In “Suddenly Last Summer” by Tennessee Williams, Martin plays Catherine Holly, who goes mad after witnessing the gruesome death of her cousin, Sebastian.

“It’s been very interesting playing somebody who has kind of gone through a shell-shocking experience,” Martin said. “I don’t think I ever cried as much as I do in the show. It’s been a very emotional experience if you get into character and think about what she is thinking and her emotions. You can’t help it.”

Sebastian’s mother, Violet Venable, wants Catherine lobotomized to keep Sebastian’s name and artistic reputation from being tarnished. Violet recruits Dr. Cukrowicz to perform the procedure, but his principles and attraction to Violet hold him back. The doctor gives Catherine a truth serum to find out more about Sebastian’s death.

In the Neuse Little Theatre production, Joyce Kilpatrick-Jordan plays Violet, a woman who reeks of desperation and, sometimes, daiquiris.

“The audience will get a strong sense of the mood and desperation of the people, because everyone here is desperate in their own way,” said Kilpatrick-Jordan, an NLT veteran. “I am desperate because I lost a son. Evelynn [as Catherine] is desperate because she saw him die. The doctor is desperate because he is broken, and I want him to perform a lobotomy.”

Ken Mitchell, director of performing arts at Johnston Community College, is directing the show. Although Mitchell has directed many NLT productions, “Suddenly Last Summer” is “not your everyday, run-of-the-mill play.”

“The language, the dialogue, is very lyrical and all symbolical,” Mitchell said. “It is visual poetry. It’s very deep. The story line will be disturbing, but I really believe there is vulnerability of others not able to defend themselves.” The show promises to make audience members feel like “being a fly on the wall,” Martin said.

“If we do what we are supposed to do, they will be mesmerized and really get into it and find out what really happened to Sebastian suddenly last summer,” she said.