Suddenly, Last Summer

Tennessee Williams would have turned 105 years old in 2016. To commemorate the great American playwright, Roman Viktyuk decided to produce his last and possibly most daring play, Suddenly, Last Summer. 

Roman Viktyuk has made a name for himself as one of the first Russian directors to successfully tackle the depth and symbolism of the works of Tennessee Williams. His legendary production of The Rose Tattoo starring Irina Miroshnichenko remained in the repertory of the Moscow Art Theatre for 26 years.

Suddenly, Last Summer has been staged in Russia a few times but Viktyuk’s take on it is the first one to highlight the themes of anguish and redemption as being central to the play. Viktyuk’s production is a journey into the subconscious of Tennessee Williams, examining the ideas of eternal youth and adoration of beauty, as well as desire, so present in Williams’s writing with his search for purity of sexual fascination.

Once again, Roman Viktyuk presents us with epic theatre, full of energy and poetry. And once again, he brings out his protagonists into light, saving them from stepping off the balancing line between good and evil.