The Conor Baum Company in Brighton has quickly developed a reputation for quality and intensity. The already established Conor Baum burst onto the scene with his own company, giving us the incredible production of Homestead at Brighton Open Air Theatre last year, based on The House of Bernarda Alba, which was unflinchingly provocative and bold. At the same time, he is leading the infamous Brighton Cabaret C’est Magnifique, winner of two coveted Brighton Fringe awards earlier this year.
And if that wasn’t enough, his company staged a production of Electra both in the Brighton Fringe and at Brighton Open Air Theatre. His theatre has gained both critical and popular acclaim, garnering the reviewers’ praise of “faultless”, “captivating” and “scorching”; so when we were invited to a special preview of his latest production, Tennessee Williams’ Suddenly Last Summer, we were very excited to see it.
We are drawn into a lush and cultivated garden, which gathers disquiet eeriness as the matriarch Mrs Venable talks of life and her son who died under dubious circumstances last summer. The brooding discomfort grows so subtly through the play you barely notice until you are ankle deep in very uncomfortable territory. The story catches you and won’t let you go, leading to a shocking yet immensely satisfying climax. This is captivating, gripping drama at its finest: the type of challenging storytelling we live for.
Sharon Drain leads with grounded full power as Voilet Venable, the Southern Lady who possibly has never heard the word ‘no’. Yet we still have compassion for her, in her physical frailty and in her grief of losing her son and hanging onto an increasingly shattering reality of him. Oliver Clayton contrasts beautifully as Dr Cukrowicz – or Dr Sugar as he calls himself – with his deliberate movements through the garden, his soothing and calm manner in the face of everything, and his quiet integrity. Offering further contrast is the niece, the traumatised Catherine Holly, played with balanced vulnerability and feistiness by Isabella McCarthy Somerville. She conveys a sense of fragility like a bird with broken wings, yet has survived horrors. Conor has assembled a stellar team of actors who all shine in various moments. The stillness, power and breakdown of the last scene is gorgeous.
“Savagely poetic and provocative” says Conor about the play, which is a very apt description. Written in 1957, it’s remarkable that the themes in it are so current: money and status, family secrets and hiding who you are, the stark truth that some people will go to any lengths to preserve the idea of their own reality. And how well, or not, we treat trauma and its recovery. All these and more are packed into a story that it’s impossible to tear yourself away from as it builds and builds. When done well, this play is one that will haunt you, challenge you and make you think, as well as entertain: and this is done exceptionally well. Don’t miss it.
Brighton Open Air Theatre
Suddenly Last Summer runs Wednesday 27 – Saturday 30 August 2025
Photos credit: Conor Baum
