In 'Summer and Smoke,' No Fire -- Not Even a Spark

Despite his shortcomings, John Buchanan Jr. (Richard Isaacs) is starting to look good to Alma Winemiller (Maggie Keele) in "Summer and Smoke." (By Douglas Olmsted)

"Summer and Smoke." The very title of Tennessee Williams's 1948 drama, now onstage at Port City Playhouse, promises so much. It's a siren's call, conjuring up images of sultry Southern nights, smoldering passions and deeply repressed resentments. But while there's summer, there's no heat. And if there's smoke, there's certainly no fire, as Port City limps to the end of its season with a weak evening of muted, gloomy theater.

It's not entirely the fault of director Rosemary Hartman and her unfocused cast of 12. Williams is one of the greatest playwrights ever, but this is not one of his better efforts. That's probably why it is hardly ever staged. "Summer and Smoke" ran briefly on Broadway and was made into a movie in 1961, but even Williams seemed embarrassed by it. (He rewrote the play in the mid-1950s, under the title "The Eccentricities of a Nightingale.")

The premise is an insipid reworking of themes Williams previously explored in full dramatic glory in "A Streetcar Named Desire" and "The Glass Menagerie." There's the refined but fading Southern belle, the crude lothario who strains her principles, generous helpings of wistfulness, a struggle between love and lust, and characters dealing with unrealized expectations in a small Mississippi town in 1916.

But Williams had been to the same well of dysfunction too many times. The characters are unappealing and thinly drawn, the themes not so much examined as checked off.

Alma (Maggie Keele) is a minister's daughter who is getting on in years with no marriage prospects in sight. John (Richard Isaacs) is the young doctor who grew up next door and is starting to look good to her, despite being a crude gambler and sexual adventurer.

He has his eye, not to mention his hands, on exotic Rosa (Julie Ann McMahon), but we're supposed to feel there is a deep bond between chaste Alma and chaser John.

Except that we don't. Although Keele and Isaacs are individually adequate in their performances, there is no chemistry between them, diluting any emotional impact of the relationship. As time passes ever so slowly, and John and Alma each hide from the real world, events cause them to reevaluate their lives. It's stale.

Compounding the difficulties, Hartman has a generally lackluster cast surrounded by a sea of distractions.

A major diversion is the unnecessary movement Hartman has imposed, as if aimlessly flailing about will ignite excitement. For example, during an annoying scene in which Alma consults John's father (George W. Campbell), also a doctor, Hartman has him jumping up and down and popping about his office as if he's been testing too many free pharmaceutical samples.

Another distraction is the jumble of mismatched odds and ends that designer John Downing passes off as a multi-location set. There is so much stuff artlessly strewn about that it's sometimes difficult to determine which setting the characters are supposed to be in, an endeavor hampered by spotty, shadowy lighting.

Adding to the problems the night the show was reviewed was the pool of bright light for the two women who were signing for the hearing impaired -- unfortunately, the light spilled onto the stage, further thwarting dramatic impact.

The show was so dull that much of the audience would not return to their seats after intermission, forcing the stage manager to finally plunge the theater into darkness and begin Act 2 even as folks milled in the aisles conversing. That's something I've never seen before, so Williams is still making theater history, even with this dud.

"Summer and Smoke," performed by Port City Playhouse, concludes this weekend at the Lee Center for the Performing Arts, 1108 Jefferson St., Old Town Alexandria. Showtime is 8 p.m. tomorrow and Saturday. For tickets and information, call 703-838-2880 or visithttp://www.portcityplayhouse.com.