The Dining Room. A High Quality Production from Kanata Theatre
Once the focal point of many upper-crust houses, the formal dining room has, to a great extent, been ousted by the great room and the family/TV room and a more casual approach to social interaction. In fact, personal connections have diminished in a society increasingly attached to electronic communication. Simply put, being together at mealtime is less valued today.
In the era when the dining room was the focal point of a Downton Abbey-style household, every meal was served there and every person, whether part of the upstairs or the downstairs contingent, dressed appropriately and conversed politely. (There was no app for correct behaviour. People were taught the rules from an early age.)
Written in 1982, A.R. Gurney’s Dining Room presents the room as a symbol of the death of a way of life. Through a mosaic of vignettes running over more than half a century from the 1920s to the 1980s, he mourns the loss of an era, the demise of a lifestyle and, indirectly, a particular type of wealthy WASP dying out in a changing world.
Six actors play more than 50 characters of varying ages and times in 18 scenes, in which members of different households intertwine, overlap, leave and return to the dining room, their characters changing with almost every entrance and exit.
The dining room remains the stable centre and focal point and, although there is little time for character development, Gurney develops his theme with great clarity.
The Kanata Theatre production (seen in preview) features strong direction by Barbara Kobolak, a fine set by Dorothy Shaw and a well-chosen ensemble of six actors to dance in and out of multiple roles.
Formality at mealtime may be occasional rather than the norm today, but a play such as The Dining Room sparks nostalgia, especially in a high quality production that raises a glass to the past and celebrates the present.
The Dining Room continues at Kanata Theatre to September 27.
The Dining Room
By A.R. Gurney
Kanata Theatre
Director: Barbara Kobolak
Set: Dorothy Shaw
Lighting: Zach Andruchow
Sound: Kendrick Abell
Costumes: Meghan Lavigne
Cast:
Derek Barr, Anne-Marie Chronnell, Karen Germundson, Tom Kobolak, Paul LeDuc, Liz Szucs