It’s nice to see the lovely actress Karen Allen alive and cookin’ on the stage. Too bad it’s in a muddled, pretentious turkey, A Summer Day, by Norwegian writer Jon Fosse, whom they claim is an award winner.
A man (McCaleb Burnett) left on his boat and didn’t return. His woman (Allen) stands at the window waiting, looking for him. For years. Godot never comes. She’s grown much older as she waits. The situation? He must be on the water; she can’t be on the water. Over and over and over. Two immovable objects who don’t honor each others needs.
From the beginning there are long pauses throughout the play as the situation is so iterated, reiterated and re-reiterated that it make Pinter’s characters seem like speed-speakers.
A young couple plays the man and woman when younger. Director Sarah Cameron Sunde has the fine actress Samantha Soule lie on the raked stage and stand on a bench – arbitrary unnecessary positions. Each version of the woman, older and younger has a friend to kvetch to: Pamela Shaw and Maren Busch, who are both quite good. Allen seems a lovely woman with a charming persona and a vulnerability that provokes sympathy, but the ongoing monologues become monotonous. I’m sorry he left her-- the fool was a wastrel.
At times during the play, a bell tinkles. Each time I heard it, I thought someone’s cell phone had gone off -- breaking my empathy with whatever (poignant?) moment was going on. As Allen described a moment with her friend, I drifted from its dreary Scandinavian negative tone. The simplistic repetitions droned on: the water; the sea; the rain; the darkness. It’s like bad Hemmingway.
The best part came near the end with wonderful projections of water and waves, which I assume were created by the designer John McDermott (whose raked set of planks and benches worked) and a fine soundscape by Keah Gelpe. My friend, the artist Nicholas Wolfson, commented “This play is about a tragedy happening in a community of slightly autistic people.”
