Editing Suddenly Last Summer

{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2024}}
{{Short description|1958 play by Tennessee Williams}}
{{About|the play|other uses|Suddenly Last Summer (disambiguation)}}
{{more citations needed|date=November 2008}}
{{Infobox play
| name       = Suddenly Last Summer
| image      = SuddenlyLastsummer.JPG
| caption    = First edition cover ([[New Directions Publishing|New Directions]])
| writer     = [[Tennessee Williams]]
| chorus     =
| characters = {{ubl | Violet Venable | Sebastian Venable | Catharine Holly | Mrs. Holly | George Holly | Dr. Cukrowicz | Miss Foxhill | Sister Felicity }}
| setting    = room and garden of Mrs. Venable's mansion in the [[Garden District, New Orleans|Garden District]] of [[New Orleans]]
| premiere   = {{start date and age|1958|1|7|p=yes}}
| place      = [[York Playhouse]]<br />[[New York City]], New York, U.S.
| orig_lang  = [[English language|English]]
| subject    = Aging, greed, hypocrisy, sexual repression
| genre      = [[Drama]]
}}
'''''Suddenly Last Summer''''' is a one-act [[Play (theatre)|play]] by [[Tennessee Williams]], written in New York in 1957.<ref>{{cite book |last=Williams |first=Tennessee |title=Plays 1957–1980 |editor1-first=Mel |editor1-last=Gussow |editor2-first=Kenneth |editor2-last=Holditch |place=New York, NY |publisher=Library of America |year=2000 |page=973 |isbn=1883011876}}</ref> It opened [[off Broadway]] on January 7, 1958, as part of a double bill with another of Williams' one-acts, ''[[List of one-act plays by Tennessee Williams#Something Unspoken|Something Unspoken]]'' (written in London in 1951).<ref name="Devlin86"/>{{rp|page=&nbsp;52}} The presentation of the two plays was given the overall title ''Garden District,'' but ''Suddenly Last Summer'' is now more often performed alone.<ref name="Kolin132-133">{{cite book |editor-last=Kolin |editor-first=Philip C. |title=Tennessee Williams: A Guide to Research and Performance |publisher=[[Greenwood Publishing]] |place=London, UK |year=1998 |isbn=978-0313303067 |pages=132–133}}</ref> Williams said he thought the play "perhaps the most poetic" he had written,<ref name="Devlin86">{{cite book |editor-last=Devlin |editor-first=Albert J. |title=Conversations with Tennessee Williams |publisher=[[University Press of Mississippi]] |location=Oxford, Mississippi |year=1986 |isbn=978-0878052639  |url=https://archive.org/details/conversationswit0000will/page/86}}{{ISBN|0878052631}}</ref>{{rp|page=&nbsp;86}} and [[Harold Bloom]] ranks it among the best examples of the playwright's lyricism.<ref name="Bloom3">{{cite book |last=Bloom |first=Harold |title=Introduction to ''Tennessee Williams'' |series=Bloom's Bio-Critique |publisher=Chelsea House |year=2003 |page=3}}</ref>

