Tennessee Williams  — The Poet Behind the Play

The author of Suddenly Summer, Tennessee Williams, certainly rings a bell for most Americans ― even those who aren’t ardent theatergoers. But what do we know about the man who penned Suddenly Last Summer 50 years ago?
           
Tennessee Williams was born Thomas Lanier Williams III, in Columbus, Mississippi on March 26, 1911. In 1939, he moved to New Orleans and changed his name to “Tennessee,” the state of his father’s birth. His father was a traveling salesman and his mother had aspirations as a genteel southern lady. Williams found inspiration in his problematic family for much of his writing. And Suddenly Last Summer is no exception.
           
He was close to his sister Rose, a slim beauty who was diagnosed with schizophrenia at a young age. As was common at the time, Rose was institutionalized and spent most o her adult life in mental hospitals. When initial therapies were unsuccessful, she began to present with more paranoid tendencies. In an effort to treat her, Rose’s parents authorized a prefrontal lobotomy, a drastic treatment that was thought to help some mental patients who suffered from extreme agitation. Performed in 1937, the operation incapacitated rose for the rest of her life; Williams never forgave his parents.
           
Many of these aforementioned motifs Williams incorporated into Suddenly Last Summer, which opened together with another of Williams’ one act plays entitled Something Unspoken, under the collective title The Garden District, at the York Theatre in New York City on January 7, 1958.
           
As a prolific poet and playwright, Williams won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for A Streetcar Named Desire in 1948 and again for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in 1955. In addition, The Glass Menagerie (1945) and The Night of the Iguana (1961) each received New York Drama Critics’ Circle Awards, and his 1952 play, The Rose Tattoo, received the Tony Award for Best Play for that year. Williams died on February 24, 1983, at the Hotel Elysée in New York City.

Critical Acclaim for Suddenly Last Summer…

“A haunting spell that is virtually hypnotic in its compelling power." — The New York Post

“Startling proof of what a man can do with words…this brief, withering play is a superb achievement.” — The New York Times

“The very reluctance with which the grim, hopeless narrative is unfolded binds us to it; Mr. Williams threads it out with a spare, sure, sharply vivid control of language…and the spell is cast.” — The New York Herald-Tribune

Suddenly Last Summer
Featured Actress…

Keilly Gillen McQuail

The role of Catherine Holly in Tennessee Williams’s Suddenly Last Summer requires immense maturity, emotional depth, and dramatic prowess. Enter Keilly Gillen McQuail of Newtown, whose phenomenal portrayal of Catharine on the TheatreWorks stage is utterly captivating.

In Suddenly Last Summer, Ms. McQuail boldly shows off her dramatic abilities by transforming into the young and sensual, yet disturbed, Catherine Holly. She delivers her poetic monologues with such passion and conviction that it compels the audience to relive the fateful events of the previous summer along with her. Her performance is truly fascinating to watch, from her expression of vulnerability to her vivid, emotional reveal of the shocking truth of what “might” have happened last summer.

“The interesting thing about this show is that the actual story doesn't even occur on stage; the real story has to be told and I want to tell it,” Ms. McQuail said. “It's a bizarre story, but it's supported by the most sincere, human, back-bone…real people in unreal circumstances, but real people all the same.”

"McQuail's intensity; she leaves the audience breathless and dazzled." — The News Times

TheatreWorks New Milford is proud to have Ms. McQuail return to its stage after completing her first year at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and the Atlantic Theatre Studio. While she continues to develop her professional career at NYU, she’s thrilled to be in this production with her fellow actors under the direction of Joseph Russo.

“The people I get to be on stage with every night are so damn talented. Audiences should come to see them,” Ms. McQuail said. She goes further when it comes to the play itself:

“As far as words go, it doesn't get much more beautiful than Tennessee Williams. That's what I enjoy the most, getting to say these fantastic words every night. When it's done right, it can be a total catharsis. Not just theatre, but a great human experience. Also, getting to play dress-up is nice,” Ms. McQuail said with a laugh.

This versatile actress, singer, and dancer is often known for showing her comedic talent at TheatreWorks in roles such as the sugary-sweet Mary Lane in Reefer Madness, the hilarious high school incarnation of Peppermint Patty in Dog Sees God, and the precocious Little Sally in the hit musical, Urinetown. Last spring, she played Nora, a smaller yet touching dramatic role, in Neil Simon’s moving Brighton Beach Memoirs. In Suddenly Last Summer, she takes her captivating dramatic performance to a new level, the likes of which you may have never seen from this outstanding actress ― and on the TheatreWorks stage itself.

Ms. McQuail concludes, “I want the audience to understand what Catherine has seen, why she is the way she is and, if it's not asking too much, to love her the way I've come to love her.”

Not only will you love Catharine, her story, and this gripping tale, but you’ll love Keilly McQuail herself in this entrancing and hypnotic performance.