TNT’s ‘Dining Room’: a full course in emotion

By STEPHANIE OTTEY

news@vindy.com

NILES

First produced in 1981, A.R. Gurney’s “The Dining Room,” which opened Friday at Trumbull New Theatre, is considered to be a dramatic comedy with no singular retellable plot. Rather, it consists of about a dozen snippets of stories that overlap to create a collage of scenes that all revolve around the central themes of family, tradition and changing and passing time.

The dining-room set is symbolic of family and memories. Young children groan at being forced to sit at the awkward dining table, yearning to be free, yet the older characters of the show long to have dinner parties again and quarrel over who will maintain the family furniture and memories when the time comes. In these various scenes, every audience member can certainly find something to relate to.

There also is a theme of a dissolving WASP class. Different families throughout the show regard the importance of the dining room on different levels. Some revere the formality of the room and insist upon perfect manners, and some use it as an office of sorts. This is a reflection of the dissolution of the ideas of the upper class as time and tradition change.

These themes are realized through a cast of six malleable actors who each play a variety of roles.

The show begins as a real-estate agent played by Margie M. Johnson escorts a gentleman played by Tom Schaffer into the dining room. Johnson and Schaffer are first introduced as straight and dry performers in this scene, but both prove their flexibility as a pouty teenager (Johnson) and spoiled little boy (Schaffer) just minutes later. Their quick transformations in the early stages of the show are just a hint of what is to come. The youngest cast member, Zackary Gilanyi of LaBrae High School, shows great promise and a good comedic sense throughout his performance, as does Connie J. Kotopka. She provokes much laughter from the audience with her cheesy mugging of one- liners despite the similarity of her characters.

Wayne Morlock, on the other hand, provides one of the most tear-jerking performances of the evening. Morlock charges the end of the show with some powerful emotion as he acts as a man who is explaining his funeral preferences to his son. His broken speech patterns, somber and hopeful tone and quiet demeanor are the perfect variables to highlight the theme of family tradition in a most heartfelt way.

Mary Allison, the youngest female in the show, proves to be a very diverse performer. Allison is as equally believable playing an old lady with Alzheimer’s as she is playing Winkie, the bratty young birthday girl. She approaches each character differently and creates something new and sincere every time she steps on stage.

Not only does TNT deliver another well-chosen and talented cast but a beautiful set as well. Designed by directors Ben Gavitt and Debra Nuhfur, the set is beautifully detailed. With painted hardwood floors, a “marble” fireplace and two exits that lead the audience to believe there’s much more house to be seen offstage, the set gracefully transitions from family to family and from time to time without changing a bit.

The set is cleverly revealed by a series of light cues designed by Dave Lynn that give the impression of curtains being opened and chandeliers being turned on. The formality of the room is also enhanced by a lack of sound effects throughout the entire show. Without any contrived sounds, the room and show maintain an air of formality and reality that is refreshingly calm and pleasant.

Gavitt has created a show with laughter and tears that anyone can relate to and appreciate.