Plenty to chew on in ‘The Dining Room’

Tom Titus

When you’re hosting a dinner party and one of the guests can’t make

it, that just means there’s more of the goodies for everyone else.

The same holds true in the Huntington Beach Playhouse’s production

of A.R. Gurney’s “The Dining Room.”

This carefully balanced ensemble of four men and four women lost

its equilibrium just a day before opening when one actor was dropped

“due to circumstances beyond our control,” the playhouse’s

representatives explained. No problem -- the three remaining actors

simply picked up the slack.

Yes, it’s fairly obvious that some scenes employ “cheat sheets,”

but the actors are familiar enough with the characters, if not the

lines, that the show comes off quite effectively. Director Jack

Messenger has fashioned a richly flavorful production from Gurney’s

often backhanded tribute to the East Coast WASP culture and its

traditions centering around the formal eating area.

“The Dining Room” is a series of 18 scenes with (in this case)

seven actors assuming some 60 characterizations, most calculated to

touch traditionalist nerves. In almost every case, the characters are

well-to- do and employ servants, which may seem somewhat

anachronistic to modern California audiences, but which suits the

purpose of Gurney’s gentle jabs.

Space hardly permits discussion of all 18 scenes, but highlights

abound. In an early, stiffly formal breakfast sequence, a father

(pinch-hitter Michael J. Tranchida) lectures his children (Kyra

Kiener and Ron Cohen) on proper demeanor at the dining table as the

maid (Rose London) patiently a serves the meal. Later, London and

Cohen play a heart-tugging scene as she explains why she’s leaving

and he begs her to stay on.

A particularly well-fashioned scene involves a birthday party for

a giggly young girl (Kyra Kiener) as her mother (Karen McDaniel) and

the father of one of the boys (James J. Ross) conduct a little

surreptitious scene on the side. Adultery also raises its head in a

tense sequence when McDaniel and Ross, playing other characters, are

interrupted by her testy son’s (Cohen) unexpected arrival from

college.

One of the more hilarious moments in the show transpires under the

table as a carpenter (Ross) and a divorcee (Kiener) conduct a steamy

first encounter. Kiener and AmyJo Steele are particularly laudable in

a scene playing teenagers tippling while their parents are away.

Cohen inherits one of the play’s better scenes as an old man

discussing, chapter and verse, his funeral arrangements with his

uncomfortable son (Tranchida). And Tranchida has his best moment as a

college student doing a term paper on the outdated WASP traditions of

his aunt (London), who tosses out the best closing line of the night.

London’s finest moment comes in the first act’s final scene as an

elderly, confused woman at her birthday party who can’t recognize her

family or guests. In another well-staged sequence, Ross rages over a

slur against his brother as his family awaits a holiday dinner that

apparently never will be served.

That the show comes off so well in its missing-man formation is a

tribute to the cohesion of the Huntington Beach cast and Messenger’s

guidance. “The Dining Room” serves up appetizing theater for just

about every taste.

* TOM TITUS reviews local theater for the Independent.