Suddenly Tennessee Williams last summer at the Bellini Theater

For the 100th anniversary of the birth of Tennessee Williams Elio de Capitani staged the show "Suddenly last summer"

To celebrate the centenary of the birth of the famous American playwright Tennessee Williams, director Elio de Capitani staged a show taken from the 1958 play Suddenly last summer, after having faced in the past also the direction of the text A tram called desire, with the unforgettable Mariangela Melato.

De Capitani thus builds the world of Tennessee Williams (often autobiographical in nature) and his characters, lives shattered and disturbed by life, fragile and powerless, constantly desperate to escape from others and from themselves.

A scene directed by Elio de Capitani of the work by Tennessee Williams Suddenly last summer at the Bellini Theater in Naples

The story comes to life in the garden of Mrs. Venable, inherited from her son Sebastian, who died "Suddenly last summer". The neurologist she called has also arrived here, officially because the rich woman wants to finance her public hospital in New Orleans. But in return she wants the doctor to operate on her niece Catherine Holly, who has been suffering from uncontrollable hallucinations and hysterics for some time. The only possible cure would be there lobotomy, but the neurologist decides first to speak with the young woman to understand the origin of the crisis. Catherine he witnessed the death of his cousin Sebastian during a trip abroad but cannot remember the circumstances. Only every now and then, thanks to the help of the doctor, gory details emerge gradually. But no one in the family, neither his mother nor his aunt, and Sebastian's mother, want to find out what happened.

Suddenly summer last is drawn from the private world of T, in particular the author was struck by what happened to his sister Rose, made lobotomize by her mother and forced to lose all ability to act autonomously and locked up until her death at the age of 96. What prompted the playwright to turn it into a play was his refusal to accept the self-righteousness and hypocrisy of the American society of the time.