Summer, 1976
by David Auburn

Name: Summer, 1976
Brand: David Auburn
SKU: 9780573710810
Rating: 3.53 (11 reviews)

Broadway

Summer, 1976 Book Cover — Summer, 1976 Cover

Highlights

Female

90 minsPresent DayUnit Set/Multiple SettingsContemporary Costumes/Street Clothes

What readers are saying

Readers appreciate the unique storytelling style and relatable themes of friendship in 'Summer, 1976.' Many find the characters engaging and the narration outstanding, particularly praising Laura Linney's performance. However, some feel the conclusion was lacking and left them wanting more from the story's development.

Engaging narrationRelatable friendship themesUnique storytelling styleOutstanding performancesEnding felt unresolvedSome characters lack depth

Synopsis

A deeply moving, tenderly insightful play about friendship, memory, and the small moments that can change the course of our lives forever.

Over one fateful summer, an unlikely friendship develops between Diana, a fiercely iconoclastic artist and single mom, and Alice, a free-spirited yet naive young housewife.

As the Bicentennial is celebrated across the country, these two young women in Ohio navigate motherhood, ambition and intimacy, and help each other discover their own independence.

Press Reviews

"Critic's Pick! “[A] bittersweet, comic memory play... a story of profound connection and awakening disquiet... sharply observant, too, and subtly, insistently feminist."
— Laura Collins-Hughes, The New York Times

"Sensitive... a warm and beguiling memory play... The closer you look, and listen, and the more you reflect upon it, the deeper grow its rewards."
— The Wall Street Journal

"Potently affirming... the story’s modesty allows emotion and meaning to suddenly sneak up on you."
— New York Post

"Quietly poignant... captures an experience that’s as universal as it is inexplicable: a friendship that shouldn’t work but does, and that should endure but doesn’t."
— Deadline

"The story that unspools is refreshingly small and intimate... Summer, 1976 highlights how simpler moments and interactions along one's timeline can still have a profound and long-lasting impact — much like the play itself."
— Entertainment Weekly