Content Warning: Suddenly Last Summer features brief descriptions of murder, mutilation, and cannibalism. An unseen character is also implied to be both gay and a pedophile, playing into stereotypes about gay men. The play contains extensive discussion of outdated and harmful approaches to mental health treatment. The guide also references suicide.

Suddenly Last Summer uses allusions to Greek myths, including those of Orpheus and Pentheus, to reinforce the dreamlike, metaphorical dimensions of the play and the life and death of its protagonist, Sebastian. Sebastian’s poetic vocation and his strong attachment to his mother, who dropped out of his life shortly before his violent death, mirror the mythical Greek musician and poet Orpheus, a beautiful youth known for songs that seduced men and women alike. After the sudden death of his wife, Eurydice, whom he was forced to leave behind in the underworld, the grieving poet spurned the advances of the Maenads, a pack of women devoted to Dionysus, the god of wine; in a fury, these women tore him limb from limb. Likewise, Sebastian’s mother Violet, who describes her son and herself as an inseparable “couple,” was abandoned by him after her stroke; later that summer, Sebastian failed to fight off a mob of wild boys whom he had victimized, leading to his mutilation and death at their hands.