== Plot ==
In 1936, in the [[Garden District, New Orleans|Garden District]] of New Orleans,{{efn|Mrs.&nbsp;Venable tells us that Sebastian's fateful trip with Catharine, during which he failed to write a poem, took place in 1935. The play is set "between late summer and early fall" the following year.<ref name=Williams_1957>{{cite book |last=Williams |first=Tennessee |title=Suddenly Last Summer and Other Plays |orig-year=1957 |place=London, England |publisher=[[Penguin Publishing]] |year=2009}}{{rp|pages=&nbsp;3, 41}}</ref>}} Mrs.&nbsp;Violet Venable, an elderly socialite widow from a prominent local family, has invited a doctor to her home. She talks nostalgically about her son Sebastian, a poet who died under mysterious circumstances in Spain the previous summer.{{efn|name="spain"|Williams indicates that Cabeza de Lobo is in Spain, not (as it is sometimes assumed) in South America, by referring to Catharine's return "from Europe" aboard the ''Berengaria'', an Atlantic liner.<ref name=Williams_1957/>{{rp|pages=&nbsp;14, 24}} Williams might have had northern Spain in mind, and in particular [[San Sebastián]], as the private beach in Cabeza de Lobo frequented by Sebastian and Catharine is called Playa San Sebastian.<ref name=Williams_1957/>{{rp|page=&nbsp;43}}}} During the course of their conversation, she offers to make a generous donation to support the doctor's psychiatric research if he will perform a [[lobotomy]] on Catharine, her niece, who has been confined to St.&nbsp;Mary, a private mental institution, at her expense since returning to America.<ref name=Williams_1957/>{{rp|pages=&nbsp;14–16}} Mrs.&nbsp;Venable is eager to "make her peaceful" once and for all by erasing her memories of Sebastian's violent death and his [[homosexuality]]; Mrs. Venable is especially adamant that Catharine stop talking about the latter, in order to preserve her late son's reputation.<ref name=Williams_1957/>{{rp|pages=&nbsp;13–14}}

Catharine arrives, followed by her mother and brother. They are also eager to suppress her version of events, since Mrs.&nbsp;Venable is threatening to keep Sebastian's will in [[probate]] until she is satisfied, something Catharine's family can't afford to challenge.<ref name=Williams_1957/>{{rp|page=&nbsp;23}} But the doctor injects Catharine with a [[truth serum]] and she proceeds to give a scandalous account of Sebastian's moral dissolution and the events leading up to his death, how he used her to procure young men for his sexual exploitation,<ref name=Williams_1957/>{{rp|page=&nbsp;44}} and how he was set upon, mutilated, and partially devoured by a mob of starving children in the street. Mrs.&nbsp;Venable lunges at Catharine but is prevented from striking her with her cane. She is taken off stage, screaming "cut this hideous story from her brain!" Far from being convinced of Catharine's insanity, however, the doctor concludes the play by stating he believes her story could be true.<ref name=Williams_1957/>{{rp|pages=&nbsp;50–51}}

== Analysis ==
From its first page, the script is rich in symbolic detail open to many interpretations.<ref name=Williams_1957/>{{rp|page=&nbsp;3}} The "mansion of [[Victorian Gothic]] style" immediately connects the play with [[Southern Gothic]] literature, with which it shares many characteristics.<ref name=Gross_1995>{{cite journal |first=Robert F. |last=Gross |title=Consuming Hart: Sublimity and Gay Poetics in ''Suddenly Last Summer'' |journal=[[Theatre Journal]] |volume=47 |issue=2 |publisher=[[Johns Hopkins University Press]] |location=Baltimore, Maryland |date=May 1995 |pages=229–251 |doi=10.2307/3208485 |jstor=3208485}}</ref>{{rp|page=&nbsp;229}} Sebastian's "jungle-garden," with its "violent" colours and noises of "beasts, serpents, and birds ... of savage nature" introduces the images of [[predation]] that punctuate much of the play's dialogue.{{efn|name="birdcry"|e.g. after Mrs.&nbsp;Holly says "don't laugh like that; it scares me, Catharine," there is the stage direction  "''jungle birds scream in the garden''"<ref name=Williams_1957/>{{rp|page=&nbsp;25}}}} These have been interpreted variously as implying the violence latent in Sebastian himself;<ref name="jungleroel">{{cite book |last=van den Oever |first=Roel |title=Mama's Boy: Momism and Homophobia in Postwar American Culture |publisher=[[Palgrave Macmillan]] |place=London, England |year=2012 |ISBN=978-1349445486|page=85}}</ref> depicting modernity's vain attempts to "contain" its [[atavism|atavistic]] impulses;<ref name="junglefielder">{{cite book |first=Elizabeth Rodriguez |last=Fielder |chapter=A Litany Seeking a Text: The Specter of the Conjure in the Sub-Tropical Southern Gothic|editor1-first=Justin D. |editor1-last=Edwards |editor2-first=Sandra G.T. |editor2-last=Vasconcelos |title=Tropical Gothic in Literature and Culture: The Americas |publisher=[[Routledge]] |place=London, England |year=2016 |ISBN=978-1138915862 |page=60}}</ref> and standing for a bleak "[[Darwinism|Darwinian]]" vision of the world, equating "the primeval past and the ostensibly civilised present."{{efn|name="jungledarwin"|Thompson sees the opening stage direction as introducing "the dual role of victim and victimizer, predator and prey, engaged in a struggle for survival rather than salvation.<ref name=Thompson_1987>{{cite book |last=Thompson |first=Judith |title=Tennessee Williams' Plays: Memory, Myth, and Symbol |publisher=[[Peter Lang (publisher)|Peter Lang]] |location=London, England |year=1987|ISBN=978-0820404769}}</ref>{{rp|pages=&nbsp;99, 112}}}}

