The Dining Room

By A.R. Gurney

Book Overview

Set in the dining room of a typical well-to-do household, The Dining Room is a mosaic of interrelated scenes - some funny, some touching, some rueful - which, taken together, create an in-depth portrait of a vanishing species: the upper-middle-class WASP. The actors change roles, personalities and ages with virtuoso skill as they portray a wide variety of characters, from little boys to stern grandfathers, and from giggling teenage girls to Irish housemaids. Each vignette introduces a new set of people and events: a father lectures his son on grammar and politics; a boy returns from boarding school to discover his mother's infidelity; a senile grandmother doesn't recognize her own sons at Christmas dinner; a daughter, her marriage a shambles, pleads futilely to return home. Dovetailing swiftly and smoothly, the varied scenes coalesce, ultimately, into a theatrical experience of exceptional range, compassionate humor and abundant humanity.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0822203103
• ISBN13: 9780822203100
• Release Date: January 1998
• Publisher: Concord Theatricals
• Length: 81 Pages
• Weight: 0.24 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.3" x 7.7"