<Tr> <Th> Setting </Th> <Td> The French Quarter and Downtown New Orleans </Td> </Tr> <P> A Streetcar Named Desire is a 1947 play written by American playwright Tennessee Williams that received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1948 . The play opened on Broadway on December 3, 1947, and closed on December 17, 1949, in the Ethel Barrymore Theatre . The Broadway production was directed by Elia Kazan and starred Jessica Tandy, Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, and Kim Hunter . The London production opened in 1949 with Bonar Colleano, Vivien Leigh, and Renee Asherson and was directed by Laurence Olivier . The drama A Streetcar Named Desire is often regarded as among the finest plays of the 20th century, and is considered by many to be Williams' greatest . </P> <P> After the loss of her family home, Belle Reve, to creditors, Blanche DuBois travels from the small town of Laurel, Mississippi, to the New Orleans French Quarter to live with her younger, married sister, Stella, and brother - in - law, Stanley Kowalski . Blanche is in her thirties and, with no money, she has nowhere else to go . </P> <P> Blanche tells Stella that she has taken a leave of absence from her English - teaching position because of her nerves (which is later revealed to be a lie). Blanche laments the shabbiness of her sister's two - room flat . She finds Stanley loud and rough, eventually referring to him as "common". Stanley, in return, does not care for Blanche's manners and dislikes her presence . </P>

Where is the setting of a streetcar named desire