A hometown newspaper with a local office, local owners & lots of local news
A hometown newspaper with a local office, local owners & lots of local news
Cloquet's County Seat Theater is presenting "The Dining Room" the next two weekends as it opens its 2024-25 season. It's a penetrating look at family dynamics, rueful and funny in turns.
The County Seat Theater opens its 2024-25 season this week with "The Dining Room," by A.R. Gurney. Performances of the semisweet comedy are at 7 p.m. Sept. 27 and 28, and Oct. 3 and 4; and at 2 p.m. Sept. 29 and Oct. 5 and 6 at the Encore Performing Arts Center in Cloquet.
The play is set in the dining room of a typical well-to-do household, the place where the family assembled daily for breakfast and dinner and for any and all special occasions.
The action is a mosaic of interrelated scenes - some funny, some touching, some rueful - which, taken together, create an in-depth portrait of a vanishing species: the upper-middle-class WASP. The actors change roles, personalities and ages with virtuoso skill as they portray a wide variety of characters, from little boys to stern grandfathers, and from giggling teenage girls to Irish housemaids.
Each vignette introduces a new set of people and events; a father lectures his son on grammar and politics; a boy returns from boarding school to discover his mother's infidelity; a senile grandmother doesn't recognize her own sons at Christmas dinner; a daughter, her marriage a shambles, pleads futilely to return home, and so on. Dovetailing swiftly and smoothly, the varied scenes coalesce, ultimately, into a theatrical experience of exceptional range, compassionate humor and abundant humanity.
Tickets can be reserved by calling the box office at 218-878-0071 or online at http://www.countyseattheater.com.
The theater will host the music of Tom Cawcutt at 2 p.m. Oct. 12 and host its annual Halloween Spooktacular on Oct. 18 and 19, followed by an evening of one-act plays on Oct. 26. For more information, visit http://www.countyseattheater.com.
