Berkshire Theatre Group, Stockbridge, MA
www.berkshiretheatregroup.org
through October 31, 2026
by Jarice Hanson
www.berkshiretheatregroup.org
through October 31, 2026
by Jarice Hanson
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| Photo: Caelan Carlough |
Have you ever known someone briefly but loose contact with them, despite the feeling that you’ve shared some extraordinarily meaningful moments? Most people have experienced that all-too-common reality in our fast-paced society.
In “Summer, 1976” Pulitzer-Prize winning playwright David Auburn has crafted a multi-layered, heart-felt 90-minute dramedy that touches the heart and reminds us that the people, places, and events of our lives make up a mosaic of experiences that contribute to who we become.
Berkshire Theatre Group has chosen to stage “Summer, 1976” as their last play of the season and how wonderfully appropriate, as the leaves begin to fall, and the U.S. looks at the memory of the summer of our year, juxtaposed with the year’s 250th anniversary.
In this memory play, the audience sees a simpler time that becomes more intense with the passage of time, but what remains is the longing for the good memories and the people who have helped us find our way along life’s journey.
The show focuses on two characters who grow and change over a period of approximately 25 years. For the audience, the play is an opportunity to look back at a simpler time when perhaps they too, were negotiating lives with small children, changes in the expectation of what women could or should do, and gender stereotypes that often seemed to prescribe what options were available to women.
For younger audience members, there may be choices as to how to view the characters through a contemporary lens. While not specifically articulated in the play, today’s decision for women to choose being a “tradwife” contrasting with those who have the chutzpah to “go it alone” each have consequences.
Two wonderful actors deliver the subtle comedy, and the deep meaning of friendship. Kate Baldwin and Jennifer van Dyck are perfectly paired as Alice (Baldwin), the ditsy Ohio housewife who gives up her own aspirations for her husband, an academic in pursuit of tenure; and Diane (van Dyck), a single mom who seems to have everything under control. The two come together because their daughters are the same age and are in some ways, mini-Alice and mini-Diane, or at least that is what we are led to believe. Like the girls, Alice’s husband is never seen, but in an excellent projection of character, van Dyck gives the audience a clear sense of who he is.
One clever element to the plot (no spoiler here) is that the husband, an economist, has come up with a baby-sitting cooperative that people in the community share, until it faulters. This small, but important feature is an example of one of the many layers that initiates the friendship between Alice and Diane and shows Auburn’s uncanny ability to ground his situations in reality while offering just enough specificity to make the plot believable.
The other “star” of this play is the script itself. Auburn’s work is meticulously crafted. Other plays of his, like “Proof” (Pulitzer Prize winner), and “Lost Lake” explore relationships with depth and intensity. “Summer, 1976” is in that same vein, and what stands out is his ability to find good qualities in flawed people.
The audience knows people like Alice and Diane and undoubtedly left the theatre remembering people who mattered in their own lives. When audience members sigh and subtly respond to a line or a plot twist, the genius of a playwright who understands humanity so well is apparent. When a wonderful director and talented, capable actors are able to translate those words to the stage for a metaphorical “group hug” with the audience, something special is taking place.
Director Isadora Wolfe keeps the action focused but the pacing quick. The audience becomes an extension of the friends on stage and empathy is cleverly built between audience members and the actors. Scenic Designer Jason Simms’ spare set is reminiscent of the décor of 1976 but shows how limited each of the characters’ lives are, until their trust in each other begins to grow. Only then do the characters begin to explore the depth of the stage, as they explore the depth of who they are. Lindsey Eifert’s costumes lend an appropriate interpretation of the characters’ inner lives.
This is a talky play—but audiences will find themselves becoming more involved with the characters as they explore themselves and life’s twists and turns.
The Unicorn Theatre, an intimate space, has audience members seated in a quasi-semi-circle, and is the perfect venue for this type of show, but at times, the actors’ voices were lost when they turned away from certain sections of the audience. If every word were enunciated a bit more and the breath support matched the intensity of the dialogue, the show’s delivery would be near-perfect.