Reviews 2003
Reviews 2003
✭✭✭✭✩
by Tennessee Williams, directed by Victoria Shepherd
Alumnae Theatre, Toronto
September 26-October 11, 2003
Summer and Smoke (1948), Tennessee Williams's first play after A Streetcar Named Desire (1947), is not often revived. One reason is that the play moves towards paradox rather than tragedy. Another is that Williams adds eleven minor characters to what is essentially a two-character struggle. Despite this, the work is a must for all Williams fans since it presents his favourite characters, the Southern belle and the ne'er-do-well male, in their most archetypical form. The Alumnae Theatre gives the play a solid, well thought-out production.
Alma Winemiller (Karie Richards) has always loved the boy next door, John Buchanan, Jr. (Jason Gautreau). His return to Glorious Hill, Mississippi, in 1913 reawakens a desire that years of propriety as a reverend's daughter have locked away. John, now a doctor, respects Alma but seems to throw away his life in gambling, whoring and liquor. She is the soul, spirituality, moral purpose. He is the body, sensuality, practical skill. As symbols each needs the other. As people both must overcome mental constraints to realize their need.
Richards is superb. On stage nearly the entire play, she shows us a woman who knows her ultra-refined sensibilities make her seem ridiculous and unfit for real life, but who is aware of the inner need that is breaking through her defences. Richards sympathetically captures every nuance of Alma's worsening internal battle. Gautreau is convincing as the slick, nihilistic wastrel, but it is harder to see the good Alma sees in him than the passion we see in Alma.
©Christopher Hoile
Note: A version of this review appeared in Eye Weekly 2003-12-11.
Photo: Jason Gautreau and Emily Sanford. ©2003 Alumnae Theatre.
2003-10-09
Summer and Smoke