As I have shown, the title page to Tennessee Williams' vastly underrated play, "Summer And Smoke," quotes famously, from Rilke, "Who, if I were to cry out, would hear me among the angelic orders." That is the question asked by Alma Winemiller throughout, and I am not certain she finds the answer. But more on that later.
During the titular moment in "The Slap," back in 2015. when Harry and Gary confront each other, and Sandy, in that dazzling split black and white dress, steps in to apologize, and Gary hurls back, "How many times does he hit you, Sandy?," the way Marin Ireland clutched herself, stepped back, and revealed by expression that she did not know that everyone else had the number on her marriage, was so powerfully unspoken by Marin Ireland, in the role, that I knew, then, this was an actress to keep an eye on.
My prediction has come true. Get down to CSC before this week ends, and see Marin Ireland as Miss Alma. She is to be reckoned among such Almas as Geraldine Page and Blythe Danner, and, good as Amanda Plummer was at Paper Mill, Main Ireland's impassioned interpretation and exploration is so detailed she makes you feel Alma's pain. My heart and soul (which "Alma" is Spanish for) just went out to her.
Not since Celia Keenan-Bolger stunned as Laura in 2013's "The Glass Menagerie" have I seen a portrayal like this. Staged within a suggestively confined box--a coffin-- the actors move about empty space freely, often so close to the audience, that if an audience member were to move, they might tumble into their laps. So focused does Marin move about as Alma, one would not dare disturb her, but, if such were to happen, I am sure she would not break character.
Hers is the best acting performance I have seen in the last five years. Do not miss it.
But Marin can't do it all on her own. She needs that good Williams' dialogue, and supporting players to tell Alma's story. And she gets it--from Nathan Darrow, as Dr; John Buchanan, Jr., Alma's psychological counterpart, Hannah Elless (excellent last year in Transport's "Come Back, Little Sheba," where she played Marie, and "Picnic," where she played Millie Evans) as Nellie Ewell, whose mother's reputation foreshadows Alma's, and Barbara Walsh as Alma's mentally challenged (but not totally unaware) mother. These are the standouts, but the rest, especially Ryan Spahn, as Archie Kramer, in that final scene, enable Marin to tell us Alma's story.
With a town like Glorious Hill, Mississippi, what could go wrong? Well, when one is trapped in a familial, non-sexual prison with no kind of fulfillment, such as Alma, is it any wonder most see her as a "white blooded spinster." When someone is told something so much, they often become that, when they are not, and Ireland's physical movements, gestures, even turning away from the audience, leaning over a chair, reveals all of Alma to the audience. Like a painting, which serves (the anatomy chart) as a metaphor, all her shades have been filled in.
I personally know something about Alma's famous "telephone number of God." I take something similar myself. For anxiety.
And when, at the end, she hurls that line--"The tables have turned, with a vengeance!," all the pent-up rage, self-hatred and doubt is finally released from Alma in a blaze of verbal colors by Miss Ireland. But it is too late; Alma has become what John once was, and he what she once had been. Which is the tragedy of the play. Neither will find fulfillment in their lives, but Alma, in choosing non-conformity is hovering over a dangerous precipice.
Marin Ireland as Alma made me think of a William Inge character, Deanie Loomis, played by Natalie Wood, in "Splendor In The Grass." She faced a similar struggle, as Alma. But
that story takes place roughly fifteen years after 'Summer,' ending on a more hopeful note, with Deanie getting the help she needs, finding her place in society. As Marin Ireland marches offstage at the end of "Summer And Smoke," the look on this beaten woman suggests she knows what she is in for, that she is marching to her own execution, her own self-destruction, eventually arriving at that same emotional cross road as Blanche Du Bois.
Speaking of Blanche, wouldn't Marin Ireland be wonderful in the role? Or even as Miss Lucretia Collins in "Portrait Of A Madonna?"
Before this production, I thought Moon Lake Casino a magical, romantic place.
As this production, thanks to Miss Ireland, makes clear, it is only the first of the many circles of Hell!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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