“Suddenly Last Summer” is as shocking and strange as it is steamy and sensual. TheatreWorks celebrates this work with a not-to-be-missed production. It all begins with Violet Venable, a wealthy, domineering widow who is distraught over the death of her only son, Sebastian. She is also infuriated with her niece, Catharine, who was not only with her son when he died, but who tells the most horrific stories about how he died.

So terrifying was Sebastian’s death that Catharine nearly lost her mind over it. She has been institutionalized ever since. So full of revenge is Sebastian’s mother that she wants Dr. Cukrowicz to perform a lobotomy on the girl so that she’ll stop repeating the details of her son’s death. When Venable summons Catharine to her home, along with the doctor well known for his work, the young woman is smart and sane enough to know that she is heading toward a lobotomy.

It’s no wonder females love performing in Tennessee Williams’ plays. After all he created women as complex as Amanda and Laura in “The Glass Menagerie,” Blanche DuBois in “A Streetcar Named Desire” and Maggie in “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.” If he looked at these women through compassionate eyes, he also saw distorted images of them in characters like Mrs. Venable in “Suddenly Last Summer.” Williams leaves no doubt that this play is autobiographical, and that Venable represents his domineering mother who permitted a real life lobotomy performed on his beloved sister, Rose. The playwright makes sure we don’t miss these connections. In the play, Catharine is called “Sister” by her brother and mother. Sebastian, an absent character around which the entire play revolves, is one of Williams’ telling self portraits.

Poets are always clairvoyant! ...[Sebastian’s] future recognition! That he did want, he wanted it after his death when it couldn’t disturb him; then he did want to offer his work to the world.

Williams always blamed success for interfering with his work, but “Suddenly Last Summer” reads like a lyrical and provocative poem in its entirety. Happily, the TheatreWorks’ cast and crew celebrate this work with their crystalline interpretations and insightful renderings.
Due to spellbinding performances, not only by the leads but by the entire ensemble, this production breathes Williams in breathtaking scene after scene. Joseph Russo makes his solo directorial debut with this show and he punctuates each masterly envisioned scene with intrigue, fine detail, and depth. Noel Desiato is almost breathlessly vicious as the crippled, adoring mother, Violet Venable. Sebastian may be an absent character in this play, but Williams has drawn him clearly as a homosexual poet. Desiato’s stellar performance makes Sebastian a powerful presence. Her performance is so generously laced with the pain of losing her beloved son, that the actress makes us feel that pain.

Keilly Gillen McQuail plays Catharine, a character with equal amounts of fear and daring. Offering spunk and smarts one moment, and chilling caution and vulnerability the next, McQuail delivers a strong and steadfast performance. Also helping to put this production into major “hitsville” are Jeremiah Maestas, KC Ross, Katherine Almquist, David Hutchinson, and Robbin Christiani.

Enhancing the production is Joseph Russo’s exquisite set design and Bill Hughes’ scenic art, which together render a steamy, hazy and lush conservatory where flesh eating plants stare at the audience open-mouthed. This superior production runs through August 2.