Beauty, in Miller’s sense, is not on Frecknall’s menu. Blanche’s costumes (by Merle Hensel) make no pretense of prettiness, just as the staging leaves her no dignity. The lighting (by Lee Curran) is harsh and the sound (by Peter Rice) harsher. The drums obscure some of the dialogue.

It starts with a drumbeat. A very, very loud drumbeat. We’re talking literal drums here. The drums don’t just punctuate the action of the latest revival of Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire at the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Harvey Theater — they are a warning. Advance notice of the carnage, both emotional and physical, to come.