The Gabriels
Election Year in the Life of One Family
In this acclaimed three-part play cycle, Richard Nelson—author of the much-lauded The Apple Family plays—deftly embeds the chaotic tension of the 2016 Presidential election into the hyperrealistic family gathering in the home of the Gabriels in Rhinebeck, New York. Each play is set over the course of one evening in the house the family grew up in. History (both theirs and our country’s), money, politics, family and culture are mixed together as a meal is being made—all combining to make theatre that is as immediate as it is riveting in its humanity. The trilogy includes Hungry, What Did You Expect?, and Women of a Certain Age.
Richard Nelson’s many plays include The Apple Family plays, Rodney’s Wife, Goodnight Children Everywhere, Drama Desk-nominated Franny’s Way, and Some Americans Abroad, Tony Award-nominated Two Shakespearean Actors, and the James Joyce’s The Dead (with Shaun Davey), for which he won a Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical. Over the next ten years, Nelson will be collaborating with preeminent translators Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky on a major translation series of classic Russian plays.
From the author of The Apple Family plays, this illuminating trilogy reflects on American life during the 2016 national election
Richard Nelson’s many plays include Illyria; The Gabriels: Election Year in the Life of One Family (Hungry, What Did You Expect?, and Women of a Certain Age); The Apple Family: Scenes from Life in the Country (That Hopey Changey Thing, Sweet and Sad, and Sorry, Regular Singing); Nikolai and the Others; Goodnight Children Everywhere (Olivier Award for Best Play); Franny’s Way; Some Americans Abroad; Frank’s Home; Two Shakespearean Actors; and James Joyce’s The Dead (with Shaun Davey; Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical). He has also written for film, namely the screenplays for Hyde Park-on-Hudson and Ethan Frome. He is the recipient of the PEN/Laura Pels Master Playwright Award and an Academy Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He is an Honorary Associate Artist of the Royal Shakespeare Company.
