| 1 |
WHEN WOOD IS NOT INERT: A TRIBUTE To A.R. Gurney’s The Dining Room Review by: Beth Mandelbaum, Oct 27, 2007 |
It was an extraordinary privilege to have caught the 25th anniversary revival of The Dining Room this afternoon, on the final day of it run. I was deeply moved, always fascinated, never bored, found much to laugh about with grace, and was amazed at the phenomenal performances of the six actors, whom, I am told together play 50 different roles spanning many decades, ages, situations.
This is a very fast moving play, with characters ... read more entering while others are still engaged in their conversations, filled with so much rich emotional complexity, great variety of engaging circumstance, extremely fluid movement from vignette to vignette, each with its own story and meaning, and a play with the capacity to make one’s emotional response change along with the changing swirls of characters that sit at the table. It is no surprise that The Dining Room was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. I found it to be a brilliant work with a wonderful concept.
One thing that came to my mind after the show is how traditional African peoples see the wooden statues, masks and other wonderful objects carved out of wood to be filled with life and peopled by the spirits of their ancestors. The wood becomes alive and serves significant ritual purposes in their lives.
Somehow the notion of an old, elegantly carved wooden table, which is the centerpiece of the set, always there, and which is the plays’ central image, makes me think of the way objects of wood are perceived by native peoples, imbued with a sense of all the generations who have passed before, and alive with the forces of the human spirit that have been at play.
By the end of the play, the table begins to show its age and need for repair. It is no longer that staunch, fortified and stable presence that it had always appeared to be before, while change was constantly taking place around it.
Also, by play’s end, the audience has shared in the myriad aspects of the life experience of these generations of family members of all ages and at all sorts of family events, some formal and others far less so: loving and loss; longing; loyalty; disloyalty; desperation; fighting; lack of compassion; growing old and becoming ill; and much, much more. All of this passes before our eyes, ears and hearts.
I was very struck by a comment made to me by another audience member after the show: that nobody was “ever happy in that dining room.” On reflection, I realize what an insightful remark this was. I was still taking in my experiences, but hadn’t perceived them as a whole in this way. One can only speculate about what The Dining Room is actually saying about the human condition. But it is precisely the human condition that is at the very heart of this play.
|
|
|
My recommendation:
must see!
|
|