The [[Venus flytrap]] mentioned in the play's opening speech can be read as portraying Sebastian as the "pampered" son,<ref name=Sofer_1995><!-- Formerly name="flytrapseb1" -->{{cite journal |first=Andrew |last=Sofer |date=Fall 1995 |title=Self-Consuming Artifacts: Power, Performance and the Body in Tennessee Williams' ''Suddenly Last Summer'' |journal=[[Modern Drama (journal)|Modern Drama]] |publisher=[[University of Toronto Press]] |location=Toronto, Ontario, Canada |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/499528/pdf |volume=38 |issue=3 |pages=336–347 |doi=10.3138/md.38.3.336|s2cid=191578339 |url-access=subscription }}</ref>{{rp|page=&nbsp;337}} or "hungry for flesh";{{efn|According to Pecorari, the plant is "a rather transparent metaphor for Sebastian himself: Predatory yet vulnerable, perfectly handsome in a delicate, feminine way, like the goddess of beauty, and also hungry for flesh, in his case, adolescent boys instead of flies."<ref name="flytrapseb2">{{cite journal |author=Pecorari, Marie |title=Chaste or chased? Interpreting indiscretion in Tennessee Williams' ''Suddenly Last Summer'' |url=https://miranda.revues.org/5553 |journal=Miranda |issue=8 |year=2013 |doi=10.4000/miranda.5553|doi-access=free }}</ref>}} as portraying the "seductive deadliness" concealed beneath Mrs.&nbsp;Venable's "civilized veneer,"<ref name=Thompson_1987/>{{rp|page=&nbsp;112}} while she "clings desperately to life" in her "hothouse" home;<ref name="flytrapviolet2">{{cite journal |first=Marylyn Claire |last=Ford |title=Parodying Fascism: ''Suddenly Last Summer'' as Political Allegory |journal=Publications of the Mississippi Pholological Association |year=1997 |pages=19–20}}</ref> as a joint "metaphor for Violet and Sebastian, who consume and destroy the people around them";<ref name="flytrapboth">{{cite web |first=Jo |last=Gabriel |url=https://thelastdrivein.com/2013/01/13/suddenly-last-summer-1959-part-i-the-devouring-mother-the-oedipal-son-the-hysterical-woman/ |title=The Devouring Mother, the Oedipal Son & the Hysterical Woman |website=The Last Drive In |date=January 13, 2013 |access-date=March 30, 2017}}</ref> as symbolising nature's cruelty, like the "flesh-eating birds" of the [[Galápagos Islands|Galapagos]];<ref name="flytrapcruel">{{cite web |author=Barberà, Pau G. |url=http://www.raco.cat/index.php/Bells/article/download/82964/140785 |title=Literature and Mythology in Tennessee Williams' ''Suddenly Last Summer'' |year=2006 |page=4 |access-date=March 30, 2017 }}</ref> as symbolising "a primitive state of desire,"<ref name="flytrapdesire">{{cite web |first=Daniel |last=Lance |url=http://daniel.lance.free.fr/TennesseeWilliams.htm |title=Nature as a wild and sacrificial world: Tennessee Williams' view point |website=Colloquium on Violence and Religion|location=Ghost Ranch, Abiquiu, New Mexico|year=2004 |access-date=March 30, 2017 }}</ref> and so on.

