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‘Summer and Smoke’ at Theatrical Outfit
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
THEATER REVIEW: “Summer and Smoke.” Through March 20.
Well, I declare: After a long stretch of the vapors, Miss Alma Winemiller has emerged from semi-retirement for Theatrical Outfit’s handsome new production of Tennessee Williams’ smoldering 1948 classic, “Summer and Smoke.”
Alma —- a high-strung preacher’s daughter in Glorious Hill, Miss. —- was William’s favorite heroine, her story the most vivid imitation of his troubled life. Possessed of nervous fits of laughter, heart palpitations and a spirit that’s essentially good and kind, Alma is as sexually frustrated as Maggie the Cat, as sensitive as Laura Wingfield and as neurotic and drug-dependent as Blanche DuBois.
Alma has pined for good-looking Dr. John Buchanan Jr. since they were children, when they used to frolic at the town drinking fountain beside a stone angel called Eternity. This being a magnolia-scented tragedy about unrequited love and the promiscuity of failed romantics, you can be sure that the tale of Alma and John Buchanan Jr. will come to no good end.
Directed by Jay Freer and starring Elizabeth Wells Berkes as the terminally misunderstood Alma, this “Summer” is a mixture of hyperventilating emotional excess, lost comedic opportunities and revelatory interior transformations.
Berkes’ performance is as meticulously constructed as a Gothic cathedral, and as over the top. Though Alma’s trademark laugh is as funny on the 50th time as the first (to me, at least), Berkes is so overwrought from the beginning that she has no place to go. No wonder the whole town mocks poor Alma behind her back.
At the other end of the see-saw is John Jr., a suave and flirtatious womanizer perpetually garbed in white linen. To Thomas Piper’s credit, John doesn’t lapse into the kind of mealy-mouthed Southern caricature that often typifies a Williams man. Unfortunately, his characterization is so somnambulistic that it’s almost devoid of humor and irony.
Such hot and cold performances seem to typify this production. As Alma’s father, Chris Kayser refrains from showmanship, while Marianne Fraulo (as her petulant mother) is a strange brew of garbled sounds and fussy mannerisms. In fact, nearly the entire supporting cast fumbles the comedic episodes that the playwright situated with such glee, the disastrous meeting of Alma’s parlor-room intellectual society being a case-in-point.
The exception is Tom Key (the Outfit’s artistic director) as Dr. John Sr. It’s one of the smaller roles, but Key reinvents himself so fully that he’s almost unrecognizable. Speaking in a nasal monotone, he conducts a probing psychological examination of Alma without ever looking up from his desk. Clearly, this Alabama native knows something about the manners of Southern patricians.
Part of the pleasure of this “Summer and Smoke” comes from its intimate staging at the new Balzer Theater at Herren’s. As per Williams’ explicit production notes, scenic designer Michael Halad unspools a starry cyclorama that serves as a backdrop to the town square and the interiors of the Buchanan and Winemiller homes. Sydney Roberts’ costumes —- ice-cream suits for the men, flouncy frocks for the ladies —- are authentic to the turn-of-the-century milieu.
By the end of this uneven but ultimately satisfying production, the ensemble finds the rhythm and majesty of Williams’ poetry, and Berkes calms down to deliver a heartbreaking Alma, who’s become addicted to sleeping pills. As she tells her latest conquest: “The prescription number is 96814. I think of it as the telephone number of God.”
THE VERDICT: Captures the eternal sadness and misplaced passions of Tennessee Williams.
THE 411: 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays. 2:30 p.m. Sundays. $16.20-$43.20. Theatrical Outfit, The Balzer Theater at Herren’s, 84 Luckie St., Atlanta. 404-577-5257; theatricaloutfit.org.
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