Belinda Giblin, Remi Hii and Andrea Demetriades. Photo: Jaimi Joy.
In the sultry heat of a summer in the American south, among a garden full of Venus fly traps and ferns, Violet Venable (Belinda Giblin) cannot rest. Her beloved son Sebastian – a poet, an artistic soul apparently without fault – died in Europe the previous summer, in somewhat mysterious circumstances, and someone must be held accountable. Violet’s sights are fixed on his young cousin Catharine, who was with him when he met his end. It must be Catharine’s fault. The girl is mad. Violet, wealthy and iron-willed, has engaged a doctor (Remi Hii) to find this so. She wants Catharine silenced, lobotomised; her son’s precious memory must be preserved at all costs. But will Dr Sugar comply? There is money in it for him if he does. And what exactly did happen to Sebastian?
Suddenly Last Summer is a play that slowly yields up its secrets. It is set in 1936 and premiered in 1958, but its themes are timeless: coercion, shame, fear, the power of money. This production, directed by Shaun Rennie, runs for a neat and engrossing 90 minutes. Set designer Simone Romaniuk uses gauzy, foliage printed fabric as a backdrop to suggest the garden, but also to hint at the obfuscation and mystery shrouding the Venables (and look for the subtle, but grasping hand motif.)
Giblin perfectly embodies the unlikeable Violet, for whom money is no object and reputation is all. Dr Sugar (a role filled admirably by Hii, at the last minute) is young and perhaps open to bribery. He needs funds for his pioneering research. Catharine’s mother and brother (Valerie Bader and Socratis Otto) also have their eye on the main chance, so when Catharine is eventually brought before her unrelenting aunt, her fate is at best uncertain. If Sebastian was a creator, Violet is a destroyer – and Catharine, to quote Violet in Giblin’s fine American drawl, is ‘PER-verse’.
As Catharine, Andrea Demetriades is clad in red when the rest of the cast are shades of cream and white. She appears vulnerable. She would like to say what happened, but will she? Her portrayal of Catharine builds to a thrilling climax.
Elements of this play have their genesis in Williams’ own history. His sister Rose was diagnosed as schizophrenic and underwent one of the first frontal lobotomies performed in the US. Williams was so appalled by this, and its effects on Rose, who had been his primary childhood friend, that he spent the rest of his life obsessing about it, according to biographical accounts. His mother Edwina had authorised the procedure.
To say more would risk spoilers. The whole is brought together well on the Ensemble’s small stage and Kelly Ryall’s evocative sound design heightens the claustrophobic hot-house atmosphere. The language, as you would expect from Tennessee Williams, is lyrical. All in all, well worth seeing.
At the Ensemble Theatre, Kirribilli until 10 June 2023
Tickets $38-50. More info at https://www.ensemble.com.au/shows/suddenly-last-summer/
