arts, including theater, musical theater, opera and operetta, choral and band music, dance and performance art in one energizing complex.