Steamy ‘Summertime’ closes BGSU venue

Early on in "Summer-time," Tessa, played by Kendra Jo Brook, declares: "Love’s so
complicated. Especially now."
And she should know. As we discover, her mother is carrying on with Francois, who has also come on to
Tessa, and her father is involved in a relationship with another man.
And that’s just the beginning of the R-rated sexual shenanigans that spill out over the stage of the Joe
E. Brown Theater on the Bowling Green State University campus this weekend.
This is the old theater’s last hurrah, and the troupe gives the venerable venue a steamy send off. Joe
E.Brown’s glasses haven’t been steamed like this since he laid eyes on Jack Lemmon in drag in "Some
Like It Hot."
"Summertime," directed by Sara Lipinski Chambers, opens tonight at 8 and continues Friday and
Saturday at 8 p.m. with matinees at 2 p.m. It all starts innocently enough with Tessa reading a book in
a sun-filled vacation home on Martha’s Vineyard. And then James (Gregory Grimes) arrives with a
translation project and stars in his eyes. He’s smitten with Tessa, and as is the case here, when
someone’s smitten they let you know it.
The vivid cast of characters spew all manner of romantic sloganeering. Tessa’s right about love, it is
complicated, but wrong about this being a contemporary problem. Playwright Charles Mee rummages through
and mashes up all the theories and musings about love going back to the Greeks.
Love’s this, love’s that. Each character who enters has his or her own take.
First to barge in on Tessa and James is Francois (Brent Winzek) sporting a comical continental accent
that drips of passion. He seems to love any woman he lays his eyes on

including Mimi (Kara Bergman).
They argue about who did whom wrong, and as is the pattern with the play, just when things get
interesting, someone else enters to ratchet up the comedy.
Tessa’s parents, Frank (Casey Toney) and Maria (Eli Brickey), arrive with the gay man smitten with him,
Edmund (Jeffrey Sneed), and Mimi’s former lover Natalie (Erin Williams).
Then we have Barbara (Mariah Burks) who shows up for no particular reason, except to perform a feminist
standup routine, the only line of which I can quote because of the racy language is: "To call a man
an animal is to flatter him."
Then we have the homicidal Bob (Corey DiNardo) whose story would be chilling except for the off-hand way
he presents it.
Also getting in the action are Gunter (Ryan Albrecht) and the flamboyant long-time lesbian couple Bertha
(Kirsten Crockett) and Hilda (Katie Grillot).
The play is a series of set pieces, full of highfalutin rhetoric that inevitably crashes on the shoals of
physical desire.
The first act ends with many of the characters pummeling each other accompanied by a drum solo.
Given the play’s philosophical shtick, delivery is crucial. Getting the tongue around all those
abstractions is hard enough, and doing it with said tongue still planted firmly in the cheek is all the
harder. And the cast manages, turning the most unlikely reflections into punchlines.

Balancing that is the physical comedy. Brook is a brave actress indeed, as she tangos barefoot with
Francois wearing shoes.
Winzek’s striptease is a high point. Just as important is the way all the characters react to the dance:
Mimi with revulsion; Edmund with a mix of disgust and attraction.
Throughout, Sneed is riveting when he’s just observing. Given that individual characters tend to hold
forth for long stretches, this kind of reaction is important, providing commentary without uttering a
word.
And those words keep flowing in a steady stream of aphorisms. Plays often have a line or two that
summarize the theme. "Summertime" has dozens of false explications. No wonder the music under
the opening and closing scenes is "It’s a Sin to Tell a Lie."
In the end we’re left with the obvious observation that love is complex, and very funny.