Spotlight on . . .

IT is 65 years since Tennessee Williams wrote the Pulitzer Prize-winning play A Streetcar Named Desire.

The tale of a fading southern belle - Blanche DuBois - who moves into her sister Stella’s New Orleans apartment in an attempt to leave a troubled past behind is well known to audiences, however, it very nearly had an entirely different title.

When Williams began writing the play he thought of calling it The Moth. Scottish Ballet have taken this as the inspiration for the opening scene of their latest work, which tours to the Festival Theatre next week.

The first thing audience members will see is a young Blanche dancing under a bare light bulb.

A delicate creature, she flutters towards the light, a light which attracts but which can also burn. A light which represents desire.

Scottish Ballet’s vibrant new take on A Streetcar Named Desire (pictured), in collaboration with theatre and film director Nancy Meckler and international choreographer Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, creates a powerful infusion of drama and dance.

Unlike Williams’ play, Scottish Ballet’s production begins by relating the story of Blanche DuBois as she grows up in America’s Deep South.

The year is 1935, and the lifestyle of the landed gentry is in steep decline. Blanche is a beautiful young girl with her life ahead of her. However, things don’t go as planned, even when she moves into her sister’s apartment - Stella’s brutish husband Stanley sees that Blanche is not all she appears to be and sets out to destroy her...

Danced to a jazz-inspired score by Peter Salem, Scottish Ballet promise to push the boundaries of modern ballet with this piece. Not to be missed.

Festival Theatre, Nicolson Street, Wednesday-Saturday, 7.30pm (Saturday matinee 2pm), £16.50-£37.50, 0131-529 6000

EXHIBITION

John Gray’s Edinburgh

MANY artists have been inspired by Edinburgh, but none more so than painter John Gray, who has spent 20 years creating a series of large-scale oil paintings about the city, its history and some of the characters and myths associated with it.

You can see these masterpieces from tomorrow at Whitespace on Gayfield Square.

With titles such as The Wizard of the West Bow and Bowed Joseph, there’s a magical quality to Gray’s works, which also depict the Capital’s darker side. Check out Deacon Brodie, Burke and Hare and The Death of Montrose or The Porteous Riots and Queensberry House, which chart civil unrest in the city.

Whitespace, Gayfield Square, tomorrow-April 26, Monday-Saturday, 10am-5pm, Sunday, 11am-4.30pm, free