Last Summer in the Hamptons

Integrity and independence is the ideal thing to have. But in order to be independent you have to earn money, and when you earn money you may have to compromise your integrity. The young playwright explains the paradox of the avant-garde to a successful Hollywood actress in Last Summer in the Hamptons: the envy of commercial success. The film is about a theatrical family who spend their last season in the family's old summer house. Every year they have spent a couple of months together to strengthen and develop their creativity and prepare for the annual summer production. The film actress Oona arrives among the thespians. She is disappointed in Hollywood and has the ambition to de-velop her skills for the theatre. The theatre collective is a refuge which will make Oona view her profession with fresh eyes, however some of the family members look upon her with suspicion to begin with. She is a cat among pigeons. There is a sharp dividing line between film and theatre, according to the collective. You cannot act in commercial Hollywood-productions and on a stage off-Broadway. To be a real actor, a theatrical actor, is not a profession. It is a way of life. And it is not a choice, it is something that you have to do. The film is a tragicomical characterisation of devoted artists who live in a fleeting community. A drama with parallels to both Chechov and Woody Allen. During the day they wander around the large garden, preoccupied by their exercises in creativity. However, a side-effect of method-acting is the personal problems the character studies expose. This is a club for mutual admiration where everybody is so full of themselves that there is not much admiration left for others. Or too much, bordering on the embarrassing. People are striving for fame but cannot deal with praise. This leads to relationship turmoil with failed pick-ups and gender transcending competition. Oona wants to get into the theatre and longs for acceptance within the theatre community. However her presence also brings out buried family conflicts. The whole family needs to be accepted by each other. In a theatrical family the general occupational injury is not being able to be yourself. Life is an eternal act where your own self becomes yet another characterisation. An act where you avoid conflict by either ignoring it or quarrelling about the wrong things. Life itself is for great theatre. AS

Premiärstatus
Nordisk premiär: Medverkande
Viveca Lindfors, Victoria Foyt, Martha Plimpton: Producent
Judith Wolinsky: Manus
Henry Jaglom & Victoria Foyt: Foto
Hanania Baer: Musik
Rick Baitz: Talat språk
English