Directed by Jo-Ann McCabe 

It's a gentle play that traces society's changing attitudes towards a variety of subjects including family values, infidelity, women's roles and homosexuality.

Famous for writing about WASPs, (White Anglo Saxon Protestants) Gurney says:

"The people I write about are not as threatening as they once were. They're now perceived as another ethnic group. They're no longer thought to hold the keys to the kingdom."

Gurney's vivid WASP characters come alive in his 1982 play, The Dining Room. The action of the play takes place in a dining room that represents a host of dining rooms belonging to a host of different characters. Fifty-seven characters in total are created by the ensemble of 4 men and 4 women as the action swirls in and out of various dining rooms belonging to the vanishing upper-middle class WASPs.

Each of eighteen scenes, some funny, some poignant, depicts an individual or a family in crisis. It's a gentle play that traces society's changing attitudes towards a variety of subjects including family values, infidelity, women's roles and homosexuality.

Performed on May 1-3, 2003 by Phoenix Players Cast: 

Patricia Boyd
Lyall Brown
Hugh Eisenhauer
Ellen Clare O'Gallagher
Elizabeth Wood
George Wood
Christine Zadorozny
Oleg Zadorozny