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Summer and Smoke
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Middendorf
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By Debbi K. Swanson
It’s the quiver of Tracy Middendorf’s chin that brings the tragically
introverted Alma to a new level in the Fountain Theater’s production of
Summer and Smoke.
Tennessee Williams is unmatched in sketching sultry portraits and complex relationships in Southern life, and this play is certainly no exception. Alma,
Spanish for soul, has not been able to find hers.
The daughter of a minister and a mother who may or may not be crazy, but who
certainly acts as if she is, her passion is trapped so deep within she can’t
even admit to herself that she has it. So in her perfectly turned out
Victorian dresses, she has little spells, her body running amok with feverish
feelings that are finding some way of manifesting themelves since she won’t
acknowledge their source.
So her lifelong love for the dashing but wild young doctor John next door
becomes a personal torture instead of fulfillment. Cameron Dye plays the
rascally physician who would rather play doctor than be one. And his
continual indiscretions makes it impossible for him to be an honest lover
with Alma. And there’s the rub.
They dance to near destruction yet he emerges the victor in a world made for
men. She attempts to lure him up to her level; he recognizes her ploy but acts the coward and clings to his hedonistic ways.
At the little gathering of "intellectuals" at Alma’s, Cynthia Sanders, as the
overstuffed Mrs. Bassett, sears the young doctor with her "mistaken"
biography of a drunken, useless William Blake. John squirms more than a
surgical patient without anesthesia and runs nearly screaming out of the
house.
When he nearly sells his soul to the Spanish flame Rosa, played by Linda
Cevallos, Alma steps in to bring John’s respected physican father into the
picture. His doom changes everyone’s lives forever. As Alma says,"The tables
are turned, and she is again denied the love she desires.
Under Simon Levy’s direction, the intensity and sensitive pain that unfolds
is more revealing than in other productions I’ve seen. Kathi O’Donohue’s
evocative lighting is a beauty to behold, as is Sets To Go’s set design in
which four locations are depicted without set change, including the runnng
fountain of the angel Eternity. The cathedral-like archways of Alma’s
father’s rectory against the graphic anatomical chart in the doctor’s office
remind us of the conflicts at play in this love story. And Janne Reith’s
costumes takes us back to 1916.
Much of the supporting cast is unfortunately forgettable in their
performances, except for notable performances by Brenda Ballard as Alma’s
nutty mother, Sanders as Mrs. Bassett, and Delaina Mitchell as Nellie, Alma’s
music student who blossoms before our eyes to usurp the broken Alma.
The three acts have been condensed to two, so the first goes on seemingly
forever. The pacing, production values and Middendorf’s intensely tender
performance that will bring you to tears makes this a show to see. Take a
trip to the South this summer -- in Hollywood.
Summer and Smoke, at The Fountain Theater, 5060 Fountain Ave., Hollywood.
Performances are at 8 p.m. Thurs.-Sat., 7 p.m. Sun. through June 13. Tickets:
$18-22:(323)663-1525.
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