We'll See, Richard Nelson's new Apple Family play, has gained a week before its first audience is through the door. The world premiere at The Public Theater begins performances this Sunday, October 25, and now runs through November 29.
The extra week moves the closing date on from November 22, the date announced when the first rehearsal photographs were released earlier this month. Sunday's first performance in the Barbaralee Theater is a Joseph Papp Free Performance. Official opening night is Tuesday, November 3, which is also the night on which the play takes place.
The full title is Conversations Among the Apple Family on the Night of the Midterm Elections. It is the newest play in The Rhinebeck Panorama, Nelson's 12-play cycle about three families in Rhinebeck, New York, and the first time the Apples have been on The Public's stage since 2013; in between, they reached audiences in three Zoom plays during the pandemic. On election day the family gathers for dinner at Barbara's, uneasy and looking for a way through the evening, and the talk keeps coming back to one question: whether they have come to define themselves by what they are against.
"It's a rare and moving experience to work again with these wonderful actors, on this journey that began 16 years ago," said Nelson, who writes and directs. "We last met the Apple Family on Zoom during the pandemic. Today we find them, like ourselves, in uncharted territory, confused, upset, lost, asking, as always, what have we become?"
Sally Murphy (Jane), Maryann Plunkett (Barbara), Laila Robins (Marian) and Jay O. Sanders (Richard) return as the Apples, and Yvonne Woods joins them at the table as Yvonne, Richard's partner. The design is by Jason Ardizzone-West (scenic), Susan Hilferty (costumes) and Jennifer Tipton (lighting), with sound design and composition by Scott Lehrer. Nicole Caroselli is production stage manager and Molly Foy is stage manager.
Alongside the run, The Public will mark Nelson's wider body of work with The Shape of Our Time, three special events on November 4, 6 and 9. All three are free and open to everyone.
Free tickets to Sunday's opening performance are being offered by lottery through TodayTix. Entries close at 12:00 p.m. on October 25, winners are told between noon and 4:00 p.m., and each has one hour to claim their seats.
The regular schedule is Tuesday through Sunday at 7:30 p.m., with 1:30 p.m. matinees on Saturdays and Sundays. There is no matinee on Saturday, October 31 or Sunday, November 1, no evening performance on Wednesday, November 25, and no performance at all on Thursday, November 26. Two matinees are added at 1:30 p.m., on Tuesday, November 24 and Wednesday, November 25. The 7:30 p.m. performance on Friday, November 20 is ASL-interpreted, and the 1:30 p.m. matinee on Saturday, November 21 is both audio-described and open-captioned.
