Suddenly, Last Summer

Suddenly, Last Summer is a one-act play by Tennessee Williams. It opened off Broadway on January 7, 1958, as part of a double bill with another of Williams' one-acts, Something Unspoken (written in 1958). The presentation of the two plays was given the overall title Garden District, but Suddenly, Last Summer is now more often performed alone. The play, is considered one of Williams' starkest and most poetic works.

Catharine Holly, a poor relation of a prominent New Orleans family, seems to be insane after her cousin Sebastian dies under mysterious circumstances on a trip to Europe. Sebastian's mother, Violet Venable, trying to cloud the truth about her son's homosexuality and death, threatens to lobotomize Catharine for her incoherent utterances relating to Sebastian's demise. Under the influence of a truth serum, Catharine tells the gruesome story of Sebastian's death by cannibalism at the hands of locals whose sexual favors he sought, using Catharine as a device to attract the young men (as he had earlier used his mother).

As with many Tennessee Williams plays, the play incorporates elements from the playwright's own life, along with elements from the life of his idol, poet Hart Crane. Williams' sister Rose was compelled to undergo a lobotomy at the instigation of their domineering mother. Williams had begun psychoanalysis shortly before writing the play. The language of the play contains many images and symbols of predation.

Sebastian's dismemberment and consumption by the objects of his sexual desire recalls the myth of Dionysus, in which a sacrificial animal is torn apart and eaten raw, as in Euripides' play The Bacchae (405 BCE).

The original production of the play was performed off Broadway in 1958, staged by the York Playhouse with lighting design by Lee Watson. Anne Meacham won an Obie Award for her performance as Catharine. The production also featured Hortense Alden and Alan Mixon.

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