SUMMER AND SMOKE. To 7 October.
SUMMER AND SMOKE
by Tennessee Williams.
Nottingham Playhouse to Saturday 7th October 2006, followed by West End.
7.45 pm. Matinees: Saturday 30th Sept, Thursday 5th October, 13.30,
Audio described performances: Tuesday 3rd and Wednesday 4th October.
Signed interpreted Friday 6th October.
Runs 2hr 35min. One interval
TICKETS: 0115 9419419
www.nottinghamplayhouse.co.uk
Review: Jen Mitchell 28th September 2006
Ever boiling pot of sexuality - lid on, lid off
One of Tennessee Williams lesser performed plays, Summer and Smoke explores his familiar themes of sexuality, repression and longing.
The sexual tension between neighbours, young John Buchanan and Miss Alma, runs throughout – there is still a ‘will they, won’t they’ element to watching the play even though one is fully aware that they never do.
The nervous Miss Alma is beautifully played by Rosamund Pike, bird-like in her delicate portrayal, she flutters her way through her lonely life always aware of the something more she is missing out on. Rosamund Pike keeps us aware of the smouldering loneliness and longing she feels yet there is an intensity and element of restrained hysteria which increases throughout until she offers herself to John and is rejected.
Chris Cormack’s John Buchanan is spot on - utterly dissolute - and the more complex sides to his character take some time to be revealed – although his blatant sexuality is never far from the surface, even when he achieves respectability. For a large part of the play one can see no redeeming features in him at all. Hurtling towards his own destruction, he is at once as much afraid of Alma’s soul and respectability as he is of his own future.
The supporting characters either serve to stir this boiling pot or strive to keep the lid on it – either way a recipe for an explosion - the cruel embarrassment of Mrs Winemiller (Angela Down), the sexual Rosa (Hanne Steen), the overbearing Reverend Winemiller (Christopher Ravenscroft). All are instrumental in Alma’s eventual downfall. There is no catharsis – just a tragic end for a woman who has lived by her respectability all her life.
A simple set with the ever present statue of the angel is effective for many of the scenes, it conjures up the feeling of ‘small-townness’ well. What is lacking though is the feeling of the ever present-heat, spoken of so frequently and produced so many times before on the Playhouse stage, adding to the feeling that the suffocating and stifling elements of the piece.
Rev Winemiller: Christopher Ravenscroft
Mrs Winemiller: Angela Down
John Buchanan: Chris Carmack
Dusty/Vernon/Archie Kramer: Michael Brown
Pearl/Rosemary: Hannah Stokely
Dr Buchanan: David Killick
Alma: Rosamund Pike
Rosa: Hanne Steen
Nellie: Talulah Riley
Roger Doremus: Tom Lawrence
Mrs Bassett: Kate O’Toole
Papa Gonzales: Sebastian Abineri
Director: Adrian Noble
Set Designer: Peter McKintosh
Lighting: Peter Mumford
Sound: John Leonard
Costume: Deirdre Clancy
Musical Supervisor: Simon Lee
Dialect Coach: Penny Dyer
Fight director: Malcolm Ranson
2006-09-29 10:33:59