Word: boyko
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Gaudentius Lee and Georgia Boyko, as one of the three central couples, amaze the audience by their sudden excellence when they drift into scenes from the past. Two other young duets are rather tiring, except that Ruth Nason, as the lethargic but lovely adornment of a banker's bed, is the only member of the cast who seems really to be having a good time. Her acting is exaggerated, but happy. As the inevitable French butler, Earl Edgerton is dull, but in the role of a half-mad old man, David Roberts gives the finest performance of the evening...
...competent, but the men are lame, and the result is a limping pace. The superiority of the women is partially because Williams' hysterical females are naturally rich roles. Alma Winemiller, the sexually-repressed daughter of a prurient minister, is certainly a ready-made vehicle for fine acting, and Georgia Boyko fills the part admirably. Simultaneously repulsing and desiring the advances of young Dr. John Buchanan, Miss Boyko portrays her hysteria with a certain delicacy and restraint which make her character both distinctive and convincing. When she is severe with her mother, who has herself been driven insane by an unfulfilled...
...contrast with Miss Boyko's intensity is Herb Adams' slothful behavior as young Dr. John. Although John Buchanan is a casual and lecherous character, he is not indifferent to the people around him--which makes Adams' frequent failure to react to others' lines somewhat unsatisfactory. When he does react, it is by mugging or with a boogey slouch which gives an unfortunate impression of adolescent youth. Because Adams seems unable to throw himself completely into the part, and in spite of Miss Boyko's strenuous efforts to rush through her lines in order to buoy the play, the pace lags...
...Miss Boyko, however, gets some good support from Lucia French, who plays the insane mother with cunning simplicity, and from Mary Ann Donahue, an appropriately lively Sophie Newcomb school girl, who captures the young doctor. Sharon Gans, playing the gossipy Mrs. Bassett, has a good deal of trouble with her accent, but this only brings out the humor in her part. Although the supporting males are generally ineffectual, at least they aren't often on stage. Patricia Guest, as the Mexican charmer Rosa Gonzales, is perfectly sensual, but unfortunately a little too sensual. For some reason, when confronted...
...moments of animal sensuality. Equally crude and abrupt is the lighting, which changes not at all smoothly. The musical background is occasionally appropriate--most of it is urgent and discordant, indicating psychological collapse, but clashing stridently with the Southern scene. The set, however, is good enough, and with Miss Boyko upon it, it becomes superb. For her, and her alone, Summer and Smoke is a modest triumph: if she does not get her man, at least she overshadows...