“Soundview Summer,†a nuclear power plant mystery at this year’s Midtown International Theater Festival, was laid out like a piece of impressionist music — sporadically making the viewer a little uneasy in the classiest way imaginable.
With only a few carnelian colored chairs and black wooden boxes set up on stage the piece by Kate Gill; set in New England in the 1900s, allowed for the cast to cement the stage with what comes from their past pain. It was missing something aside from props until the very last moment where it all came together.
With all of the actors’ members of the Actors Equity Association, the show directed by Ludovica Villar-Hauser was undoubtedly well-performed. The plot centers on Billy (Steven Hauk) and Jack (Brian Richardson), who spend a summer cleaning a nuclear power plant. The way they deal with their illnesses is what gives the play such a broad appeal.
Billy steps forward, so close to the edge you think he’s about to step off and in some ways, he has all of his life. Through the play he continues stepping down in the most devastating ways. Billy is continuously defeated when he tries to do right by those who come and go in his life, even Ellie (Annie McGovern) his wife.
His old drinking buddy from Lantern Bar, Jack comes back into Billy’s life after quitting drugs, finding God and getting out of jail and asks for his help. When Billy denies him in his inspirational endeavor he makes his way back to Aunt Jessie (Sharon Hope) in the projects only to rise above the poverty he once knew.
The damage the job cost them can’t be undone and Jack knows someone needs to pay for it. With its central subject being justice, the streams of emotions from the cast seem to come naturally as collective reactions from viewers.
Joe (Dared Wright) was an important hinging character, also the owner of Lantern Bar who allows for Billy to have flashbacks and remind audiences of the hope he had for himself as well as a major plot point that is not revealed until the end.
All characters had a fairly wide range of emotions within the one-hour period aside from Cathy (Susan Barrett) Joe’s sister, who I would have expected to have a longer more dynamic part. Through her second appearance I had just begun to warm up to her and she was gone.
It is like a “Who done it?†on the most detrimental and basic struggles in society. It includes topics and taboos in lighthearted humor getting some hearty laughs from the crowd. While the occasional look down at a script can take some from the overall experience, that is exactly why this Staged Reading was also as raw as it was.
All of the chunks that asked Billy to speak to the audience seemed somewhat like fillers in between the interplay of the other characters. In an effort to shoe the enigma that was truly taking place these could have been elaborated upon, however it would have taken away from Billy’s reserved emotional state if they were.
“Soundview Summer†was one of the rarities of truly thought provoking theatre, and it was comical and emotional to boot. Something that could have easily been walked over in a desert had it not been presented by the festival, but it was a gem to behold.
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