WOMEN ON THE VERGE

Central Square Theater’s lovely production of playwright David Auburn’s (Proof) Summer, 1976 offers a story of two women who find an unexpected friendship at a tipping point in both their lives. It’s an especially fitting choice for Central Square Theater, the oldest female-led theater company in Boston. Central Square’s mission includes a commitment to bringing a feminine perspective to its efforts to advance social justice.

Directed with sensitivity to nuance and timing by local favorite Paula Plum, winner of numerous Elliot Norton Awards, this production features Central Square’s artistic director, Lee Mikeska Gardner in the role of Diana. Gardner is wonderful as the cranky artist who can’t quite bring herself to finish anything she starts. Laura Latrielle is equally strong as free-spirited Alice. Diana is a single mom, while Alice, also a mother, has abandoned her own aspirations to support the goals of her husband, an aspiring economist who is also the architect of the faculty babysitting coop.

Diana and Alice take a strong dislike to one another from the get-go. Diana doesn’t even like Alice’s kid, and their mutual descriptions of one another’s quirks and shortcomings are very funny. But the children hit it off, throwing their initially reluctant moms together. The women become friends, despite being very different in their outlook. It is those differences, in fact, that make them essential to one another in the summer of 1976. Alice inadvertently triggers what she thinks will be a crisis in her marriage, only to discover that an even bigger crisis has been looming in the background.

While the acting is superb on both counts, I had to keep reminding myself that we are meant to believe that Diana and Alice are basically the same age. Diana comes across as significantly older than Alice, but the dialogue makes clear that they are meant to be seen that way.

That’s a relatively minor quibble, however. Summer, 1976 is the story of not just a friendship but also of the role friendships can play when life hands out disappointments and less-than-welcome surprises. Think of Thelma and Louise, but without a tragic ending or sexual violence. Unlike that movie, Summer plays with time and expectations, giving the story added texture and complexity. The ending is neither happy nor tragic—simply honest and thus comforting to anyone who has once had and lost a friend.

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photos by Nile Scott Studios

Summer, 1976
Central Square Theater
450 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA
90 minutes, no intermission
ends on November 30, 2025

for more shows, visit Theatre in Boston

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