Summer and Smoke | London Theatre Direct

I guess most of the audience at the Apollo for the revival of Tennessee William’s Summer and Smoke will be staring at the hauntingly beautiful **Rosamund Pike**. But its success not only proves the pulling power of a star, but the fickleness of theatrical fashion. You might think that if the West End hadn’t seen a play since 1951 it was because it was a dud. Summer and Smoke is anything but and anticipates Williams’s triumphs. The animalistic hero and sexually frustrated heroine are there, as is the growing self-confidence of the poetry in his writing. This is almost a masterpiece, although whether Ms Pike’s smitten fans will be able to take their eyes off her long enough to notice is another matter.