Gloucester Stage Company, opened for its 31st consecutive season with “Table Manners”

GLOUCESTER STAGE THEATER OPENED its 31st season with the comedy “Table Manners,’’ announced artistic director Eric C. Engel. The season continues with “Tender Mercies,” “Trying,’’ July 29-Aug. 8; “Riders to the Sea’’ and “Brilliant Traces,’’ Aug. 12-22; and “An Ideal Husband,’’ Aug. 26 to Sept. 12.

“Table Manners,’’ the first play in “The Norman Conquests’’ trilogy by Alan Ayckbourn, is a hilarious comedy of dysfunctional family life is the first in the wildly acclaimed trilogy the Norman Conquests by Alyn Ayckbourn. The raucous family reunion of adult siblings and their spouses, the brilliant, insightful, entertaining, and laugh ‘til you cry comedic trilogy, “Table Manners’’ —The three comedies, which each look at a disastrous family weekend from a different perspective, are each self-contained.

Engel’s seamlessly directed a cast including Gloucester resident Lindsay Crouse, and Boston actors Paula Plum, Richard Snee, and Steven Barkhimer.

The repartee goes lickety split, and director Eric Engel’s direction is pitch perfect. He guided the terrific cast deftly as they delivered the playwrights’ zippy one-liners at Vaudevillian speed, Acyrburn throws in the full comedic treasure trove, from slapstick (a sight gag of Tom, in Act II, sitting at a low stool at the dining room table during a meal of mystery stew, caused a sweep of laughter opening night. Throw in some farce – who did Norman want to bed besides his icy wife? – and excellent, madcap plot and it’s comedy which Jerry Seinfeld would adore. Friends? Family? Enemies? It’s all here.

Jenna McFarland Lord’s excellent tri-level set is a country dining room with several doors leading out and in, allowing for quick exits and entrances, timed like a Marx Brothers movie.

Sarah Newhouse as Annie, is he the daughter who’s s stayed home to tend to their invalid mother. Her sister and brother, Reg (played by Richard Snee) and Ruth (Jennie Israel) have left home and have their own lives. As the play opens, good-natured Reg and his bossy wife Sarah (Lindsay Crouse), arrive to watch their mom so Annie can take a weekend’s vacation.

Trouble breaks out when Sarah discovers that Annie is going off not with Tom (Barlow Adamson), the unassertive veterinarian who’s been hanging around her for years, but with Norman (Steven Barkhimer), married to none other than Ruth Annie’s own sister. Sarah intervenes, Norman gets drunk, Ruth shows up, and comic complications build up.

Lindsay Crouse is aptly stuffy – and funny -- as Sarah, always taking charge, she annoys everyone, especially her husband. Sarah, a compulsive, uptight and a constant complainer bosses everyone around, but aims to especially “correct” baby sister Annie who’d tried to tryst with Norman. But Sarah the morality police discovers this, and then stops her from going. Sarah (Lindsay) drove me crazy as she fastidiously folded and refolded napkins, stuffing them into the glasses as if she were smacking each of her family members.

We adore funny, sweet Norm, who dresses for dinner in a too-big red tuxedo, puts his head on the table and his knees on the chair.

Tom and Reg (Richard Snee) are nice guys. Barlow Adamson Brown is lackadaisical and distant as Tom. Richard Snee is a giggling Reg who agrees with his wife's perception that "inertia is his outstanding characteristic." But married to Sarah, it’s a good defense. Jennie Israel is the blasé Ruth. Being at the family reunion she yells we’re upset "because none of us happens to like each other."

Sarah complains endlessly about her rashes, nervous trembling and tiring life raising two kids. She berates Norm non-stop. Until Norman says he wants to make her happy. Oops – she likes that, she really does.


Tickets are $37, $32 for students and senior citizens. The first Saturday matinee of each production is “pay what you can.’’ The 8 p.m. performance on Thursdays is half-price for Cape Ann residents. Call 978-281-4433 or visit www.gloucesterstage.org.
Photo Credit: Eric Levenson