Audience members will inevitably see themselves reflected in the mosaic of family scenes in the Glen Arbor Players’ production of A.R. Gurney’s Pulitzer Prize nominated play “The Dining Room” set for Thursday through Saturday, July 25, 26, and 27 at 7:30 p.m. at the Glen Lake Church.
In this 1981 play, directed by Dr. Thomas Webb, seven actors play 57 different characters in 18 vignettes over 45 years, all in the formal dining room of an upper-class American home as an old way of life fades and new ways replace it. We have all been on one side or the other, or both, of some of the funny, poignant, evocative stories of family struggles, of being young and growing old, of control, unruliness, mistakes, and love. Always love.
The vignettes are not sequential; they jump around in the same way our memories do. A haughty aunt forcefully defends her fine tableware and manners from her condescending nephew. A resistant teenage daughter and an inflexible mother argue about decisions. A family attempts to keep their dementia- addled mother at the Thanksgiving dinner table. The once familiar job of household maid disappears. With almost no props and only minimal costume accessories, the actors use their voice, face, and posture to play a wide range of ages, personalities, and emotions.
