I have always loved the immediacy and intimacy of theatre, and I chose to study history, so
plays that flow through time, especially in one location, always intrigue me artistically and
intellectually. The question I ask myself most often is “What would they say if these walls could
talk?”. Thornton Wilder gives us a full length play interrogating this – what happens over
generations of the same family meeting in the same room at the same time of year? I would
love to see The Long Christmas Dinner now on at the Bramble Arts Loft performed in an old house’s dining room for immersive authenticity.
The set by Keith Parham stands a good second to a real home. The table is long and seated on one side only like medieval halls, giving both a sense of performance and structured voyeurism along with the domestic best table ware. I particularly love the long branch wrapped in fairy lights.
Both rustic and whimsical, a piece of the outside brought in and made warm, to me the true
feeling of Christmas. Dysfunctional family best-behavior is stock-in-trade at these gatherings
and are shown to great effect.
Simple costumes by Rachel Sypniewski denote age and sex without needing to be changed as
the century progresses. We get just glimpses of status changing as characters age the dynamic
shifts. Matriarch gives way to successful businessman, turns to maiden aunt making her own
choices. The encroaching industrial town dwarfing the once-fine house is the change that
stayed with me most, from the clear descriptions and loathing of the dirt and dust
industrialization brings, and through the excellent light design.
The cast were all excellent, spare and subtle, giving us clear understanding of their positions
through minimal interaction and speech. Director Jacqueline Stone does wonders recreating
recognizable family gatherings with simmering tensions, tongue-biting looks between hosts
bowing to elders, and the one oblivious uncle tucking in to food and joining in only to smile
benignly or with drinking songs. Clear exits communicated volumes, upstage for death and out
through the auditorium for families escaping into their own lives elsewhere. At first I thought the
comedic nurses ostentatiously turning on crying tracks as they brought out newborn swaddles
was overdone and clashed against the realism of the conversation round the table, but in my
mindset of ‘what the house heard’, the churning out of noisy babies is well represented by the
mechanical repetition. And the one silent bundle of a still born contrasted with clenching
sadness.
The strength of the play and this production is that I wanted to spend time with each character,
asking them more about their lives and views. Hooked and left wanting more, this is successful
theatre. I wonder that it is not produced more often. See it while you can.
The Long Christmas Dinner is playing through December 29, 2024, at Bramble Arts Loft,
Beatrice Theatre, 5545 N. Clark Street, Chicago.
Tickets are $20, $45, $60 (plus a $3.00 ticket fee)
Performance schedule:
Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m.
Sundays at 3:00 p.m.
Additional holiday week performances on Thursday, December 19; Monday, December 23; and
Thursday, December 26 – all at 7:30 p.m.
For further information and to purchase tickets, visit https://www.tutatheatre.org/the-long-christmas-dinner-tickets
For more reviews go to https://www.theatreinchicago.com