Summer and Smoke - "a dramatic and powerful platform for these wonderful young actors" ****

Tennessee Williams wrote Summer and Smoke in 1948, in between A Street car named under desire (1947) and A cat on a hot tin roof (1955). Like its better known plays its central character is a woman consumed by desires but Alma is desperately trying to control and suppress her feelings in pursuit of a higher spiritual satisfaction.

 This powerful modern feeling production which transfers from the Almeida is stripped back to a bare stage surrounded by seven open pianos, metronomes and chairs. They contain and underpin the action with haunting strains when played. The effect is to focus our attention on the two young central characters, Alma and John who inhabit the semi circular space like fighters in a boxing ring. Such focus requires performers of the highest quality and precision to sustain our interest and this production is delivered by two of the finest two young actors to debut in the West End in the last few years.

Patsy Ferran, who graduated from RADA in 2014 has astounded audiences in all her West End appearances, dominating the stage with her intense, physical and expressive acting. Here she completely inhabits Alma's complex uptight awkwardness as a preachers daughter who teaches music in the small town of Glorious Hill , Mississippi but hints at the passion that is boiling up inside her ready to explode if she lets her self control slip. it's mesmerising to watch from her first compelling breakdown at a microphone and she hardly ever leaves the stage.

 

Opposite her is Matthew Needham, who recently brilliantly played a gay man in Mike Bartlett's Cock at Chichester, here is the young redneck doctor’s son brimming with passion and desire for the young women of the Southern American town who becomes the obsessive target of Alma's suppressed desires. He talks of feeding his mind, his stomach and his sexual desire, while she is feeding her soul and this creates a desert between them.

When the summer of suppressed passion passes, a sudden dramatic shock (brilliantly played) to the community changes everything and her resolve weakens as the fires of her desire within her cloud her thinking.

The leading two are well supported by a cast of six others playing the family and other community members often without a change of costume. In particular I enjoyed Anjana Vasan who plays all the other young women in the town and Forbes Masson who plays both Alma’s preacher father and John’s Doctor Father, especially in the dramatic events of the second half.

Director Rebecca Frecknall brings a clear distinctive vision to the  production giving it an ethereal feel as if the action is all in the mind of Alma and keeps the action moving along at pace with a minimum of fuss which is reinforced by the spine tingling underscore .

This may not be Tennessee Williams greatest play but in the hands of Needham and Ferran it provides a dramatic and powerful platform for these wonderful young actors

Nick Wayne 

Caroline or Change - "moving and inspiring, reminding us of the changes that have been achieved over the last fifty years"

My review from Hampstead Theatre 

Tony Kushner's has magnificently created a musical of its time (1963) but at same time for today. As he explains in his programme notes, the play comes from sorrow, anger and grief but also hope learned from history which has shown us both the terrors and also the pleasures of change. It is about a period of American History, the time of JFK's assassination in streets of Dallas and close to 100 years since the American Civil war ended slavery: a time of race relation tensions and the civil rights movement of African Americans. It's highly charged emotional themes resonate with the global tensions of today and the desire for change with greater diversity and equality in every field.

It is powerful musical built around strong black female characters with soulful voices. At the centre of them is Caroline, the maid to the Gellman family, proud and hard working but struggling with her own grief and supporting her family of four children as well as adjusting to the societal changes. A twenty dollar bill becomes the catalyst for change in the Gellman family and for Caroline herself. Sharon D Clarke is awesome as Caroline , the maid of twenty two years who never smiles, bearing her sorrow with a stillness and pent up anger as she belts out her melancholy songs with emotion and strength while dreaming of being kissed by Nat King Cole. Her daughter Emmie (Abiona Omonua) reflects what is going on outside the basement that imprisons her mother and becomes the rebellious mouthpiece for change. She is full of energy, animated and sassy and the symbol of a more optimistic future. 

As Caroline grapples with her feelings and religious beliefs while going about her arduous daily routine in the Gellman's house, she finds herself in a flight of fantasy talking to the domestic appliances. A bubbly, agitating Me'sha Bryan is the washing machine, a sexy, dynamic Aka Mitchell is the dryer and the trio of T'shan Williams, Sharon Rose and Carole Stennett are a supreme like portable radio shimmying across the stage in long gowns, tight bob haircuts and radio antenna headdresses. They are supported by a strong ensemble.
There are delightful performances from the young boys in the show especially on the night I saw it by Aaron Gelkoff as Noah Gellman who has such as a pivotal role in the show and explores the emotions of a distant father, a new step mother and overbearing grandparents. The tension mounts and then explodes when Caroline and Emmie are asked to serve the Gellman family Chanukah party and Noah misses Caroline's presence in his house.

Director Michael Longhurst and designer Fly Davis have done an excellent job creating the Gellman's home simply slickly and effectively including the physical divide in the family and use the two revolves a raised balcony and flying moon to great effect. There is wonderful positioning and blocking in the critical scenes to heighten the relationship tensions.

The music throughout by Jeanne Tesori is a joyous eclectic mix of styles of the fifties and sixties with Jazz, Blues, Motown, Soul, spiritual and even a Christmas Carol blended together with a minimum of dialogue. My personal favourites were the "Laundry Quintet" with its delightful harmonies, "Roosevelt Petrucius Coleslaw" which closes Act 1, "Santa comin' Caroline" which opens Act 2 , "1943" which reveals her backstory , and then the closing emotional crescendo of "Lot's Wife" and "Salty Teardrops".  All of them feature Caroline, Emmie or the domestic appliances in engaging entertaining delivery and choreography and capable of being show stoppers. The final "Epilogue" by Emmie and her brothers brings hope and optimism.

The overall effect is moving and inspiring, reminding us of the changes that have been achieved over the last fifty years, encouraging us to embrace change- even if it hurts- and showing the power of family love to support change. It is fantastic that this delightfully original show will reach a wider audience when it transfers to the Playhouse in the West End in November.

Nick Wayne

Four stars