Summer and Smoke is a two-part, thirteen-scene play by Tennessee Williams

Tennessee Williams

Thomas Lanier "Tennessee" Williams III was an American writer who worked principally as a playwright in the American theater. He also wrote short stories, novels, poetry, essays, screenplays and a volume of memoirs...

, originally titled Chart of Anatomy when Williams began work on it in 1945. In 1964, Williams revised the play as The Eccentricities of a Nightingale. The phrase "summer and smoke," likely comes from the Hart Crane

Hart Crane

-Career:Throughout the early 1920s, small but well-respected literary magazines published some of Crane’s lyrics, gaining him, among the avant-garde, a respect that White Buildings , his first volume, ratified and strengthened...

 poem, "Emblems of Conduct", in the 1926 collection, White Buildings.

Synopsis

Summer and Smoke is set in Glorious Hill, Mississippi from the "turn of the century through 1916," and centers on a high-strung, unmarried minister's daughter, Alma Winemiller, and the spiritual/sexual romance that nearly blossoms between her and the wild, undisciplined young doctor who grew up next door, John Buchanan, Jr. She, ineffably refined, identifies with the gothic cathedral, "reaching up to something beyond attainment"; her name, as Williams makes clear during the play, means "soul" in Spanish; whereas Buchanan, doctor and sensualist, defies her with the soulless anatomy chart.

By play's end, however, Buchanan and Alma have traded places philosophically. She has been transformed beyond modesty. She throws herself at him, saying, "..now I have changed my mind, or the girl who said 'no,'—she doesn't exist any more, she died last summer—suffocated in smoke from something on fire inside her.". But he has changed, he's engaged to settle down with a respectable, younger girl; and, as he tries to convince Alma that what they had between them was indeed a "spiritual bond," she realizes, in any event, it is too late. In the final scene, Alma accosts a young traveling salesman at dusk in the town park; and, as the curtain falls, she follows him off to enjoy the "after-dark entertainment" at Moon Lake Casino, where she'd resisted Buchanan's attempt to seduce her the summer before.

Stage Performances

On 6 October 1948, Summer and Smoke received its first performance at the Music Box Theatre

Music Box Theatre

The Music Box Theater is a Broadway theatre located at 239 West 45th Street in midtown-Manhattan.The once most aptly named theater on Broadway, the intimate Music Box was designed by architect C. Howard Crane and constructed by composer Irving Berlin and producer Sam H. Harris specifically to...

, New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

, in a production staged by Margo Jones

Margo Jones

Margo Jones was an influential American stage director and producer best known for launching the American regional theater movement and for introducing the theater-in-the-round concept in Dallas, Texas. In 1947, she established the first regional professional company when she opened Theatre ’47 in...

 and designed by Jo Mielziner

Jo Mielziner

Joseph "Jo" Mielziner was an American theatrical scenic, and lighting designer born in Paris, France. He is "the most successful set designer of the Golden era of Broadway", and worked on both stage plays and musicals.-Career:He was the son of artist Leo Mielziner, Sr...

 with Tod Andrews, Margaret Phillips, Monica Boyar, and Anne Jackson

Anne Jackson

Anne Jackson is an American actress of television, stage, and screen.-Life and career:Jackson, the youngest of three sisters, was born in Millvale, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Stella Germaine and John Ivan Jackson, a barber who ran a beauty parlor...

. The play ran for 102 performances and, at the time, represented a downturn in popularity for Williams following his successful previous play A Streetcar Named Desire

A Streetcar Named Desire (play)

A Streetcar Named Desire is a 1947 play written by American playwright Tennessee Williams for which he received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1948. The play opened on Broadway on December 3, 1947, and closed on December 17, 1949, in the Ethel Barrymore Theatre. The Broadway production was...

, even though it explored similar themes.

In 1952, Geraldine Page

Geraldine Page

Geraldine Sue Page was an American actress. Although she starred in at least two dozen feature films, she is primarily known for her celebrated work in the American theater...

 played the lead role in a revival directed by José Quintero

José Quintero

José Benjamin Quintero was a Panamanian theatre director, producer and pedagogue best known for his interpretations of the works of Eugene O'Neill.-Early years:...

 at the newly founded Circle in the Square Theatre

Circle in the Square Theatre

The Circle in the Square Theatre is a legitimate Broadway theatre in midtown Manhattan on 50th Street in the Paramount Plaza building.The original Circle in the Square was founded by Paul Libin, Theodore Mann and Jose Quintero in 1951 and was located at 5 Sheridan Square in Greenwich Village...

 in downtown New York (the theater was in its earlier Sheridan Square Playhouse

Sheridan Square Playhouse

The Sheridan Square Playhouse was an Off-Broadway theatre in New York City that was active from 1958 through the early 1990s. Closed as a theatre in 1996, the theatre was located at 99 7th Avenue South in Greenwich Village.-History:...

 location). Her legendary performance is credited with the beginning of the Off-Broadway

Off-Broadway

Off-Broadway theater is a term for a professional venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, and for a specific production of a play, musical or revue that appears in such a venue, and which adheres to related trade union and other contracts...

 movement, putting both Page and Quintero on the map and vindicating the play itself. Page went on to portray Alma Winemiller in the film version opposite Laurence Harvey

Laurence Harvey

Laurence Harvey was a Lithuanian-born actor who achieved fame in British and American films.- Early life :Harvey maintained throughout his life that his birth name was Laruschka Mischa Skikne. However, his legal name was Zvi Mosheh Skikne. He was the youngest of three boys born to Ber "Boris" and...

