by Paula Kaplan-Reiss
Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winning playwright, David Auburn, has written a masterful play featuring two very different women in Summer, 1976, performing at the Berkshire Theatre Group‘s Unicorn Theatre. Director Isadora Wolf has the great fortune of directing two superb actors, Kate Baldwin and Jennifer Van Dyck, in this play filled with many monologues to the audience expressing the internal worlds of Alice and Diana as their relationship develops over the summer of 1976. This relatively new memory play was first performed at the Manhattan Theatre Club in 2023.
On a spare set designed by Jason Simms, featuring a round glass kitchen table, two chairs and an area rug, all fitting a modern 1976 style, Alice and Diana enter the stage from doors on opposite sides of the stage, and sit facing the audience. Not engaging with each other, Diana (Van Dyck) presents as an uptight single mother to five-year-old Gretchen. She is an artist with family money, a studio, and a perfectly designed home. She is a healthy cook, a rule follower, and teaches art at Ohio State University.
By contrast, Alice (Baldwin) presents as a free spirit and wife to husband Doug who works tirelessly teaching in the Economics department of the same university as he struggles to earn tenure. She is on a budget, a mother to five-year-old Holly, has a messy home put together with the décor of a college student, and cares little for rules. Her husband has developed a babysitting co-op for parents to get shares to be traded with other parents in exchange for babysitting each other’s children. He sees this co-op as economical and useful, with no money needed. Alice sees it as silly. Nevertheless, this is how Alice and Diana meet as their daughters become fast friends. Alice and Diana, however, realize they have little in common. Diana has little affection for Holly who has a constant runny nose and wants to use her precious art supplies. But, she acknowledges her daughter adores her. Alice does a great impression of Diana’s snooty style, exhibiting her impatience.
What makes this play work is Auburn’s resistance to making each woman a caricature. Despite loving low-quality paperbacks, Alice is well versed in the classics and art, and has more education than Diana. Uptight Diana enjoys getting high and frequently bums a joint from Alice. Alice is not afraid to call Diana a snob. She resents Diana playing the adult while making her feel like a child. Diana struggles to finish any of her artwork. “I can never finish the work to my own satisfaction.”
As can happen when children are friends, mothers who may never have met inevitably get closer. We watch as strains become more obvious in Alice’s description of her marriage to her husband. We also see Diana reaching out to Alice when she cannot function due to migraines. Diana does not have a husband. Alice rarely sees her husband. Diana and Alice’s dependence on each other grows. Their judgment of each other also grows. As Alice says, “People aren’t just one thing.” She can see the contradictions in Diana.
We hear Alice wondering if the male student of Doug’s who is painting their house is possibly interested in her. We watch Diana encouraging Alice to have a fling which horrifies Alice. At the same time, we witness Diana’s fantasies about the painter, as she slips into a reverie about him.
While only seeing Alice and Diana on stage, we can imagine all the other characters, with Diana sometimes playing Alice’s husband, Doug as Alice describes a conflict they are having. Baldwin and Van Dyck expertly develop their own characters and are a delight to watch play next to each other and off each other. We watch Baldwin’s joy and lightness harden with Alice’s difficult reality. Van Dyck gives Diana confidence and authority, with strong glimpses of her vulnerability. And I marvel over Baldwin’s and Van Dyck’s abilities to memorize and deliver countless monologues, while making it look easy.
Yet, as many relationships that develop under specific circumstances, we see these characters drift apart over time. All feels very relatable as we think about our own friendships which may not have lasted as life takes over.
Costume Designer Lindsey Eifert dresses Alice in a beautiful, flowy, bohemian dress as Alice might dress in the present where this play ends. Diana is in denim jeans and a matching vest, looking very put together.
Full disclosure, I discovered shortly before seeing this play that my wonderful ballet instructor at Berkshire Pulse is Director Isadora Wolfe. Aside from being a beautiful dancer, Wolfe brings out the best in Tony nominated Baldwin who is no stranger to the BTG stage, and Van Dyck who has also performed in many BTG plays.
This 90-minute, no intermission play about two women, astutely written by the male Auburn will hold your attention and make you think about how lives and relationships change over time. You will not see better performers than Baldwin and Van Dyck and will feel privileged to see the quality each brings to the stage. Summer, 1976 will take you back to the past and make you reevaluate your present.
The Berkshire Theatre Group presents “Summer, 1976” by David Auburn, directed by Isadora Wolfe, at the Unicorn Theatre, 6 East Street in Stockbridge, MA. CAST: Kate Baldwin as Alice and Jennifer Van Dyck as Diana. CREATIVE TEAM: Costume Designer Lindsey Eifert, Scenic Designer Jason Simms, Lighting Design Matthew E. Adelson, Composer and Sound Design Scott Killian, State Manager Caroline Ragland, Casting Kelly Gillespie and Caparelliotis Casting.