In the Summer House
by Jane Bowles
DRAMA
This rarely performed cult classic thrilled Provincetown audiences last year in a remarkable outdoor staging of Act II. This year, the Festival stages the full play in and around the waters of the Provincetown Bay.
directed by David Kaplan
featuring Festival favorites Irene Glezos, Brenda Currin, and Beth Bartley
THE PROVINCETOWN TW THEATER FESTIVAL
Provincetown, MA
"Not only the most original play I have ever read,
I think it is also the oddest and funniest and one of the most touching."
– Tennessee Williams
About The Play
What happened a year ago on the rocks by the summer house? Did Mrs. Constable's daughter Vivien slip, or did Mrs. Eastman's daughter Molly push her?
A year after Vivien's death, both women hang around the Lobster Bowl Restaurant (brought to life in Provincetown at the Boatslip).
The question of whether Molly caused Vivien's fatal fall hangs thick in the air. When Mrs. Eastman returns from Mexico, will she break up her daughter's marriage? And what about the oyster-shucking Ines, who seems to know something about slavery?
The plot is melodrama, but additional questions hang over the play itself. Tennessee Williams loved In The Summer House so much that after reading the first act in 1940 he recommended it for a grant, eager to see the second act written. Then in 1956 Williams traveled to Ann Arbor, Michigan, to see the play performed, at which point he began giving it consistent praise in interviews and in his Memoirs.
What was it about Bowles's play that so thoroughly attracted Williams? The production tries to answer this and other questions by picking up the story after Vivien's death, then doubling back to the scene on the cliff.
About The Production
The 2013 workshop production, directed by Festival curator David Kaplan, took place around the swimming pool at The Boatslip and featured stars from Orpheus Descending (TW Fest 2010, 2011): Irene Glezos (left) as Mrs. Eastman-Cuevas, Brenda Currin (right) as Mrs. Constable, and Beth Bartley (lower left) as Ines.
Immediately following the play, Kaplan hosted a public discussion with moderator Randy Gener, arts journalist and former Senior Editor of American Theatre magazine. Gener has described In The Summer House on his website as "a cock-eyed, mesmerizing play that was one of the signal achievements of postwar American drama."
Watch the full post-workshop discussion of In The Summer House here.