SUDDENLY LAST SUMMER

(1998)

 

What the press said

IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT

Katy Sylvester
Cambridge Evening News 28th March 1998

BAWDS's production of Suddenly Last Summer opened last night to a full house. Set in 1930s New Orleans, Tennessee Williams's haunting powerful play takes place i the tropically themed conservatory of Mrs Venable (Rosemary Eason). Indeed, the heat of the Cambridge Drama Centre meant that those of us in the audience could easily imagine ourselves to be experiencing a New Orleans summer. Catherine Holly (Amanda Matravers) witnesses her cousin Sebastian's shocking deathe while travelling with him in Mexico. Her Aunt, Mrs Venable, has Catherine institutionalised in order to discredit her disturbing account of Sebastian's demise. Mrs Venable enlist the help of Polish Psychiatrist Dr Cukrowicz (Hugh Mellor), to whom she relates the life of her son, a poet who she believes to be innocent to the last. She attempts to bribe the doctor to perform a labotomy on Catherine to "cut this hideous story out of her brain".

Although the plot took a while to gather momentum the audience was soon gripped by the rising tension as Dr Cukrowicz coaxes Catherine's version of events surrounding her cousin's bizarre death. Amanda Matravers is brilliant as the tragic Catherine, while Hugh Mellor's Dr Cukrowicz provides a much needed voice of reason as he, like the audience, tries to reconsile the two contrasting portrait of Sebastian.The emphasis on dialogue, rather than action, makes the piece extremely intense, particulary as it lasts just an hour and 20 minutes. Suddenly Last Summer is a complex play, which makes a challenging, but enjoyable, evening's viewing.

productions / photograph galleries / auditions / biographies / about us / posters / links