SUDDENLY, LAST SUMMER
SPOTLIGHT THEATER: 8/27 - 9/24
Suddenly, Last Summer” opened Off Broadway in 1958
just before Tennessee Williams entered into a period of psychoanalysis. It’s a
fever dream (nightmare) sparked by his domineering mother’s insistence on the
lobotomy of his beloved sister, Rose. The play was originally produced as a
one-act that was preceded by another play: “Something Unspoken.”
L-R: Emma Messenger and Linda Button(Photo credit: Solar Radiant Photography)
“Suddenly Last Summer” centers around the character of
Catherine, a woman who, presumed to be insane, has accompanied a young poet to
Europe in the summer in which he mysteriously died. It’s set in 1937 Louisiana and directed with
real insight by Bernie Cardell. The scenic design places us in the deep South
with a tattered red backdrop that invites us into the gothic hothouse full of
the predatory world of the poet’s mother, Violet Venable.
Under the
influence of an injection of truth serum Catherine unveils what really happened
that summer providing us as audience with a suspenseful and harrowing journey
into a universe filled with predatory plants and animals and people.
Society’s inhumanity to the mentally ill having been
given a preface with the final scene of his “Streetcar Named Desire,” this play
completes his statement regarding the fearfully inhumane treatment of the
mentally ill in his lifetime.
Director Cardell has elicited very fine performances
from a cast of supremely talented actors: Emma Messenger (Violet Venable), Maggy Stacy (Catharine Holly), James
O’Hagan-Murphy (Dr. Cukrowicz), Darcy Kennedy (Mrs. Holly), Carter Edward Smith
(George), Linda Button (Foxhill) and Kelly Alayne Dwyer (Sister Felicity).
Spotlight
Theatre
“Suddenly Last Summer”
What
really happened to young Sebastian Venable that summer?
Previews
Friday, August 26
August
27 through September 24
Fridays,
Saturdays and Monday, September 12 at 7:30.p.m, Sundays at 2 p.m (no Sunday
performance on Sept 4)and Saturday, September 24 at 2 p.m.
Tickets
are $14 - $22
The
John Hand Theater, 7653 E. 1st Place, Denver, CO 80230
Free
parking.
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