Williams referred to symbols as "the natural language of drama"<ref name=Devlin86/>{{rp|page=&nbsp;250}} and "the purest language of plays."<ref name="symbols2">{{cite book |first=Tennessee |last=Williams |author-link=Tennessee Williams |chapter=Camino Real |editor1-first=John |editor1-last=Lahr |editor-link1=John Lahr |editor2-first=Christine R. |editor2-last=Day |editor3-first=Bob |editor3-last=Woods |title=Where I Live: Selected Essays |publisher=New Directions|location=New York, NY |year=1978 |isbn=978-0811207065 |page=[https://archive.org/details/whereiliveselect00will_0/page/66 66] |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/whereiliveselect00will_0/page/66}}</ref> The ambiguity arising from the abundance of symbolism is therefore not unfamiliar to his audiences. What poses a unique difficulty to critics of ''Suddenly Last Summer'' is the absence of its protagonist.<ref name=Sofer_1995/>{{rp|page=&nbsp;336}} All we can know of Sebastian must be gleaned from the conflicting accounts given by two characters of questionable sanity, leaving him "a figure of unresolvable contradiction."<ref name=Gross_1995/>{{rp|pages=&nbsp;239–241}}

In spite of its difficulties, however, the play's recurrent images of predation and [[Human cannibalism|cannibalism]]{{efn|name="cannibalism"|e.g. Catharine tells us how Sebastian talked about people, as if they were items on a menu – 'That one's delicious-looking, that one is appetizing' ... blonds were next on the menu ... Cousin Sebastian said he was famished for blonds"; she describes the "hot, ravenous mouth" of the married man she met at the Mardi Gras ball.<ref name=Williams_1957/>{{rp|pages=&nbsp;20–21, 36}}}} point to Catharine's cynical pronouncement as key to understanding the playwright's intentions: "we all use each other," she says in Scene&nbsp;4, "and that's what we think of as love."<ref name=Williams_1957/>{{rp|page=&nbsp;34}} Accordingly, Williams commented on a number of occasions that Sebastian's death was intended to show how:
<blockquote>Man devours man in a metaphorical sense. He feeds upon his fellow creatures, without the excuse of animals. Animals actually do it for survival, out of hunger ... I use that metaphor [of cannibalism] to express my repulsion with this characteristic of man, the way people use each other without conscience ... people devour each other.<ref name=Devlin86/>{{rp|pages=&nbsp;146, 304}}</blockquote>

== Productions and Adaptations ==
=== 1958 original New York production ===
The first production of the play was performed [[off-Broadway]], starting on January 7, 1958. Produced alongside ''Something Unspoken'' under the collective title ''Garden District'', it was staged by the York Playhouse company at the York Theatre on First Avenue in New York. [[Anne Meacham]] won an [[Obie Award]] (Annual Off-Broadway Theatre Awards) for her performance as Catherine. The production also featured Hortense Alden as Mrs.&nbsp;Venable, [[Robert Lansing (actor)|Robert Lansing]] as Dr.&nbsp;Cukrowicz, Eleanor Phelps as Mrs.&nbsp;Holly and Alan Mixon as George Holly, and was directed by Herbert Machiz, with the set designed by Robert Soule and costumes by Stanley Simmons. Incidental music was by [[Ned Rorem]].<ref>{{cite book |editor=Kolin, Philip C. |title=Tennessee Williams: A Guide to Research and Performance |publisher=[[Greenwood Publishing Group]] |location=Westport, Connecticut |year=1998 |page=132}}</ref>

=== 1958 original London production ===
The play's London debut was presented, under club conditions, at the [[Arts Theatre]] on September 16, 1958, running until October 11. (The venue, though situated in the West End, was a club and therefore not technically a West End theatre.) Directed, like the off Broadway production, by Herbert Machiz, it was coupled once again with ''Something Unspoken'', with the cast headed by [[Patricia Neal]] as Catherine, [[Beatrix Lehmann]] as Mrs. Venable and David Cameron as Dr Cukrowicz. The set was by Stanley Moore, the costumes by Michael Ellis, and the music by Ned Rorem.<ref>'Tennessee Williams - Leucotomy, Cannibalism', ''The Stage'', September 18, 1958, p. 11.</ref>

