30 PLAYS IN 30 DAYS: Play #26 "Summer and Smoke" by Tennessee Williams

 

I have decided for the month of September to read 30 plays in 30 days. It is my belief that, if possible, a play should be read in one sitting to get a better inherent sense of the dramatic arc. Each day, I will write a short post here about the play of the day.

Play #26

Summer and Smoke by Tennessee Williams

One can't really have  discussion about 20th century American theater without mentioning Tennessee Williams (born Thomas Lanier Williams III). Along with biggies like Eugene O'Neill, he is considered to be one of the most important dramatists of the era--- his play A Streetcar Named Desire is considered as seminal an American work as O'Neill's Long Day's Journey Into Night and Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman. His first major success came with The Glass Menagerie when he was just 33, and the prolific, lyrical playwright followed it up with a string of hits, including winning the Pulitzer Prize for Drama twice, once for the aforementioned Streetcar and again for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. 

Summer and Smoke opened in 1948, his first follow-up to Streetcar, though he had been working on it since 1945 under the title Chart of Anatomy (such a chart is pivotal in the play). The play is sort of a love story (or maybe, more appropriately, a love story that doesn't really happen) between Alma, the minister's daughter, and John, following in his father's footsteps by becoming a doctor. Alma, her name meaning "soul", believes in the spirit within a person, while John is more interested in the flesh. The play is told in two parts--- Summer and Winter--- and in many ways is a philosophical argument between these two ways of looking at humans (argument being the word the characters use). Alma loves John, believes he could ascend to be above what he is in the first part, that is, a drunkard who goes after pleasure where he can find it. By the end, however, Alma and John have reversed, or so we are led to think--- she has "won the argument" according to John, who now believes in the soul, and Alma is no longer sure of such things... only sure that she loves him and can't be with him. Now, I say that John has supposedly changed, though, by the end, he is with a woman who he admits is still "just a child", who we first met as a 16 year-old student with a school girl crush on him.  So... yeah. 

While Tennessee Williams is always a pleasure to read--- he is such a gifted writer and spins an interesting tale that you want to see reconciled--- this play is not his best. Alma really is little more than a symbol for the spirit, and her "nervous attacks" (John gets her hooked on pills for that--- yay) and strange laughter feel more like quirks than actual character traits. John is also too much of a symbol, and, as mentioned before, I did not find his journey believable or earned. Nor did what keeps them apart at the end seem genuine to me, either. 

I know this sounds like I didn't like the play, but that is not true at all. It really is a great read, and Williams, very specific in his stage directions, sets up a nice visual picture, and there are beautifully written monologues. 

Interestingly enough, this story must have kept kicking around in Williams' head, because he rewrote the play in 1964 with the title The Eccentricities of a Nightingale. It is said that he prefers this play to Summer and Smoke, and some of the criticisms about the character Alma are said to be rectified in Nightingale. This, of course, makes me want to find a copy of it so I can do a side-by-side compare/contrast... perhaps some day. 

One final note: the play begins with a Prologue of a young John and Alma at the fountain (which also is of importance in the play). It is a short scene, but I really like it. Williams, in my opinion, was pretty good at writing children, and I almost wish this scene had been longer. Makes me want to take another look at his excellent one-act, This Property is Condemned. 

Thanks for reading, and please feel free to check out the rest of my blog. If you're interested in my plays, you can click HERE, HERE, HERE or even HERE