Reviews

Summer and Smoke by Tennessee Williams

hunky_dory_1971's review against another edition

emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

unabashedlynat's review against another edition

reflective fast-paced

4.5

beecallaghan's review against another edition

emotional reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

stephanie5's review against another edition

emotional tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

destinykaylani's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Williams has done it again !!

bobbyknndy's review against another edition

5.0

Did you ever wonder "what if Blanche DuBois and Stanley Kowalski grew up in the same town and kind of had a thing for each other?" Here's as close to an answer as you will ever get. Williams wrote both STREETCAR and SUMMER AND SMOKE at the same time, and that's abundantly clear when reading the lesser-known work. It suffered because of STREETCAR's shadow, premiering in 1948 to positive reviews but nowhere near the runaway success of its predecessor and THE GLASS MENAGERIE. By comparison to those two titans of American drama, it was a failure.

But when looked at as a companion piece to STREETCAR, born out of the same mind at the same time as that other masterpiece, the play is heartbreakingly beautiful. The doomed love story and its dichotomy between main characters Alma (representing old-fashioned Southern values a la Blanche) and John (representing animal instincts and urges a la Stanley) is never as frighteningly visceral and dark as the clashing of the ideologies in STREETCAR, but it's just as powerfully sad and emotional in SUMMER AND SMOKE's altered setting for two similar larger-than-life personalities.

Williams tried to fix Alma's similarity to Blanche when he re-wrote SUMMER AND SMOKE as THE ECCENTRICITIES OF A NIGHTINGALE but in doing so robbed the play of all its urgency and beauty. Don't bother with that one except for scholastic purposes.

bananagram210's review

dark mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

iris_sel's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Tennessee Williams truly gets it!! This play packs such an emotional punch mygod

rykel's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

maureenlikethetango's review against another edition

5.0

Every time I read a Williams play I think he can't possibly tear my heart out more than he has already and then he does. Beautiful, lyrical, heartbreaking.