Suddenly, Last Summer

Content Warning: Suddenly Last Summer features brief descriptions of murder, mutilation, and cannibalism. An unseen character is also implied to be both gay and a pedophile, playing into stereotypes about gay men. The play contains extensive discussion of outdated and harmful approaches to mental health treatment. The guide also references suicide.

In 1958, when Suddenly Last Summer was first staged, its 46-year-old author had already established a reputation as one of America’s leading playwrights. Thomas Lanier “Tennessee” Williams (1911-1983) launched his Broadway career in 1944 with the domestic drama The Glass Menagerie, a massive hit, which he followed up with A Streetcar Named Desire (1947), widely considered one of the finest plays of the 20th century. Suddenly Last Summer was less well received, owing partly to its controversial subject matter (pedophilia and cannibalism, as well as relationships between men in an age when gay identity was stigmatized). Since then, however, critical consensus has granted it a place among Williams’s masterpieces. Like the two earlier plays, it draws some of its themes and characters from Williams’s early life, specifically in its portrait of Catharine Holly, the emotionally troubled heroine whose aunt threatens her with a lobotomy. Her character is modeled partly on Rose Williams, Tennessee’s older sister, who was lobotomized and ended her life in a mental institution.