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THEATER REVIEW | Theatre in the Round's "Summer and Smoke" is a stunner
Casey Hoekstra and Joanna Harmon in Summer and Smoke. Photo © 2012 Act One, Too, Ltd., courtesy Theatre in the Round.
Tennessee Williams said that Miss Alma, the central character of Summer and Smoke, "may very well be the best female portrait I have drawn in a play." It will be a long, long time before local audiences see the role played more compellingly than it's being played by Joanna Harmon right now at Theatre in the Round. There's not a weak link in director Randy Reyes's sizzling production, which is not only the strongest production by the 61-year-old company that I've ever seen, it's the best show I've seen so far this year on any local stage.
The play was written in the mid-1940s, making it a contemporary of The Glass Menagerie and A Streetcar Named Desire, but its world feels even more claustrophobic than the Wingfields' living room or the Kowalskis' kitchen. (By way of disclosure, I should mention that my mother Jean is a volunteer box office manager at Theatre in the Round.) Summer and Smoke is set in the early 20th century in the small town of Glorious Hill, Mississippi, where Alma is trapped by the need to care for her aging parents (Karen Bix and Richard Daly). She has an enthusiastic suitor in the nice but asexual (homosexual, some believe) Roger (Ty Hudson), but her passions are fired by the dangerously seductive John (Casey Hoekstra)—a hedonist who makes little secret of his affairs with women from outside polite society, notably casino queen Rosa (Tara Lucchino).
Only a master such as Williams could pull off the challenge he sets himself in this script, which requires two characters who are obviously in love to spend the play's long duration fighting their desires—while, at the same time, trading places in the play's moral universe. Williams manages it with such aplomb that even the minor characters have depth; Rosa and Roger could each have had their own plays.
That depth and texture is expertly enacted by Reyes's superb cast. As local townsfolk, Jim Bitney, Sue Gerver, and Christine Sweet make a meeting of Alma's culture club both funny and poignant; Eric Ringham earns plenty of his own laughs as John's dry father. Lucchino and, as her father, Al Saks nail their short but crucial scene as a rags-to-riches Mexican-American family. Nykeigh Larson and Taylor Evans are well-judged in small but crucial roles. The show, though, belongs to Harmon and Hoekstra.
Hoekstra is a revelation, seamlessly embodying a complex character whose licentious actions bely his deep principles. He's a worthy foil for Harmon, who for years has been one of our most powerful local actresses but has never before had such a substantial role to showcase her talents. Under Reyes's direction she takes great risks with Alma, and they pay off spectacularly. The character's eccentricities might be distracting or diminishing in other hands, but Harmon marshals Alma's trademark laugh and other foibles with perfect control, building to scenes of enormous impact. If other local directors are watching, this performance should open much bigger doors for Harmon.
It's a rare opportunity to see this American classic staged with such passion and power in such an intimate space as Theatre in the Round. Don't miss it.
Read Jay Gabler's review of The Hollow at Theatre in the Round (May 2012) and an interview with Joanna Harmon (October 2011).
Coverage of issues and events affecting Central Corridor communities is funded in part by a grant from the Central Corridor Funders Collaborative.
©2012 Jay Gabler
Jay Gabler (jay [at] tcdailyplanet [dot] net, Twitter @JayGabler) is the Daily Planet's arts editor.
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Comments
Summer and Smoke
I'm curious as to how long you've been seeing shows at TRP? 1 out of 61 or 20 out of 61 of it's years, etc. Your statements are very strong considering TRP is a community theater. I frankly doubt, given the inexperience of the actors and regardless of the director, that the actors plumb the depths of Alma--especially, after hearing Williams in the flesh talk about his heroines, albeit he was drunk at the time. You also said it's a rare opportunity to see the play done with such power in such a small and intimate space. How do you know that?Did you see Laila Robbins, Amanda Plummer, Rosamundo Pike or Blthe Danner do it, as I have. If you had, I question if you would have written what you have written. I think reviewers should be judicious in what they writte, and you don't convince me that your opinion is based on any experience other than an amateur production of a very difficult play.
Community theater
No, I have not seen Laila Robbins, Amanda Plummer, Rosamundo Pike, or Blythe Danner play Alma—but you haven't seen Joanna Harmon play the role, so we seem to be at an impasse. Theatre in the Round is indeed "amateur" theater insofar as they proudly identify as a community (rather than professional) theater and, to my knowledge, the actors are not paid—but the proof is in the pudding, and I wrote an honest review of what I saw. I am not comparing this to any other production of the play, simply stating that it succeeds spectacularly on its own terms and completely satisfies.
Excellent diatribe!
Hey Theater Artist!
Good comments! I can't believe this idiot tried to review the play he actually saw. How pathetic! So uninformed and parochial! I spit on Gabler as if on a commoner! It's stunning to think that a community theater (ewww!) would even try to produce this meaningful work. Why do they try? Why?! Where's their deference to the greats? It is disrespectful in the worst way to see these tiny charlatans attempt to act, direct, nay! even speak upon the boards. Thank you for having the dignity and gracious good-nature to speak up about this heretical act and to speak down to all these pretenders who understand so little. You have put the "professional" in "professional theater artist" with your aptly-placed and justified righteous indignation!
Kudos to Theater Artist!
Couple of salient points, to jump on the idiot-bashing bandwagon (I love a good idiot-bashing bandwago).
First, there is no correlation between TRP as "community theater" and "inexperience" of the actors or directors. Many an experienced local theater artist has taken a turn at TRP for opportunities they may not have had at larger professional theaters for a variety of reasons, skill and experience not always among them.
Second, you also seem to dismiss these actors as having a lack of personal experience sufficient enough to play these roles, citing Williams drunkenly expounding on his characters as evidence to support this point of view. That's...well, that's just stupid. It's called acting. They're pretending. And I also don't think you know any of them well enough to
And finally...Olympians aren't professionals, either, but I bet they could mess you up in a game of ping-pong.
summer and smoke
I too saw Summer and Smoke and would actually agree with the first writer that the lovely actress did not, in fact, plum the depths of Alma nor does the production deserve the breadth of superlatives that it was lavished with, in my opinion. However, the production should in no way be dismissed because it is "community theater". Theater in the Round regularly produces work ten times as professional as many shows I have seen over the years and this particular work is quite exquisite, in fact and should be praised because such beautiful artistry was done with passion and not a paycheck.
I agree with the person who posted right before me: Olympians technically aren't professionals... but it is usually only because they have a desire to work in a certain arena before they get paid-- but it doesn't mean that they aren't highly trained or deeply talented and skilled. For the record, I really liked the show, I just didn't think it was 'the best ever" for TRP.
I find it curious that this production has sprung such a response in people... perhaps it should be attributed to the power of theater and the conversations it is inspired to create and, of course, to the enduring storytelling of Tennessee Williams...
To which I say...
"I agree with the person who posted right before me: Olympians technically aren't professionals... but it is usually only because they have a desire to work in a certain arena before they get paid-- but it doesn't mean that they aren't highly trained or deeply talented and skilled."
Is the implication here that people who work at TRP are, necessarily, neither highly trained nor deeply talented? Or that they aren't choosing to work in that particular arena, but are forced into it by dint of their inadequacy?
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