Setting in Scene 1

"The exterior of a two-story corner building on a street in New Orleans which is named Elysian Fields and runs between the L & N tracks and the river. The section is poor but, unlike corresponding sections in other American cities, it has a raffish charm. The houses are mostly white frame, weathered gray, with rickety outside stairs and galleries and quaintly ornamented gables. This building contains two flats, upstairs and down. Faded white stairs ascend to the entrances of both. It is first dark of an evening early in May. The sky that shows around the dim white building is a peculiarly tender blue, almost a turquoise, which invests the scene with a kind of lyricism and gracefully attenuates the atmosphere of decay. You can almost feel the warm breath of the brown river beyond the river warehouses with their faint redolences of bananas and coffee. A corresponding air is evoked by the music of Negro entertainers at a barroom around the corner. In this part of New Orleans you are practically always just around the corner, or a few doors down the street, from a tinny piano being played with the infatuated fluency of brown fingers. This "Blue Piano" expresses the spirit of the life which goes on here. Two women, one white and one colored, are taking the air on the steps of the building. The white woman is Eunice, who occupies the upstairs flat; the colored woman a neighbor, for New Orleans is a cosmopolitan city where there is a relatively warm and easy intermingling of races in the old part of town. Above the music of the "Blue Piano" the voices of people on the street can be heard overlapping."

Comments:

• From what we know about this era, race relations weren't considered very easy in most places. People are quite accepting and aren't prejudiced around this area. This sets Elysian Fields apart from  the rest of the world.  
• Williams tells us it is May, summer, but that the lighting is blue and cold and that it is dark. This is not a very summery atmosphere. This is to show us how out of touch Elysian Fields is with the rest of the world. Just like the race relations, it does not seem to follow the rules of the outside world. 
• The stage set-up allows us to see the exterior of the upstairs flat and the interior and exterior of the downstairs flat. This is a very flexible layout. This lets us see scenes like the one where Stanley is listening to Stella + Blanche and it allows us to see Mitch + Blanche flirt during the poker scene. The audience can see everything going on which clues us in on things that the characters do not know. This is how dramatic irony is created. 
• The "lyricism" that "gracefully" reflects the decay is a representation of Blanche's mental state at the same time as being a factor contributing to her mental decline - (Blanche tries to stay beautiful and put up an air of grace despite the fact she is succumbing to mental illness/her mental state is worsened by being in such poor conditions and by the change in her social status)
• Elysian fields provides contrast to the dream world of Blanche Dubois. It is dirty and poor and made for the working class - which makes her feel out of place. This dissonance creates a feeling that she is "the other" in this setting. The setting plays a part in this narrative.
• The stairs being "rickety" means that they could easily break - you can't run down them. This makes the apartment feel trapped off. 
• Elysian fields is a paradise for fallen heroes after they've died. This is ironic because none of the main characters are typical "heroes." Stanley is an abusive rapist, Blanche has slept with her students, Stella doesn't believe her sister about the rape, Steve and Eunice are both violent - no character is 100% good. 
• The blues piano playing in the background. It's lively and shows Elysian fields as an exciting and vibrant place, "express(ing) the spirit of the life." It plays several times. During Stan and Stella's reunion, Blanche's rape and at the beginning and the end. In three of those scenes Blanche is not there and, in the rape scene, this could show that Blanche is not there anymore in regards to her mental state. It could show that she's lost a part of herself. 

"She gets up and opens the downstairs door. A light goes on behind the blind, turning it light blue. Blanche slowly follows her into the downstairs flat. The surrounding areas dim out as the interior is lighted.] [Two rooms can be seen, not too clearly defined. The one first entered is primarily a kitchen but contains a folding bed to be used by Blanche. The room beyond this is a bedroom. Off this room is a narrow door to a bathroom."

• Blue is a cold and unfriendly color. It makes the apartment seem unpleasant and not very much like a place that Blanche could call home.
• The room is not clearly defined. This links to how Stella has not defined, and given detail, about what her living situations were like and how Blanche would be living when she got there. The dimming of the lights also links to how light was not shed on the subject within Stella's letters.
• Blanche isn't given a proper bed - she has no place within this apartment as she has no place in Elysian fields. This shows us that she doesn't belong.