Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – In Richard Nelson’s WHAT DO WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT?, zoom both magnifies and focuses the Apple Family experience

• By drediman
• May 1, 2020
• No Comments

A screenshot of the company of the Public Theater’s production of “What Do We Need to Talk About?” by Richard Nelson.

This past Wednesday, What Do We Need to Talk About?, the fourth installment of Richard Nelson’s acclaimed Apply Family plays was streamed live by the Public Theater. We last encountered the barely middle class Apple Family in the 2013 play Regular Singing (which followed 2010’s That Hopey Changey Thing and 2011’s Sweet and Sad). Since then, the playwright has dramatized the lives of the Gabriels and the Michaels, two fictional families that also reside in Rhinebeck, NY, a Hudson Valley town located approximately two hours north of New York City. Collectively, these intimate family portraits have come to be known as the Rhinebeck Panorama. Despite their unassuming guise, these plays, taken together, are a towering achievement in 21st century American playwriting and some of my most fondly-remembered theatergoing experiences.

These works are notable for taking place at the exact moment of each play’s respective opening night. Although theater can’t be more current than this, Mr. Nelson approaches pressing issues of the day through the filter of these families’ mostly mundane days-to-day activities. Much like the plays of Chekhov, these works take on a conversational – even meandering – quality that stealthily draws the viewer in through delicately wrought subtext. The tone and mode of operation of What Do We Need to Talk About? remains largely consistent with the previous plays. Additionally, the current reality of social distancing ensures that the play’s necessitated remote presentation rings of eerie authenticity. The more restrictive circumstance of a family zoom call actually works remarkably well, allowing us to perceive these beloved characters (literally) through a different lens, as well as comparatively magnifying and focusing their storytelling and the structure of the play. The net result is both familiar and refreshingly new.

The ensemble acting in this latest volume remains as exquisite as ever. In these times of uncertainty and frustration, it was a great comfort to once again encounter the members of the Apple Family – siblings Richard (Jay O. Sanders), Barbara (Maryann Plunkett), Jane (Sally Murphy), and Marian (Laila Robins), as well as family friend Tim (Stephen Kunken); all are impeccably played by the originating company. The lived-in nuances lavished on the characterizations and the natural quality of the acting continue to strikingly distinguish these productions. If anything, in What Do We Need to Talk About?, the loving attention to detail is even more apparent with the actors practically in perpetual closeup. In the theater, I found myself leaning forward much of the time to absorb the subdued whispers of the plays. Whereas here, the play fell into my lap in an unexpectedly effortless manner.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

WHAT DO WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT?
Off-Broadway, Play
The Public Theater
1 hour
Available for streaming through Sunday, May 3rd