Tony winning writer and director Richard Nelson (The Apple Family Plays, James Joyce’s The Dead) returns to The Public this fall with the second play in his new three-play cycle, The Gabriels: Election Year in the Life of One Family.
WHAT DID YOU EXPECT? brings us back to the kitchen of the Gabriel family, with the country now in the midst of the general election for President. In the course of one evening in the house they grew up in, history (both theirs and our country's), money, politics, family, art and culture are chopped up and mixed together, while a meal is made around the kitchen table.
From left: Meg Gibson, Lynn Hawley, Roberta Maxwell, Maryann Plunkett, Jay O. Sanders, Amy Warren
World Premiere Three-Play Cycle
THE GABRIELS: Election Year in the Life of One Family
Play Two: WHAT DID YOU EXPECT?
Written and Directed by Richard Nelson
Featuring Meg Gibson, Lynn Hawley, Roberta Maxwell, Maryann Plunkett, Jay O. Sanders, Amy Warren
Scenic Designers Susan Hilferty and Jason Ardizzone-West
Costume Designer Susan Hilferty
Lighting Designer Jennifer Tipton
Sound Designers Scott Lehrer and Will Pickens
Production Stage Manager Theresa Flanagan
.....
My notes on the play:
To know that the tragedy is in your hands to be delivered, but to soften the blow by adding the details.
Something is being revealed while something else is intentionally hidden.
The man had a sexy voice and a trusting face.
The eternal optimist says: Things get better.
The famous psychiatrist says: The people who are ill are brave, they should be regarded as heroes.
Some will always seek to know who they are, where they belong, why they are different.
The parents sat on a bench and wept after dropping their child off at college.
In mourning for the deceased, the worst moment is the one when your senses fool you to believe that the deceased is alive and near you again - and this trick of your senses is swiftly crushed by reality.
The quiet grief is unspoken: the notes of the song which the siblings all learned to play on the family piano; Richard's piano students and the dire necessity to sell the piano. - dp
