Theatergoers lucky enough to catch Cate Blanchett's astounding performance as Blanche DuBois in Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire, now playing at the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Harvey Theatre, will find the Academy Award-winning actress has cast this iconic role in an entirely fresh, and ultimately harrowing, light.

There's no indication of the actress' innovative approach to the part during the opening moments of director Liv Ullmann's strikingly honest and no-nonsense production. In fact, it looks as if Blanchett might be portraying the shattered Southern belle in a rather traditional fashion; there's a haunted and ethereal quality to the haughty Blanche as she first enters. [...]