The Apple Family Plays

Studio presents the first two plays in Richard Nelson’s quartet of plays about the Apple siblings and their extended family. Set at successive meals over the course of four years, the tensions and compromises, affections and resentments of the Apple Family’s personal lives play out against a rapidly changing America. Presented in rotating repertory.

That Hopey Changey Thing
It’s 7 pm on the eve of Obama’s first midterm election, and Barbara’s hosting dinner for the family at her Rhinebeck, NY home. Over the course of a meal, the Apples delve into lost family history, the social meaning of manners, and the fragile state of the American body politic.

Sweet and Sad
One year later, Barbara hosts a lunch on the 10th anniversary of 9/11. Uncle Benjamin is going downhill, Marian has moved in, and Richard—who was working in the Trade Center a decade before—tries to treat the day like any other.