L-R: Huy Nguyen, Matt Miles, Charlie Irving, Wain Parham, Alexis Primus. (Photo by Josh Bernaski)
Highly Recommended
Holidays have a unique way of punctuating our lives causing us to come together on an annual basis. Through this activity we assess alliances, trade information, and mark the passage of time.
In The Long Christmas Dinner by Thorton Wilder presented by TUTA Theatre and directed by co-artistic director Jacqueline Stone, we join an affluent Midwestern family at their Christmas table sometime in the not-too-distant past.
But this is not just one dinner, it is a sequence of similar dinners seamlessly stitched together in a linear fashion showing the progression of events that affect this family over multiple generations.
Christmas dinner is the thread that unites the changing timeline but it all occurs in the same place. Over time, characters enter and exit each adding their individual stitch to the tapestry that is the story of this family.
Wilder is the master of the mundane, that is to say, the commonplace and earthly, but not necessarily boring. In The Long Christmas Dinner, like with his well-known play, Our Town, he illustrates that it is the seemingly trivial day-to-day activities that make up life.
He also suggests that families are not created only by blood relations but also through shared memories and shared experiences. These are the ties that bind.
In spite of the confined point in space represented, we are reminded of a larger world through the Alaskan adventures of Uncle Branden (Wain Parham), the European dreams of Genevieve (Charlie Irving), and Young Roderick’s (Matt Miles) entry into WWII.
Likewise, the wives who have entered the family weave in stories of their own including the matriarch Mother Bayard (Joan Merlo), Lucia (Alexis Primus) and Leonora (Seoyoung Park).
As a playwright, Wilder felt challenged to find devices that could compress time in order to tell a very large story within the limitations of a theatrical performance.
The characters blend time by referencing past events and by doing so showing us how they have a hand in shaping our present thoughts. We think what we think because of what we have learned from those who have passed before us and shared their lives with us. In that way the past is always with us.
Wilder does not shy away from death. He wants us to see that death, as well as new life, is part of the process. Life is happy, sad, and ordinary. There are conflicts large and small but things resolve in their own way in good time.
The Long Christmas Dinner is like a river we have stepped into at some point. It was clearly flowing before we entered and it and its tributaries will continue to flow after we leave its shores.
The relatively new Bramble Arts Loft in Andersonville is the chosen venue for this production which features an excellent ensemble expertly directed by Jacqueline Stone.
The light and airy facility is refreshing with two performance spaces. This takes place in the Beatrice Theatre configured as a half round of about 100 stadium style seats with good sightlines for all.
The stage is a platform with no wings or backstage area. It spotlights an early 20th Century formal table setting on an oriental carpet with an opulent chandelier festooned with hundreds of tiny crystals hanging above. The room makes you immediately feel like you have been invited for dinner.
Details: The Long Christmas Dinner is presented by TUTA Theatre at the Bramble Arts Loft, 5545 N. Clark Street, Chicago, through December 26, 2024. Running time: 75 minutes with no intermission. For tickets and information visit www.tutatheatre.org.
Reno Lovison