=== 1959 film ===
{{main|Suddenly, Last Summer (film)}}
The film version was released by [[Columbia Pictures]] in 1959, starring [[Elizabeth Taylor]], [[Katharine Hepburn]] and [[Montgomery Clift]]; it was directed by [[Joseph L. Mankiewicz]] from a [[screenplay]] by [[Gore Vidal]] and Williams. The movie differs greatly from the stage version, adding many scenes, characters and [[subplot]]s. The [[Motion Picture Production Code|Hollywood Production Code]] forced the filmmakers to cut out the explicit references to [[homosexuality]]. The film received three [[Academy Award]] nominations: Hepburn and Taylor were both nominated for [[Academy Award for Best Actress|Best Actress in a Leading Role]], and it was also up for [[Academy Award for Best Art Direction|Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White]].

===1993 BBC TV play===
{{anchor|Suddenly, Last Summer (1993 teleplay)}}<!-- This Anchor tag serves to provide a permanent target for incoming section links. Please do not remove it, nor modify it, except to add another appropriate anchor. If you modify the section title, please anchor the old title. It is always best to anchor an old section header that has been changed so that links to it will not be broken. See [[Template:Anchor]] for details. This text is produced using {{subst:Anchor comment}} -->
The play was adapted for [[BBC Television]]  in 1993 under the direction of [[Royal National Theatre]] head [[Richard Eyre]] and starring [[Maggie Smith]], [[Rob Lowe]], [[Richard E. Grant]] and [[Natasha Richardson]]. It aired in the United States on [[PBS]] as an episode of ''[[Great Performances]]''.<ref name="NYMag1993">
{{cite magazine |first=John |last=Leonard |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hBgAAAAAMBAJ&q=suddenly+last+summer+clift&pg=PA51 |title=Class Menagerie |magazine=[[New York (magazine)|New York]] |publisher=[[New York Media]] |location=New York, NY |date=January 11, 1993 |page=51}}</ref> Smith was nominated for an [[Emmy Award]] for Outstanding Actress in a Miniseries or TV Movie.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://m.emmys.com/bios/dame-maggie-smith |title=Dame Maggie Smith at Television Academy}}</ref> According to Lowe, his personal driver during production was also the personal driver for [[Montgomery Clift]] on the 1959 film.<ref>{{cite news |newspaper=[[The Los Angeles Times]] |title=Williams play a different role for Rob Lowe |first=Susan |last=King |date=January 6, 1993}}</ref>

=== 1995 Broadway debut ===
The play made its [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] debut in 1995. It was performed together with ''Something Unspoken'', the other one-act play that it originally appeared with under the title ''Garden District''. It was presented by the [[Circle in the Square Theatre]]. The cast included [[Elizabeth Ashley]], [[Victor Slezak]] and [[Celia Weston]].<ref>{{cite book |title=Theatre World, 1995–1996 Season |last1=Willis |first1=John A. |publisher=Applause Theatre and Cinema Books |year=1998 |isbn=9781557833228 |place=New York |page=14 |oclc=39883373}}</ref>

=== 1999 West End debut ===
The play debuted in the  [[West End theatre|West End]] in 1999 at the [[Comedy Theatre]], [[London]], starring [[Sheila Gish]] as Mrs.&nbsp;Venable, [[Rachel Weisz]] as Catharine, [[Gerard Butler]] as Dr.&nbsp;Cukrowicz and directed by [[Sean Mathias]].<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.londontheatre.co.uk/reviews/suddenly-last-summer | title=London Theatre Guide Archive Theatre Reviews / Suddenly Last Summer | date=June 8, 2016 }}</ref>

