Playhouse invites you into ‘The Dining Room’

Tom Titus

There are eight living characters in A.R. Gurney’s “The Dining Room,”

which opens next weekend at the Huntington Beach Playhouse, but

there’s also a ninth -- a large, old-fashioned dining room table,

accompanied by chairs and holding forth center stage.

Written in the early 1980s, “The Dining Room” served as a

springboard for Gurney’s career, along with that of now-renowned

actor William H. Macy. It’s a backhanded tribute to the lifestyle of

the Eastern United States WASPs of today and yesterday.

Director Jack Messenger, who staged last season’s production of

“Ten Little Indians” at the playhouse, calls Gurney’s script “truly

an actor’s play,” as its eight performers each take on a plethora of

characters over a period of several generations of American life.

“For this production, we have taken a decidedly fluid approach,”

Messenger said. “I have assembled a cast of eight actors playing 60

different roles across 18 different ‘scenes.’ Each scene is

essentially a one-act ‘play within a play.’”

Each of the actors plays a variety of roles, from children to

grandchildren and from parent to grandparent. A middle-aged actor may

be playing a child or a young actress taking on the role of a

confused old woman.

“The action takes place chronologically during the course of a

‘day in the life of the dining room,’” Messenger said. “Yet the

events and occasions portrayed occur across 60-plus years of American

life, from pre-World War II to the present.

“Gurney’s use of the dining room is a metaphor for a bygone way of

life and the tenets that Eastern WASPs have always held dear. For

instance, we see an anachronistic formality in manners, the outdated

use of servants and a misplaced emphasis on issues of style rather

than substance. Gurney does this on purpose with tongue firmly in

cheek.”

The Huntington Beach cast, Messenger points out, comprises eight

actors who have never laid eyes on each other before casting and

“have formed something highly desirable for a play such as this -- a

tight and true ensemble.”

Performing various roles in “The Dining Room” will be Ron Cohen,

Roger Lundy, James J. Ross, Michael Tranchida, Kyra Kiener, RoseMary

London, Karen McDaniel and Amy Jo Steele (who starred in the

playhouse’s recent “Proposals”). Each takes on seven or eight

different roles and, Messenger said, will “jump from one scene to

another with remarkable ease.”

“Through it all, Gurney never makes us feel as though we can’t

relate to these characters as human beings,” Messenger said. “There

is still a little bit of ourselves -- as we were, as we are and as

sometimes, admittedly, we still quietly want to be.

“The play brings forth all the attributes of comedy, satire and

touching pathos. It is, indeed, the definition of the term ‘dramatic

comedy.’”

* TOM TITUS reviews local theater for the Independent.