“The Dining Room" at Augustana College -- October 29 through November 1.
Thursday, October 29, through Sunday, November 1
Augustana College's Honkamp Myhre Black Box Theatre, 3750 Seventh Avenue, Rock Island IL
A stage work that, according to the New York Times, "has the ruefulness of a collection of John Cheever stories," A.R. Gurney's critically lauded The Dining Room serves as the first production of Augustana College's 2026-27 season, college senior Christian Haywood's production running in the Honkamp Myhre Black Box Theatre October 29 through November 1.
Gurney's 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. In this lauded theatre piece, 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 Thanksgiving dinner; a daughter, her marriage a shambles, pleads futilely to return home, et cetera. Dovetailing swiftly and smoothly, The Dining Room's varied scenes coalesce, ultimately, into a theatrical experience of exceptional range, compassionate humor and abundant humanity.
Its original off-Broadway production co-starring Oscar nominee and Emmy winner William H. Macy, The Dining Room premiered at the Studio Theatre of Playwrights Horizons on January 31, 1981 and transferred to the Astor Place Theatre on February 24, 1982. A 1985 finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Gurney's work finds some scenes about the room's furniture itself and the emotional attachment to it, while other scenes simply flesh out the culture of the WASPs. Overall, it tells the story of the dying and relatively short-lived culture of upper-middle class Americans, and the transition into a much more efficient society with less emphasis on tradition and more emphasis on progress. While several characters are made fun of, as is the culture itself, there is also a genuine longing for the sense of stability, comfort, and togetherness that the culture provides.
The Dining Room runs in the Honkamp Myhre Black Box Theatre of Augustana College's Brunner Center for the Performing Arts from October 29 through November 1, admission to the 7:30 p.m. performances is $7-10, and more information and tickets are available by calling (309)794-7306 and visiting Augustana.edu/tickets.
