“Suddenly Last Summer” at Carnival Productions

In the jungle-like garden of a New Orleans mansion in 1936, a struggle of wills ensues over a dead man. The late Sebastian's mother (Violet Venable), an aging and fading member of the Garden District's elite, faces his lower-class cousin (Catharine Holly) for the first time since the girl witnessed his horrific death last summer. Since then, Catharine has been institutionalized, judged insane. A young, idealistic doctor, breaking ground in lobotomies and in need of research funding, is the pawn. The young woman's mother and brother (and their own self-serving motives) further complicate this "battle to the death" … a battle between the two women, a battle between truth and delusion and, ultimately, a battle between hope and despair.