Blythe Danner: Classy Lady

Blythe Danner says she has never been especially ambitious, has no roles she is dying to play, and employs no strategies in selecting her parts. Certain elements come together and she's interested. Tackling Violet Venable in Tennessee Williams' Suddenly Last Summer is a case in point. The Roundabout Theatre Company production opened Off-Broadway at the Laura Pels Theatre on Nov. 15.

"I've always been passionate about Williams," notes the patrician-looking yet unassuming Danner. "And it's a natural progression for me. Years ago I played Laura in The Glass Menagerie -- got my Equity card from that. I then did Eccentricities of a Nightingale for PBS, and 18 years ago I played Blanche [in A Streetcar Named Desire] on Broadway.

"One of the things that drew me to this play is the language. Williams wrote it when he was in analysis and told not to have sex -- and not to write, either. This was a pouring out of his frustrations -- very intense, very beautiful," continues the 63-year-old Philadelphia native, perhaps best known for her comic stints on Will & Grace and in Meet the Parents and its sequel, Meet the Fockers. "I was also very interested in doing this role because [director] Mark Brokaw wanted to make Mrs. Venable more human and understandable. It's all too easy to play her as a monster."

Set in New Orleans, Suddenly Last Summer recounts the unraveling of an upper-crust family. Mrs. Venable is the doomed family's tormented matriarch, a woman determined to protect her late son's memory by praising his poetic talents and, more important, keeping secret the gruesome way he died. The problem is that her niece Catharine (Carla Gugino) witnessed the death and won't stop talking about it. Indeed, Mrs. Venable believes Catharine is responsible for her son's demise. Committed to silencing the girl, Mrs. Venable cajoles, demands, even attempts to bribe an affable doctor (Gale Harold) into performing a lobotomy on the young woman. It is a daunting role on many fronts, not least because Katharine Hepburn played the part in the 1959 film and, indeed, received an Academy Award nomination for best actress.

"I never saw the film," Danner says. "After the play completes its run, I would like to, but I did not want to be influenced by her performance. Williams loathed the movie. He said it did not fulfill his vision and that it was Hollywoodized. What we are trying to do here is blaze a new trail, take a fresh look at this character. She is a typical Southern woman with all the innate charm, flirtation, and seduction. Amanda has some of that and so does Blanche. Violet is more maniacal and overbearing, but I don't really think she understands what a lobotomy is. She believes her niece will be quieted down, pacified, more peaceful. The idea of a lobotomy isn't that