Summer and Smoke

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.