About the Play:

Suddenly Last Summer is a full-length drama by Tennessee Williams. In an opulent Garden District mansion, Violet Venable sets out to exact revenge on Catharine Holly. Truth, deceit and horror intermingle inside the garden walls where Catharine struggles for her life. What horrible secrets are locked in Catharine's head, and why is Violet so determined to silence them…and could it be that Violet is the victim, and that Catharine is the hunter?

Suddenly Last Summer is a Southern Gothic tale of greed, scandal, manipulation, and cannibalism set on a summer evening in the Garden District of New Orleans at the end of the 1930's. It follows a wealthy society matron, Violet Venable, who attempts to lobotomize her niece Catherine in a struggle to cover up the truth about her son Sebastian's sudden death. When her ambitious young brain surgeon tries to unravel the mystery, will Catharine share the shocking and terrible truth of what happened, or succumb to the pressure to protect the legacy of a powerful family? Mirroring aspects of Tennessee Williams' own life (his sister Rose was compelled to undergo a lobotomy at the instigation of their domineering mother), this poetically intense play raises bold questions about mental illness, sexuality, guilt, brutality, and the search for truth. One of Tennessee Williams' finest and most famous plays, the audience will feel like a jury in the trial of Catharine Holly as they are situated among the gargantuan, carnivorous plants of Sebastians' garden!

Suddenly Last Summer premiered in 1958 at the York Theatre Off-Broadway, as part of a double-bill titled Garden District with another Williams work Something Unspoken. Its Broadway debut was in 1995 at the Circle in the Square Theatre. The play has been performed in regional repertory, college, and community theatre productions.

Cast: 5 women, 2 men

What people say:

"A haunting spell that is virtually hypnotic in its compelling power." — New York Post

"Startling proof of what a man can do with words…this brief, withering play is a superb achievement." — New York Times

About the Playwright:

Tennessee Williams (1911-1983), one of the 20th century's most superb writers, was also one of its most successful and prolific. He was born in Columbus, Mississippi, where his grandfather was the Episcopal clergyman. When his father, a travelling salesman, moved with his family to St. Louis some years later, both he and his sister found it impossible to settle down to city life. He entered college during the Depression and left after a couple of years to take a clerical job in a shoe company. He stayed there for two years, spending the evening writing. He entered the University of Iowa in 1938 and completed his course, at the same time holding a large number of part-time jobs of great diversity. He received a Rockefeller Fellowship in 1940, and he won the Pulitzer Prize in 1948 and 1955. Many of his plays have been adapted to film starring screen greats like Marlon Brando and Elizabeth Taylor.