The Gabriels

Election Year in the Life of One Family

Richard Nelson

• Publisher: Theatre Communications Group
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9781559365482
• eBook ISBN: 9781559368704
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: American Drama
• Index: Literature

“An extraordinary theatrical event in which the personal and the political combine in a way that suggests a contemporary Chekhov.” —Michael Billington, Guardian

This intimate and landmark series follows the Gabriel family of Rhinebeck, New York, through the momentous and divisive 2016 election year. While preparing meals in their kitchen, together they grapple in real time with issues of money, history, art, politics and family, as well as the fear of having been left behind.

HUNGRY

For Bobbie and Cindy

PRODUCTION HISTORY

Hungry was commissioned by and first produced at The Public Theater (Oskar Eustis, Artistic Director; Patrick Willing-ham, Executive Director) in New York City on March 4, 2016. The director was Richard Nelson; the set design was by Susan Hilferty and Jason Ardizzone-West, the costume design was by Susan Hilferty, the lighting design was by Jennifer Tipton, the sound design was by Scott Lehrer and Will Pickens; the production stage manager was Theresa Flanagan, the stage manager was Jared Oberholtzer. The cast was:

MARY GABRIEL	Maryann Plunkett
PATRICIA GABRIEL	Roberta Maxwell
GEORGE GABRIEL	Jay O. Sanders
HANNAH GABRIEL	Lynn Hawley
JOYCE GABRIEL	Amy Warren
KARIN GABRIEL	Meg Gibson

In December 2016, the complete series of The Gabriels was presented at The Public Theater with rotating repertory.

CHARACTERS

THOMAS GABRIEL, a playwright and novelist, died four months ago, at the age of sixty-four.

MARY GABRIEL, Thomas’s third wife, and widow, a retired doctor, sixty.

PATRICIA GABRIEL, Thomas’s mother, eighty-one.

GEORGE GABRIEL, Thomas’s brother, a piano teacher and cabinet-maker, sixty-one.

HANNAH GABRIELL, George’s wife, and Thomas’s sister-in-law, works for a caterer, fifty-two.

JOYCE GABRIEL, Thomas’s sister, an assistant costume designer, lives in Brooklyn, fifty-three.

KARIN GABRIEL, Thomas’s first wife, an actress and now teacher, fifty-four.

TIME

Friday, March 4, 2016. 6:00 P.M. to approximately 8:00 P.M.

SETTING

The kitchen of the Gabriels’ house, South Street, Rhinebeck, New York.

PUNCTUATION

Double quotation marks are used when someone is reading from something or directly quoting. Single quotation marks are used when someone is paraphrasing or generalizing.

Like most other humans, I am hungry …

—M. F. K. Fisher

An empty room: the kitchen of the Gabriels’ house. South Street, Rhinebeck, New York.

Refrigerator, stove/oven (electric), sink; large wooden and rustic table used as a kitchen counter (with a drawer for silverware) is set beside another smaller table making an L-shape; a bench with a back is to one side, facing the tables; a small desk; upstage a small cupboard. Chairs and a bench set upside down of the tables.

Exits: upstage to the unseen dining room; down left to the mudroom, back porch and backyard; down right leads to the rest of the house—living room (where there is a piano), the stairs to the bedrooms on the second floor, and to the front porch.

In the dark, Lucius’s “Wildewoman” plays through the main speakers.

Mary, Hannah, Joyce and Karin enter with trays full of kitchen objects. They will create the ‘life of the kitchen.’ They take the chairs and bench off the table and desk, and set them around the table and at the desk. They place a dish rack, dish towels, dirty dishes, glasses, napkins, bowls, a colander, pasta pots, etc., around and under the sink; notebooks, letters, catalogues, an iPod dock, etc., on the desk; Mary’s purse on the back of the desk chair; a timer, coffeepot, etc. on the top of the stove; a plastic trash can next to the sink; aprons on hooks on the refrigerator; oven mitts on hooks on the stove; fridge magnets on the refrigerator; salt and pepper, sugar bowl, cookbooks within bookends, a knife block, flour, sugar, a glass jar with reading glasses, a small tray of spices, a plate with the leftover crumbs from a sandwich, a mug for tea, etc., on the tables. George too has entered, with a plastic box of old cookbooks; he sets some of the books on the bench and table, and the box on the floor by the bench.

All but Mary leave; the lights and music change:

The Roosevelt Museum

Music (“Wildewoman”) now plays on the iPod. The timer ticks on the stove.

Mary sits alone, having finished her late lunch, looking through an old cookbook. After a few moments, she takes her plate and mug to the sink, and washes them. She brings a cutting board from the dish rack and sets it on the table; turns off the music.

The sound of the timer ticking is now heard louder.

Mary goes to the refrigerator, takes out a towel-covered bowl, and brings it to the table. She takes off the towel; she flours the cutting board, and takes bread dough out of the bowl, puts it on the cutting board, and begins to knead the dough.

After a moment, Karin, with a small paperback in hand, enters from the living room, startling Mary.

KARIN: They’re back, Mary.

MARY (Startled): What?! (Seeing Karin) Sorry, I forgot you were here. What did you say?

KARIN: They just got back … You asked me to tell you.

MARY: Karin … Did you find something? What did you find?

(Karin hands Mary the book.)

You found this. They just published this. Most are his old plays …

KARIN: I remember him writing ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• What Remains: An Introduction
• The Gabriels: Election Year in the Life of One Family
• Author’s Notes
• Acknowledgments