The Gabriels Play Three: Women of a Certain Age
Opening Night: November 8, 2016
Closing: December 4, 2016
Theater: The Public Theater
In the exquisitely moving finale of his three-play cycle The Gabriels: Election Year in the Life of One Family, Tony winning writer and director Richard Nelson (The Apple Family Plays, James Joyce’s The Dead) brings us back into the Rhinebeck kitchen of the Gabriel family as they await the results of the presidential election on November 8, 2016. WOMEN OF A CERTAIN AGE takes place in the course of a single night, eight months after we first meet the Gabriels. Patricia, the family matriarch, joins her children and daughters-in-law as they prepare a meal from the past and consider the future of their country, town and home. Paying tribute to the difficult year behind them, the Gabriels compare notes on the search for empathy and authenticity at a time when the game seems rigged and the rules are forever changing. Settle in for the final unforgettable evening with one extraordinary, imperfect American family as they celebrate connection and creativity, struggle to move forward together, and wait for the world to change.
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November 8, 2016
It was not, as was mentioned several times by the friendly, anxious people preparing dinner, an evening that anyone should spend alone. And though they often broke my heart as I listened to them trying so hard to sound hopeful, I am grateful to have spent Tuesday night with the members of the Gabriel family of Rhinebeck, N.Y. They didn’t exactly improve my state of mind about the state of the nation. But they put me in touch with feelings that I had been trying to avoid all day. There are times when sitting down with like-minded friends for a good cry — even if the crying is on the inside — temporarily drains the poison from what has felt like an abscess of a day. While millions of my fellow citizens gazed like frustrated fortunetellers into onscreen maps of the United States turning shades of red and blue, certain New York theatergoers chose to hunker down with the Gabriels for election night. This opportunity was graciously provided by the Public Theater, where “Women of a Certain Age — Play 3 of the Gabriels: Election Year in the Life of One Family” opened on (and is set on) the very night that Americans went to the polls to select their next president.
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