Kate Eastwood Norris and Holly Twyford in “Summer, 1976” at Studio Theatre. Photo by Margot Schulman.
Even from their first sour meeting, it’s clear Alice and Diana have chemistry. A deep and fast intimacy strengthens between them, a platonic summer romance, in parallel with their daughters’ bosom friendship. Set in the 1970s but far from the coastal urban hotbeds of women’s lib, Studio Theatre’s “Summer, 1976” examines two mothers’ brief and intense friendship. With a simple set and two person cast, David Auburn’s smart play zooms in on the inner lives of women to charming effect.
Bittersweet and thought-provoking…theatrical excellence concentrated down to its essentials: performance and intimacy.
Alice (Holly Twyford) and Diana (Kate Eastwood Norris) are forced together while their daughters, Holly and Gretchen, play. Norris’ Diana is careful and controlled, with back straight, as she cuttingly observes Alice judging her squareness. She’s hardly bothered. Diana has little initial admiration for Alice’s go-with-the-flow, hippie-light housewife persona or her sniffling daughter. To survive their awkward forced proximityAlice, pulls out a blunt to ease her nerves. When Diana takes a huge pull (albeit as a power play), Alice and the audience begin to see her for her contradictions. She’s an artist but inflexible, a single mother and working woman, yet her home is immaculate and cooking gourmet. She’s standoffish but lonely. So they begin their whirlwind courtship, at playdate after playdate.
Alice and Diana narrate and reenact this retrospective from decades in the future, trading off perspectives. Cliffhangers emerge from this interrupted narration and surprises when our mostly reliable narrators mislead us. Sure, “Summer, 1976” includes other characters in its story—the daughters, Alice’s husband, Doug (occasionally play-acted by Diana), and Doug’s grad student, Merle—but only to further the two women’s arcs. Pinning a genre on “Summer, 1976” is a challenge. Despite protagonists who are well into adulthood, the narrative most resembles a coming-of-age drama, perhaps as a comment on the nationwide awakening of second-wave feminism in this era.
Two chairs, two boxes, and two glasses of water are the only props Lee Savage’s scenic design allows, leaving the storytelling to Norris and Twyford’s capable hands. A wood parquet floor and paneled backdrop create a warm and homey atmosphere, furthered by Alice and Diana’s barefoot costuming. Projections designed by Stefania Bulbarella keep the setting dynamic and abstract. Instead of predictable backdrops to spoon feed locations, Bulbarella pulls inspiration from Paul Klee, an artist who surprisingly weaves throughout Alice and Diana’s friendship. The abstract, angular art projections transform the wood backdrop with shifting colors, textures, and patterns. Kate Marvin’s sound design also marks key transitions with ebullient instrumentals, breaking the quiet focus of the extended dialogue.
Helen Q. Huang’s costume design reinforces, at a glance, what separates the two women. Diana is polished and professional, but also surprisingly modern, in asymmetrical pleated slacks. Alice is frumpier in capri jeans, but with a bohemian flare in her peasant blouse. Dressed in neither time-capsule pieces nor contemporary styles, the setting and occasion of our narrators’ recollection remains mysterious.
Bittersweet and thought-provoking, Auburn’s play, in the cradle of Vivienne Benesch’s direction, focuses on the powerful but oft overlooked depth in adult female friendships. Offering two complex leading roles to DC powerhouse actors (whose resumés are so long, they skip listing them out in the program), “Summer, 1976” is theatrical excellence concentrated down to its essentials: performance and intimacy.
Running Time: One hour and 30 minutes without intermission.
Advisory: Contains simulated drug use, descriptions of intercourse, and brief mention of intimate partner violence, addiction, and suicidal ideation.
“Summer, 1976” runs through December 22, 2024 at Studio Theatre, 1501 14th Street NW, Washington, DC 20005. For more information and to purchase tickets, call the Box Office at 202.332.3300 (Tues. – Sun.) or go online.
