The Suffield Players -- Photo Gallery/The Dining Room

The Dining Room, October, 2021

by A. R. Gurney	Costumes by Patricia McMahon
directed by Denise Boutin	Set design by Denise Boutin

A comedy of manners, set in a single dining room where 18 scenes from different households overlap and intertwine. The stories are about White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP) families, a dying and relatively short-lived culture of upper-middle class Americans. The ensemble comprises Gilana Chelimsky, Cynthia Claudio, Tom Hebert, Nicole Murray, Rick O'Neil, and Jamie Reopell. These are some of the vignettes.

Gilana, Rick, Tom, Cynthia, Nicole, Jamie A birthday party for the kids, while two of the parents deal with the consequences of their affair.		Gilana, Jamie Brother is very much against sister using a typweriter on the dining room table.

Jamie, Cynthia A furniture restorer shows where the table needs repair.		Gilana, Nicole A girl brings a schoolmate home to show her how the family lives.

Rick, Cynthia, Tom The family patriarch (the one with all the money) is visited by one of his descendants (sent by his parents) to request funds for his further education. They both know how humiliating this is.		Jamie, Rick A tender moment. A father, knowing he hasn't much time left, goes over plans for a simple memorial with his son.

Gilana, Cynthia, Rick, Nicole, Jamie, Tom A fellow club member brings news that there are unseemly rumors about the behavior of his host's brother. Naturally, the host must immediately charge down to the club to defend his brother's honor...		There is the possibility of grievous bodily harm, but it must be done. His wife hugs him goodbye.

Tom, Rick, Jamie, Gilana, Nicole, Cynthia The family is upset to find that their grandmother is succumbing to dementia.