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| Frances Foster, Ethel Ayler, Moses Gunn. |
THE
FIRST BREEZE OF SUMMER [Drama/Family/Homosexuality/Race] A:
Leslie Lee; D: Douglas Turner Ward; S: Edward Burbridge; C: Mary Mease Warren;
L: Sandra L. Ross; P: Negro Ensemble Company; T: St. Marks Playhouse (OB);
3/2/75-4/27/75 (70); Palace Theatre; 6/10/75-7/20/75 (48)
A “human and touching” (John Simon) domestic drama
about a family of middle-class blacks living in a Northern city. Excellently
written and produced, it was considered one of the finest black plays of the
decade. It moved from a Negro Ensemble Company Off-Broadway staging to
Broadway, where, however, it failed to catch on.
The play, which Clive Barnes called “one of the most
mature and rewarding works the NEC has given us,” was a two-leveled work. One
level presented the story of a contemporary family: Milton (Moses Gunn), the
father, is fairly successful as a plasterer, although he charges his white
customers too little for fear of losing their business. His older son, Nate
(Charles Brown), has dropped out of school to work for him, and his younger
son, Lou (Reyno), has ambitions of becoming a doctor or scientist. This
troubled son, ashamed of his color, is also aware of being a latent homosexual.
Grammer (Frances Foster) is Milton’s aged mother, a
beloved matriarch, spending the hot June weekend at her son’s home. She and Lou
have an extremely close relationship, the boy treating his grandma with great
love.
On the second level, the play flashes back into the
life of Grammer, known in these scenes as Lucretia (Janet League), intertwining
the stories of three lovers (two black and one white) by whom she had children in
her younger days—with the material about Milton, Lou, and Nate. The play binds
the two levels together by concentrating on the relationship between Lou and
Grammer and showing how their love helps the young man resolve his personal
difficulties.
A work of engrossing honesty, The First Breeze of Summer was very strong in its depiction of both
present and past characters, all of whom become people about whom one could care.
Old fashioned in technique and values, it was capable of bringing tears to
critically dry eyes. It was not particularly dramatic, noted Douglas Watt, but
had an effective way with dialogue and situations. Despite being “overlong” and
“confusing” to Martin Gottfried, it nevertheless revealed an “obvious writing
talent.” Melodrama crept in too often, believed several reviewers, but some of
its scenes, according to Edwin Wilson, “are as powerful as any now on view in
New York.”
Structural problems in relating the play’s two levels
to each other disturbed some viewers. And an overabundance of plot and thematic
material also was problematic. With splendid performances by Frances Foster,
Janet League, Moses Gunn, and Reyno, among others, though, and insightful direction
by Douglas Turner Ward, The First Breeze
of Summer represented a major black offering of the era.
The play won an OBIE as Best Play, nabbed a Tony
nomination in the same area, and brought OBIES to Moses Gunn and Reyno, the
latter also earning the Clarence Derwent Award. Leslie Lee, in addition, was
given the John Gassner Medallion for Playwriting.
