The Dining Room
By: A.R. Gurney
Directed and Produced by: George X Rodriguez
Audience Rating: PG
Running Time: 2 hours with a 15 minute intermission
Accessible Seating: Available
Hearing Devices: Not Available
Sensory Friendly Showing: Not Available
ASL Showing: Not Available
Sound Level: Low (conversational, some yelling)
Audio/Visuals To Prepare For: Simulated alcohol use
Reviewed by Kyle Lester
My house was built in 1986. I know that’s a random fact that has absolutely nothing to do with theatre, but my attendance at last Friday’s performance of The Dining Room has me noticing little details like that. In 1986, I was a cuddly 2-year-old who was spending most of the time being held by a young mother in her 30’s. She, in turn, joined the world a decade after her father came home from fighting in Germany, and enjoyed a prototypical Oklahoma childhood with sibling rivalries, Sunday church services, family meals, and rotary phones. Just a few hours away, my father was spending his adolescence milking cows and harvesting crops, since children often doubled as labor for low-income farming families. These two wonderful people would go on to raise their sons through the massive cultural shifts of the 1980s and 90s, relaying many of the values instilled in them by their parents. But as the world changed rapidly, so did the family. Sit-down meals were increasingly replaced with TV dinners, films were rented from a store in place of a theatre, and the world was becoming more diverse. Slowly, and without intention, many of their values started to drop off. It’s strange to think of your parents as being progressive compared to past generations, but it’s almost a universal truth with every cycle of birth and death. As I drove from the theatre last Friday on my 18-year-old Suzuki motorcycle, I couldn’t help but imagine what another decade would do to my own set of principles. Creeping through the front door so as to not wake my sleeping child, I saw my dining room table out of the corner of my eye. On a whim, I checked for a serial number. Manufactured: 1986. It’s a funny world, isn’t it?
The Dining Room, directed by George X Rodriguez, offers a thoughtful reflection of how our values and customs change over time. Written by A.R. Gurney in 1982, The Dining Room does not follow the typical structure of a play. Rather than plotlines and character arcs, this work is a mosaic of 18 separate vignettes, each with unique characters interacting around the same dining room set throughout different decades. The audience is introduced to the titular furniture in modern(ish) day, as a man and woman (Rod Honeycutt and Mary Muro) haggle over the antique’s value. While the man admires the table’s beauty, noting that it was made in 1898, he laments that he simply wouldn’t use it enough to justify the cost. Before long, the cast takes us back to the 1930’s, where a stereotypically stern father-figure (Kevin Velasquez) bestows upon his son a litany of life lessons and platitudes over breakfast. Here the dining room takes on more meaning, functioning as a sacred gathering place for loved ones and company, and, of course, dispensing sage advice to your children. Gurney, whose 1982 work almost won the Pulitzer Prize for drama, revels in this dynamic with frequent contrasting scene changes. Often set decades apart, these vignettes let the audience experience the dining room’s status shift from revered to simply utilitarian, and, finally, superfluous and (possibly) inconvenient. Likewise, we get to experience the change in family dynamics as societal norms refresh with every generation. We witness family arguments, pleasant reunions, happy birthdays, and even infidelity occur in the exact same space. It’s a thoughtful and fascinating lens through which to witness the rapidly changing nature of cultural norms as they race to keep up with technology, commerce, and progressivism.
The focal point of Rodriguez’s set is a large dining room table surrounded by chairs, lit consistently by overhead lights. The actors are seated in separate chairs around the set’s border until their turn to come to life. They are dressed in mundane, modern clothing throughout the run, although the occasional jacket or walking cane may join them as a scene’s time period dictates. The minimal costume changes can make it difficult to nail down the era in which each vignette is set, but the dialogue usually clues you in quickly. Wisely, Rodriguez recognizes the importance of casting versatile actors who are comfortable spending a whole 2 hours on stage with little more than furniture to connect one scene to the next. Furthermore, the lack of a consistent plot or action requires the performers to carry the entire show in their dialogue alone. The 6-piece ensemble (Jennifer Brown, Rodney Honeycutt, Mary Muro, Kevin Velasquez, MT Washington, and AJ Bowman-Shelton) collectively portrays almost 60 separate characters throughout the show, most of whom span various ages and ethnicities. It’s impressive to watch them seamlessly dip in and out of these portrayals, which include aging family members, cheating spouses, Irish housekeepers, drunk teenagers, and even excited children. They each do a fantastic job in this marathon of a show, and I’m grateful for the chance to enjoy their talent.
Performed at Stolen Shakespeare Guild’s new space on Decatur Avenue in Fort Worth, The Dining Room takes its audience on a non-traditional journey of examining the lifecycle of upper/middle class culture from the Great Depression into the late 20th century. While every scene focuses on middle/upper class white protestant families, Rodriguez’ choice to cast diverse actors is a subtle reminder that cultural evolution isn’t constrained by ethnicity. It was a delight to spend my evening experiencing such thought-provoking work. While The Dining Room offered a short run of 4 performances at this space, George X Rodriguez plans to produce additional works in the near future, focusing primarily on LatinX artists.
Cheers, and I’ll see you at the next curtain!
Kyle Lester
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