Jennifer van Dyck and Kate Baldwin Photo by Caelan Carlough

At the outset, the protagonists sit on either side of a small, round table. Alice's daughter, Holly, and Diana's daughter, Gretchen, are friends. The children are catalytic since the women come together as their girls play. Costume designer Lindsey Eifert outfits Alice is a flowery, free-flowing dress and wears sandals. Alice appears to be the quintessential free spirit, an individual who glows. Alice's unseen husband, Doug, is evidently scrambling to secure tenure. Diana, more austere and tight-lipped, wears jeans and a denim vest over her blouse. She is an artist who enunciates with specificity and it is important for her to maintain a meticulous interior in her home. She is a single mother.

Alice is sunnier whereas Diana, the pragmatist, has her new friend believing that she, Diana, is an art professor. Alice does not seem to have a full-time job and one infers that her relationship with Doug might be problematic. These two women do not sit at the table forever; they leave their chairs and then come together, standing side by side. Auburn provides situations and dialogue which foster much deeper opportunities to bond. Diana, when she suffers an unbearable migraine, calls Alice. At another time, Alice reveals that Doug has hired a graduate student named Merle to paint their house. We never witness Merle, but his presence is impactful.

There's a telling scene in which Alice and Holly spend an overnight at Diana's house. Alice chooses to sleep outside on the porch, beneath the stars. Here as elsewhere, director Isadora Wolfe makes a favorable decision not to reveal, for example, visuals of the houses. Instead, viewers are smartly afforded the opportunity to imagine.

The women are more complicated than one might have anticipated. At a certain point, Alice, for all her optimism, is clearly troubled. At another time, Diana explains that she is a part-time instructor rather than a university art faculty member. Diana never did fulfill her degree requirements. As the two grow closer, conversations become charged and personal. Diana is more liberated than she looks and she's the one who prods Alice to explore a sexual opportunity.

Toward the play's conclusion, the storyline jumps a few decades. By chance, Alice and Diana see one another at an art show in New York City. They have lost contact but not feeling and quickly renew a distinctively warm, mutual affection for one another. It doesn't feel schmaltzy or sappy or cliched but authentic and absolutely credible. Their memories have not dropped away into a cloudy morass. Instead, that brief, bright two month relationship leaps dynamically into the present moment. It is a sweet retrieval.

Both actresses have appeared numerous times on stage (which includes many appearances with Berkshire Theatre Group) and on screen as well. They are affecting in this moving, intimate play staged within the confines of the cozy Unicorn Theatre. The space invites all watching to be close to the sensitive performance. The women are disciplined, enviably poised, and fully in touch with two deep-feeling human characters.

David Auburn writes strong, perceptive dialogue and, every so often, comic lines, too. Summer, 1976 is set so long ago yet it depicts a recognizable, welcome interpersonal relationship. The scripting is not heavy-handed: Alice and Diana are far from stereotypes who are lacking in depth.

Summer, 1976 runs through October 31, 2026, at Berkshire Theatre Group, Unicorn Theatre, 6 East St., Stockbridge MA. For tickets and information, please call 413-997-4444 or visit BerkshireTheatreGroup.org.