Repressed Soul Mates Fire Up Williams’ ‘Summer and Smoke’

No American playwright has better captured the raging conflict between the noblest aspirations of the human spirit and the basest depravity of the flesh than Tennessee Williams. A sensitive revival of “Summer and Smoke” at the Fountain Theatre honors the searing poetic voice of a gutter-bound stargazer. In riveting performances, Tracy Middendorf and Cameron Dye trace the romantic arc between Alma, a repressed minister’s daughter, and John, the debauched doctor’s son she secretly covets.

Like many of Williams’ heroines, Alma’s refined sensibilities make her too fragile for a brutish world--in this case, a rustic, uncultured town in 1916 Mississippi. Middendorf nails Alma’s affected veneer and underlying frailty, as well as the inevitable hardening consequences of her journey. Equally fascinating, Dye’s John throws himself into dissipation to quiet the voices of conscience Alma stirs in him.

Among the capable supporting cast, particularly affecting are Linda Cevallos as a fiery sexpot with whom John seeks to bury his angels, blustery Cynthia Sanders as the town busybody and Delaina Mitchell as a girl naively smitten with John.

While the Fountain’s intimate confines bring us palpably close to the unfolding passions, “Summer and Smoke” is in some ways too big a play for the venue. Director Simon Levy compensates with condensed blocking and fluid scene boundaries.

The production’s greatest strengths are where they belong--in the utterly convincing portrayal of two resonant souls whose connection is so tragically incomplete. Unlike the catastrophic resolutions in some Williams plays, the ultimate compromise here is quieter and much, much sadder.

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* “Summer and Smoke,” Fountain Theatre, 5060 Fountain Ave., Los Angeles. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 7 p.m. (except June 6, 3 p.m.) Ends June 13. $18-$22. (323) 663-1525. Running time: 2 hours, 50 minutes.