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Quotes excerpted from
"A Study in Growing Up That Knows Its
Audience"
a
review of The Summer of the Swans
July 25, 2003
by Gordon Cox
"THE SUMMER OF THE SWANS...is most notable for its satisfyingly delicate touch in handling one developmentally disabled character....For much of the show, young Charlie hovers on the fringes of the action, both integrated into and excluded from his family's life, particularly the center-stage dynamic between his two older sisters. This nuanced depiction feels very real, especially since Charlie is played unostentatiously by the adult actor John Lloyd Young, who brings to the role an unwavering focus and a rubbery face that can crumple silently with emotion."
"...a sweetly touching look at one girl's adolescent struggles."
"The play, based on the 1970 novel by Betsy Byars, is the second of
four by Julia Jordan that will be produced in New York this season. As
in Jordan's 'St. Scarlet,' which ran downtown earlier this summer, the
playwright shows a fine command of character..."
"Director Joe Calarco shares a similarly keen eye for the vicissitudes of familial interplay; he brings especially pointed clarity to a scene in which our protagonist, Sara (Kate Wetherhead), gets a tough-and-tender lecture from her aunt about growing up, and to another in which Sara and Charlie have a varied, two-sided conversation, even though Charlie remains mute for the entire show."
"Wetherhead...offers a sharp depiction of teenage angst, with all its
contentious intensity and its genuine, vulnerable confusion. As Sara's aunt,
Angela Bullock has a comfortable authority, and Greg Shamie, playing the
boyfriend of Sara's sister, Wanda, has some lively fun as a 1970s version of
a good-natured teenage rebel."
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