=== 2004 West End revival ===
[[Michael Grandage]] directed a 2004 production at the [[Lyceum Theatre (Sheffield)|Lyceum Theatre, Sheffield]], featuring [[Diana Rigg]] as Mrs.&nbsp;Venable and [[Victoria Hamilton]] as Catherine. The production toured nationally before transferring to the [[Albery Theatre]], [[West End theatre|London]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.michaelgrandage.com/index.php?plid=21 |title=Suddenly Last Summer |website=MichaelGrandage |series=Productions |year=2004 |access-date=September 25, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130925110250/http://www.michaelgrandage.com/index.php?plid=21 |archive-date=September 25, 2013 }}</ref> The production received enthusiastic reviews,<ref name="LondonTheatre">{{cite web |first=Alan |last=Bird |title=Suddenly Last Summer with Victoria Hamilton and Diana Rigg at Albery 2004 |date=May 14, 2004 |publisher=LondonTheatre.co.uk |url=https://www.londontheatre.co.uk/reviews/suddenly-last-summer-review-2004 |access-date=June 21, 2011}}</ref> and Hamilton won the [[Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Actress|''Evening Standard'' Theatre Award for Best Actress]] for her performance.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.westendtheatre.com/11749/awards/evening-standard-theatre-awards-2004/ |website=westendtheatre.com |title=Evening Standard Theatre Awards 2004 |date=January 1, 2009}}</ref>

=== 2006 off-Broadway ===
An off-Broadway production in 2006 by the [[Roundabout Theatre Company]] starred [[Blythe Danner]], [[Gale Harold]] and [[Carla Gugino]].<ref>{{cite book |title=Theatre World 2006–2007 Season |volume=63 |last1=Willis |first1=John |last2=Hodges |first2=Ben |publisher=Applause Theatre and Cinema Books |year=2009 |isbn=9781557837288 |location=New York |page=226 |oclc=228373426}}</ref>

=== 2015 Sydney Theatre Company ===
The play was part of the [[Sydney Theatre Company]]'s 2015 season. Director [[Kip Williams]] blended live camerawork with traditional stagecraft in a production starring [[Eryn Jean Norvill]] as Catherine and [[Robyn Nevin]] as Venable.<ref name="KW1">{{cite magazine |magazine=STC Magazine |department=Video |title=Director Kip Williams |url=https://www.sydneytheatre.com.au/magazine/posts/2015/february/video-director-kip-williams-sls?fptd_mode= |publisher=Sydney Theatre Company |access-date=February 25, 2015 |date=February 10, 2015}}</ref> The production received three nominations at the 2015 [[Helpmann Awards]], with Nevin nominated for Best Actress, the production nominated for Best Play, and Williams winning for Best Director.

=== 2017 Théâtre de l'Odéon, Paris ===
A French translation of the play was staged at the [[Théâtre de l'Odéon]] in March-April 2017. [[Stéphane Braunschweig]] directed Luce Mouchel as Mrs.&nbsp;Venable, Marie Rémond as Catherine, Jean-Baptiste Anoumon as Dr.&nbsp;Cukrowicz, Océane Cairaty as Miss&nbsp;Foxhill, Virginie Colemyn as Mrs.&nbsp;Holly, Glenn Marausse as George, and Boutaïna El Fekkak as Sœur Félicité.

==See also==
{{Portal|Theatre}}
* [[List of one-act plays by Tennessee Williams]]

== Footnotes ==
{{Notelist|1}}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
* {{Iobdb title| 4088|title=Garden District}}
* {{ibdb title | id = 4306 | title = Garden District }}
* {{IMDb title | id = 0053318 | title = Suddenly, Last Summer {{noitalic|(1959 film)}} }}
* {{IMDb title | id = 0108247 | title = Suddenly, Last Summer {{noitalic|(1993 TV movie)}} }}

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[[Category:1958 plays]]
[[Category:American plays adapted into films]]
[[Category:LGBTQ-related plays]]
[[Category:Off-Broadway plays]]
[[Category:Plays by Tennessee Williams]]
[[Category:Plays set in New Orleans]]
[[Category:Plays set in the 1930s]]
[[Category:Fiction about cannibalism]]