NOTE: Today and tonight signify Friday, Oct. 17.
SEQUIM — Here is a husband who loved his wife so much, he almost told her.
Our man, whom we know simply as Dad, is now departed. But since this is the theater, Dad comes back as a ghost, visiting his family at Thanksgiving dinner.
In “A Nice Family Gathering,” opening tonight and running through next weekend at the Dungeness Schoolhouse, the ghost of Dad seeks to let Mom know of his love. They were, after all, married for 41 years.
But Mom can’t see him, so he must use his son Carl as an intermediary. One of the troubles is that father and son didn’t have a good relationship when Dad was alive.
“They’re not the most functional family in the world,” adds Pat Owens, director of this Readers Theatre Plus production of “A Nice Family Gathering.” The play by Phil Olson premiered in 2000, and has since landed several awards including one from the Theater Resources Unlimited New Voices Playwright Competition.
One more point of weirdness at this Thanksgiving: Mom has brought a date. She says he’s just a friend, but the children suspect otherwise. So we get to watch as this Thanksgiving dinner, the first since Dad’s demise, becomes more explosive than usual.
“It’s about unfinished family business,” Owens says.
To explore it all, he has assembled a cast of familiar actors — Ric Munhall as Carl, John Yeo as Dad’s ghost, Michael Aldrich as Carl’s older brother Michael and Rebecca Lynn Horst as his younger sister Stacy — plus a few new faces: Judi Wingard as Mom and her real-life husband Merv Wingard as Jerry, the date. Rounding out the cast are Sue Valnes as Mrs. Enquist, the neighbor, and Valerie Lape as Jill, the daughter-in-law who is on fertility drugs in hopes of becoming pregnant.
The toughest part of this show, Owens said, is having an actor up on stage who’s supposedly invisible to all but one person.
Only Carl is aware of Dad’s presence, the story goes, so nobody else is permitted to look at him. Easier directed than done, Owens says.
“A Nice Family Gathering” is hilarious, he adds — and revealing.
“They all have their secrets that come out in the course of the show. It’s everybody’s unfinished business,” he says.
The message is clear, to Owens’ mind. It’s about expressing love.
“Don’t let things go unsaid. Say it while you have the chance.”
