Brett Williams
Patrick O'Hara (Dr. Cucrowicz) and Peggy Rosin (Violet Venable)
A Venus flytrap sits proper and perched until a fly wanders near. Then it strikes and consumes. We are introduced to this plant in the first 10 minutes of Suddenly, Last Summer, Tennessee Williams’ metaphor-heavy play — presented by StageQ at the Bartell Theatre though April 7.
The play is set in 1936 in New Orleans, after the unexpected death of poet Sebastian Venable. His mother is on a mission to ensure that no one finds out his secrets, even if it means ordering a lobotomy to keep her own niece quiet.
As the story unfolds in a lush green garden, Sebastian’s mother, the wealthy widow Violet Venable (Peggy Rosin), brings in a doctor to evaluate her niece Catharine. Catharine was the only family member to witness Sebastian’s death in Spain, and has a horrific tale to tell. Violet hopes the doctor will agree to lobotomize Catharine to suppress the story.
At the beginning of the play, Rosin steals the show, spitting out venomous lines, even though Violet has recently suffered a stroke. Her health is compromised, but she musters the strength to get what she wants for her family.
Then Johnson enters as Catharine. From the moment she first glides across the stage to the way she veers between reason and insanity, Johnson’s performance gives the hour and a half of dialogue its depth.
The rest of the cast is solid: Patrick O’Hara as the educated, calm Dr. Cukrowicz; Pam Adams as Sister Felicity; Rebecca Raether as the indigent Mrs. Holly; Jacob Lange in his StageQ debut as George Holly; and Lauren Rusch as Miss Foxhill.
In the play’s program, director Jim Chiolino provides some helpful context for a play that provides no easy answers as it grapples with the death of a character who may have committed heinous acts. The play premiered off-Broadway in 1958, a time when gay men had to hide their sexuality and sometimes engaged in self-destructive behavior in response to living on society’s margins. He also reminds us that Williams’ sister Rose underwent a lobotomy, and that Williams regretted he hadn’t tried to stop the procedure.
“This play — rarely produced — is proof of the genius that was Tennessee Williams,” writes Chiolino. “Read it and be enchanted. See it performed and be transformed.”