NATCHEZ &8212; It takes only moments to figure out that &8220;Suddenly Last Summer&8221; will keep you on the edge of your seat.

The one-act play by Tennessee Williams, to be performed at Natchez Little Theatre, will open Friday at 7:30 p.m. and continue at the same time on Saturday and in a matinee at 2 p.m. Sunday.

For Layne Taylor, who directs the play and also has a part in it, &8220;Suddenly Last Summer&8221; is eloquent in its beautiful language.

&8220;The words flow. The play is hypnotic,&8221; he said. &8220;I&8217;ve never read prettier words than are in this play.&8221;

Southerners do not like to talk about unpleasantness, he said. &8220;They appreciate the lack of vulgarity.&8221;

Lack of vulgarity notwithstanding, the play pursues difficult themes. &8220;It&8217;s about how a family eats itself from the inside out, all for greed,&8221; Taylor said.

Violet Venable, a beautiful, wealthy dowager, played by Bennie Boone, dominates the opening scene, both flirtatious and ferocious as she tells her guest, Dr. Cukrowicz about her son, Sebastian and his death.

Dr. Cukrowicz, played by Taylor, hopes Venable will provide a grant for his medical research. She wants something in return.

The play opens in Venable&8217;s garden, as she explains to the doctor the grand life she and her beloved son, who died the summer before, spent together. &8220;It was never Mrs. Venable and her son or Sebastian and his mother; it was always Violet and Sebastian or Sebastian and Violet,&8221; she announces.

The skewed relationship between mother and son becomes clearer as the play continues, with Violet urging the psychiatrist to perform a lobotomy on Catherine Holly in order to keep her from talking about Sebastian&8217;s death.

&8220;She babbles,&8221; Violet says. &8220;She babbles,&8221; she repeats, spitting out the words viciously.

Violet had suffered a small stroke the summer before. Therefore, she was not able to take the usual summer trip with Sebastian &8212; a trip on which he always wrote his one poem for the year. He invited Catherine, his cousin, to go with him.

On that trip, he died. The death was so horrible that the memory of it drives Catherine insane. Violet refuses to believe the ranting about her son and wants to put an end to it through a lobotomy.

Leigh Anne Mason is electrifying in the role of Catherine, pushing the character up an emotional mountain and finally over the top as she recounts the awful demise of her cousin at the end of the play.

&8220;Leigh Ann has worked on this role for months,&8221; Taylor said. He began rehearsals for the play in the fall because of the emotional toll some of the roles take on the actresses, particularly the roles of Violet and Catherine.

Rounding out the cast are veteran Patty Killelea as Sister Felicity, a nun in the mental hospital where Catherine has been treated; and Deanne Tanksley as Miss Foxhill, the Venable housekeeper and assistant.

Grasping and vacuous are Catherine&8217;s mother, Mrs. Holly, played by Mary Jane Gaudet, and brother, George, played by Landon Henry, both of whose flitting and flailing are brilliant contrasts to the graceful Catherine.

Tickets to &8220;Suddenly Last Summer&8221; are available by calling Natchez Little Theatre, 601-442-2233.

The series of NLT one-act plays in February continues Feb. 25-26 with &8220;Confessions of a Nightingale,&8221; starring Joe Bonelli as Tennessee Williams.