My mind reels at the logistics. Six actors perform different roles in what has to be more than a dozen different vignettes. The actress playing the aunt in one piece might be the six-year old daughter in the next. The actor playing a cantankerous grandpa will also play a furniture restorer in another piece. And it all takes place in the same dining room. The characters and their attitudes toward the elegant furniture and fine china change from sketch to sketch. How those six actors keep each character distinct in their heads seems incomprehensible. But they do carry it off, with panache and crisp, joyful energy.
Playwright A. R. Gurney embraces the dining room as a touchstone to explore family dynamics. Whether it’s a room that’s rarely used (appropriated as an “office”) or religiously set for supper each evening. The episodes are sequential, in the sense that the setting progresses chronologically. There is no connection between the episodes themselves. By the time we’re nearing the end of The Dining Room. Characters discuss marijuana, lesbianism, and other relatively contemporary topics. There’s a kind of audacity Gurney brings to this show, and it moves quickly, we barely process one vignette before the next one begins. Considering the topic, it would have been easy to make this drama cloying and quaint. But Gurney has too much respect for us, to indulge in pandering.
As I suggested before, this is a demanding script for the players, turning character changes on a dime. Director Stefany Cambra orchestrates this impressive cast (John Daniel Pszyk, Ryan Maffei, David Helms, Rose Anne Holman Dayna Fries, Ashley Ottesen) with smooth mastery and filled with poignant, introspective moments. So much of The Dining Room creates familiar, recognizable sketches, and daring choices. Cambra and her crackerjack cast move with confidence, fully involved, with intuitive pacing. This is a splendid, profoundly human, drama with memorable, and silly, amusing moments. Make a point of seeing it.
Resolute Theatre Project presents The Dining Room playing 14th-23rd, 2019. 11888 Marsh Lane (Amy’s Studio of Performing Arts) Dallas, Texas 75234. www.resolutetheatreproject.com.