.

The Broadway debut of the revised version titled "The Eccentricities of a Nightingale" was staged in 1976. The production was directed by Edwin Sherin

Edwin Sherin

Edwin Sherin is an American theatre and television director and producer. He is the husband of actress Jane Alexander. He has directed many episodes of the television drama Law & Order, as well as directing for the stage, mainly on Broadway, including The Great White Hope.-Biography:Born in...

, scenery William Ritman, costumes Theoni V. Aldredge

Theoni V. Aldredge

Theoni V. Aldredge was a Greek-American stage and screen costume designer.Born Theoni Athanasiou Vachlioti in Thessaloniki in 1922, Aldredge received her training at the American School in Athens. She emigrated to the United States in 1949 and attended the Goodman Theatre at DePaul University,...

, lighting Marc B. Weiss, original music Charles Gross

Charles Gross

Charles "Charlie" Gross is an American Film and TV composer, living in New York City.Gross was educated at Harvard University , the New England Conservatory and Mills College and a student of Darius Milhaud. He arranged for the West Point Band for three years, and served in the US Army...

, produced in conjunction with Marc W. Jacobs, production stage manager Henry Banister, and press Seymour Krawitz, Patricia McLean Krawitz, and Louise Ment. The show starred Betsy Palmer

Betsy Palmer

Betsy Palmer is an American actress, best known as a regular panelist on the game show I've Got a Secret, and later for playing Pamela Voorhees in the notorious slasher film Friday the 13th.-Life and career:...

 (Alma), Shepperd Strudwick

Shepperd Strudwick

Shepperd Strudwick was an American actor of film, television, and stage....

 (Rev. Winemiller), Grace Carney (Mrs. Winemiller), Nan Martin

Nan Martin

Nan Martin was an American actress who starred in movies and on television.Born in Decatur, Illinois and raised in Santa Monica, California, her first film role was The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit...

 (Mrs. Buchanan), Peter Blaxill (Roger Doremus), Jen Jones (Mrs. Bassett), Patricia Guinan (Rosemary), W. P. Dremak (Vernon), Thomas Stechschulte (Traveling Salesman), and David Selby

David Selby

David Lynn Selby is an American character and stage actor. He has worked in movies, soap operas and television. The naturally black-headed Selby is best known for playing the roles of Quentin Collins on the ABC-TV serial, Dark Shadows , and as the evil and compassionate...

 as Dr. Buchanan. the production ran for 24 performances at the Morosco Theatre

Morosco Theatre

The Morosco Theatre was a legitimate theatre located at 217 West 45th Street in the heart of the theater district in midtown-Manhattan, New York, United States....

.

In 1996, the play was revived at the Criterion Center Stage Right in New York, in a production directed by David Warren

David Warren (director)

David Warren is an American theatre and television director.-Theatre:Warren has a number of Broadway production directing credits to his name, including Holiday, Summer and Smoke and Misalliance...

, with Harry Hamlin

Harry Hamlin

Harry Robinson Hamlin is an American film and television actor, known for his role as Perseus in the 1981 fantasy film Clash of the Titans, and as Michael Kuzak in the legal drama series L.A...

 and Mary McDonnell

Mary McDonnell

Mary Eileen McDonnell is an American film, stage, and television actress. She received an Academy Award nomination for her role as Stands With A Fist in Dances with Wolves, and she is also very well known for her performance as President Laura Roslin in Battlestar Galactica, the President's wife...

. Laila Robins

Laila Robins

-Personal life:Robins was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, the daughter of Latvian American parents Brigita and Janis Robins, who was a research chemist. She attended the Yale School of Drama, and received her undergraduate degree at the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire, . Robins has been in a...

 and Amanda Plummer have been notable Almas in regional theatre productions.

