Summer
by Julia Stubbs Hughes, based on the novel by Edith Wharton
World Premiere produced by 20 South Street
Eighteen-year-old Charity Royall lives in the remote village of North Dormer with her guardian and father-figure Lawyer Royall.
Then one summer, Lucius Harney, a young architect with his knowledge and experience of progressive New York, comes into their lives.
Cast
Francis Adams | Joanne Gale | Jeffrey Mundell.
Creative Team
Director: Timothy Stubbs Hughes | Set & Costume Designer: Alesya Bolotina | Lighting Designer: Katherine Lowry | Sound Designer/Music: Millie Cook | Photography: Grey Swan | Produced by 20 South Street.
Performance dates *World Premiere
8-26 May 2012 at the Jack Studio Theatre, London
The playtext of Summer was published for its World Premiere by Playdead Press
The programme for Summer can be viewed here
Reviews for Summer
“The character of Charity is beautifully drawn, strong but also vulnerable, frustrated by the expectations placed on her sex by society… One would anticipate the relationships between these three characters, specifically chosen by the writer to carry the plot of an entire novel, to be intense and flagrant, but somehow each one remains emotionally and physically independent from the others to a considerable extent… Music and sound effects composed and arranged by Millie Cook are engrossing; string arrangements lend a sense of gravity and foreboding from the earliest scenes… Alesya Bolotina’s set design is simple yet effective, with only two tatty chairs and a bench to evoke the New England setting. It’s the lighting design, by Katherine Lowry, that really lifts the space, teasing out the hidden colours of Bolotina’s set, and conveying a sense that there’s more going on here than meets the eye. The small studio space has been reconfigured, and this new set-up allows director Timothy Stubbs Hughes to create a real sense of flow and pace.” EXEUNT
“The performances are good, with Joanne Gale capturing the headstrong girl with all the sarcasm and moodiness that you’d expect from a teenager without seeming incongruent to the time. Francis Adams is perfectly cast as the patriarchal Royall, creating a good man whose morals you can begin to mistrust as the story unfolds. In the second half, there is a lovely moment as he addresses the audience (as the townspeople) and you get a real sense of his guilt and fear underneath his speech. Mundell, in a subtle performance, builds a steamy chemistry with Gale and the two express a very convincing love for each other.” One Stop Arts
“Joanne Gale portrays spunky Charity with fervour, she is quick-witted and at times a little brusk as teenagers can be. There’s a lovely chemistry between her and Jeffrey Mundell who plays Lucius, the blossoming relationship is played out subtly.” BroadwayBaby.com
Edith Wharton (1862-1937)
Born Edith Newbold Jones into a society known as ‘Old New York’ at a time when women were discouraged from achieving anything beyond a proper marriage, Edith Wharton broke through these constraints to become one of America’s greatest writers. She was a close friend of Henry James, who in turn was a valued literary adviser and the saying “keeping up with the Joneses” was said to refer to her father’s family. The author of The Age of Innocence, Ethan Frome and The House of Mirth, she wrote over 40 books in 40 years, including authoritative works on architecture, gardens, interior design, and travel. Essentially self-educated, she was the first woman awarded: the Pulitzer Prize for Literature (for The Age of Innocence in 1921); an honorary Doctorate of Letters from Yale University; and full membership in the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Wharton wrote Summer in six weeks in the spring of 1916, whilst she was in France, assisting with the war effort. She was one of the few foreigners who was allowed to travel to the front lines during the First World War and in recognition of her work with the displaced, she was named a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor. In the midst of the war around her, she wrote to her longtime editor Charles Scribner,
“I am taking a few weeks rest at Fontainebleau and making use of my leisure to write a long-short story of the dimensions of Ethan Frome. It deals with the same kind of life in a midsummer landscape, and is a thing I have in mind for several years.”
The story that Wharton would write was something that she would later pair with Ethan Frome, even calling Summer the ‘hot Ethan’ but this time at its centre, it would have a heroine who is an orphan, a ‘refugee’, literally named Charity. Wharton was probably the most renowned of the group of female writers in the early part of the 20th century and what she cared about most was telling women’s stories. In this respect, Summer is one of her most important novels. It was only moderately successful when it was published in 1917 but when Wharton’s writings were rediscovered in the 1960s, Summer found a new audience who rightly valued it as one of her best works.
2012 marks the 150th anniversary of Edith Wharton’s birth.
How I hate everything.
In rehearsal
Photography by Grey Swan
Timothy Hughes
