The play requires four actors for its two characters, Susan Weatherhill, a repressed and uncertain woman in her late forties, and Jake, a young man who is the college roommate of Susan's son.
This technique of dividing a single character between two actors is not unique to Sweet Sue; it can also be found in Overtones (1913 and 1929) by Alice Gerstenberg[citation needed], Getting Out (1979) by Marsha Norman[citation needed], and Passion (1981) by Peter Nichols[citation needed].
Here, Gurney uses it to create an atmosphere of light romantic comedy, punctuated by moments of unease.
[citation needed] Gurney has explained that the play was initially meant to be a modern treatment of the classical tale of Phaedra and her desire for a younger man, but turned into a summer romance, with Susan's struggling with problems of self-esteem, artistic integrity, and sexual attraction to a man young enough to be her son.
[1] Reviewers tended to dismiss the play as superficial and far from Gurney's best[citation needed], but it ran for six months on Broadway, due in part to the casting of the two Sues with the popular actors Mary Tyler Moore and Lynn Redgrave.