London had to wait nearly sixty years for the premiere of Summer and Smoke. It opened at the Apollo Theatre

Apollo Theatre

The Apollo Theatre is a Grade II listed West End theatre, on Shaftesbury Avenue in the City of Westminster. Designed by architect Lewin Sharp for owner Henry Lowenfield, and the fourth legitimate theatre to be constructed on the street, its doors opened on 21 February 1901 with the American...

 on 17 October 2006. The production, directed by Adrian Noble

Adrian Noble

Adrian Keith Noble is a theatre director, and was also the artistic director and chief executive of the Royal Shakespeare Company from 1990 to 2003.-Education and career:...

 and starring Rosamund Pike

Rosamund Pike

Rosamund Mary Elizabeth Pike is a British actress. Her film roles include villainous Bond girl Miranda Frost in Die Another Day, Jane Bennet in Pride and Prejudice, Helen in An Education, Lisa in Made in Dagenham, Miriam Grant-Panofsky in Barney's Version and Kate Sumner in Johnny English...

 and Chris Carmack

Chris Carmack

James Christopher "Chris" Carmack is an American actor and former fashion model.-Early life:Carmack was born in Washington, D.C., and grew up in Derwood, Maryland. He has two siblings, a brother and sister. As a young boy, he enjoyed participating in all types of sports: baseball, basketball,...

, first opened at the Nottingham Playhouse

Nottingham Playhouse

The Nottingham Playhouse is a theatre in Nottingham, England. It was first established as a repertory theatre in the 1950s when it operated from a former cinema. Directors during this period included Val May and Frank Dunlop.-The building:...

 in September, prior to its London transfer. It closed ten weeks short of its planned sixteen-week run due to disappointing ticket sales.

In January 2007, the Paper Mill Playhouse

Paper Mill Playhouse

Paper Mill Playhouse is a regional theatre with approximately 1200 seats, located in Millburn, New Jersey, less than 25 miles from Manhattan. Due to its location, it can draw from the pool of actors who live in New York City. Its location, as well as its focus on producing large-scale shows, makes...

 in Millburn, New Jersey

Millburn, New Jersey

Millburn is a township in Essex County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the township population was 20,149.Millburn Township was created as a township by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 20, 1857, from portions of Springfield Township.Millburn also...

 presented a revival starring Amanda Plummer and Kevin Anderson, directed by Michael Wilson; and, in May 2008, the Off-Broadway group The Actors Company Theatre (TACT) presented a revival of the 1964 revision of the play, The Eccentricities of a Nightingale, which received a favorable notice from The New York Times.

Adaptations

In 1961, a film adaptation by Paramount Pictures

Paramount Pictures

Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...

 was directed by Peter Glenville

Peter Glenville

Peter Glenville , born Peter Patrick Brabazon Browne, was an English film and stage actor and director.-Biography:...

 and starred Laurence Harvey

Laurence Harvey

Laurence Harvey was a Lithuanian-born actor who achieved fame in British and American films.- Early life :Harvey maintained throughout his life that his birth name was Laruschka Mischa Skikne. However, his legal name was Zvi Mosheh Skikne. He was the youngest of three boys born to Ber "Boris" and...

, Rita Moreno

Rita Moreno

Rita Moreno is a Puerto Rican singer, dancer and actress. She is the only Hispanic and one of the few performers who have won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony, and was the second Puerto Rican to win an Academy Award....

, and Geraldine Page

Geraldine Page

Geraldine Sue Page was an American actress. Although she starred in at least two dozen feature films, she is primarily known for her celebrated work in the American theater...

 reprising her role as Alma. A television version was produced in 1972, starring Lee Remick

Lee Remick

Lee Ann Remick was an American film and television actress. Among her best-known films are Anatomy of a Murder , Days of Wine and Roses , and The Omen .-Early life:...

, David Hedison

David Hedison

Albert David Hedison, Jr. is an Armenian-American film, television, and stage actor. He was billed as Al Hedison in his early film work. In 1959, when he was cast in the role of Victor Sebastian in the short-lived espionage television series Five Fingers, NBC insisted that he change his name...

, and Barry Morse

Barry Morse

Herbert "Barry" Morse was an Anglo-Canadian actor of stage, screen, and radio best known for his roles in the ABC television series The Fugitive and the British sci-fi drama Space: 1999...

. Another production, Eccentricities of a Nightingale, appeared on television in 1976, starring Blythe Danner

Blythe Danner

Blythe Katherine Danner is an American actress. She is the mother of actress Gwyneth Paltrow and director Jake Paltrow.-Early life:...

 and Frank Langella

Frank Langella

-Early life:Langella, an Italian American, was born in Bayonne, New Jersey, the son of Angelina and Frank A. Langella Sr., a business executive who was the president of the Bayonne Barrel and Drum Company. Langella attended Washington Elementary School and Bayonne High School in Bayonne...

.

An operatic treatment of the play exists as well, composed by Lee Hoiby

Lee Hoiby

Lee Henry Hoiby was an American composer and classical pianist. Best known as a composer of operas and songs, he was a disciple of composer Gian Carlo Menotti. Like Menotti, his works championed lyricism during a time when such compositions were deemed old fashioned and irrelevant to modern society...

. It was produced most recently by the Manhattan School of Music Opera Theater in December, 2010.