Drama: Mid-summer madness
On paper Tennessee Williams' plays seem a bit sameish. Faded southern belles, stultifying heat, twisted familial relations. Suddenly Last Summer is no exception.
The play takes place in a single scene: the jungle-like garden of Mrs Venable's whitewash Deep South mansion. Since the recent death of her 'darrrling' son Sebastian, she has lived there alone. He was the apple of her eye, now she must find herself a new purpose in life. Cigarette holder in one hand, frozen daiquiri in the other, she coldly and clinically reveals her new agenda; revenge.
Just before his death Sebastian transferred his affections from his mother, to his ingenue cousin Catherine (Rachel Weisz). With his mother now old and redundant, he hoped this fresh young thing could fill her place as his Muse. As if this was not enough to throw Mrs Venable (Sheila Gish) into paroxysms of jealousy, there's more. Catherine has a ghastly story to tell about Sebastian's death, and she won't shut up. So Mrs Venable decides to make her, if necessary by orchestrating a lobotomy.
Wilful women, lurking truths, cracks appearing in a surface of decorum. Suddenly Last Summer is typical Williams stuff. And it works. Just as the plot hangs on the issue of truth, so the piece emanates an intensely truthful quality. This is not surprising as the play is derived from real-life events. Williams' sister was lobotomised; his mother was desperately possessive; he felt he shared Sebastian's chillingly haughty perfectionism. Here Williams shows a brilliant capacity to inject his work with haunting reality, while not lapsing into self-indulgence.
Or at least, if he does indulge himself, it is in one way only: through the excessive lyricism of certain passages. Highly imagistic, sensual monologues become hugely gripping when coupled with the superb acting of Weisz and Gish, but if you think about the language too hard it starts to become ominously redolent of teen poetry.
Best of all is the play's relationship with Sebastian. Without doubt he steals the show. Evasive but intriguing, revolting but compelling, he is at the epicentre of Suddenly Last Summer. Yet he is absent, dead; everything we find out about him is hearsay. Thus the very core of the play seems hollowed out. This confirms the play's theme that below a surface of convention in society, there lies an emptiness, where anything might happen.
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