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Omnium Gatherum
Theresa Rebeck & Alexandra Gersten-Vassilaros

    The perfect dinner party… for a photo shoot: the contrived guest list to insure lively intellectual discussion, the raw feelings in the aftermath of the attack on the World Trade Center, exquisitely presented food, and a fiery finish. These are the ingredients Theresa Rebeck and Alexandra Gersten-Vassilaros have mixed together in Omnium Gatherum, which, literally translated, means a gathering of miscellaneous people.
    Many of the characters are loosely based on recognizable public figures with sharply differing opinions. It is a combination that would seem to be more likely to occur on a Sunday morning TV debate program than in a home. However the hostess in this case is Suzie (Ellen Greer), think Martha Stewart, whose focus is on the perfection of all that is served and the artificial combination of people she has brought to the table. She flutters about with elaborate explanations of the dishes her staff is serving and exclamations about how debate makes a dinner party, seemingly oblivious to the genuine acrimony growing at her table. Emotionally she connects with no one. She has confused a dinner party with life.
    Terrance (William Dennis Hunt) is a combination of Christopher Hitchens and Gore Vidal. As he drinks himself to near oblivion he cynically pontificates from a rarified social and intellectual plateau, more concerned with hearing himself than actually convincing anyone else.
    Terrence’s main sparing partners are Khalid (Navid Negahban) and Roger (Alan Blumenfeld). Khalid is the polished Palestinian pundit, a la Edward Said: elegantly dressed, extremely articulate, and driven by a mission to pedantically defend the Palestinian point of view of the world down to the most minute detail.  Roger, on the other hand, is the somewhat sloppy popular novelist – a Jewish Tom Clancey – who justifies his bombastic opinions on the basis of his success, and on the fact that in one of his popular novels he had written a scenario similar to 9/11. Lydia (Melora Marshall) is an educated, successful black woman solidly rooted in the black experience and somewhat at odds with the white world that has superficially embraced her. She is a character who evokes images of Alice Walker, Maya Angelou, or Toni Morrison.
    Julia (Earnestine Phillips), a vegan, ardent feminist, and defender of victims’ rights, is so pure in her New Age dietary beliefs she can hardly eat any of the pretentious dishes that are served.  Suzie does not seem capable of whipping up something suitable which might spoil the symmetry of her table. Julia’s own notion of empathy, when Lydia or Khalid mention the downtrodden is, “I used to be middle class so I know how that feels.”  Jeff (played by Mike Peebler in this performance) is a New York fireman, the one "everyman" at Suzie’s table. He is seated next to Julia and in contrast devours practically everything in almost complete silence. When he does speak he says, “Is he getting clearer because we’re getting drunker?” This is in reference to Terrence but applies, to a greater or lesser degree, to all the others. The table is awash with wine and words.
    Throughout the dinner party Suzie – who barely sits down in her role as the hostess – twitters about a surprise for all the lovely people at her table. The surprise turns the tide of the dinner party and the thoughts of the thoroughly engaged audience. So suited to her role as Suzie, Ellen Greer seems to have channeled Martha Stewart, oozing authority and giving weight to the frivolous. William Dennis Hunt stands out as the picture of posturing intellectual self-importance. Unfortunately the writing of the last ten minutes which follow the surprise is not quite as strong as the intermissionless hour and twenty minutes of tightly written dialogue which came before. It does, however, serve to insure that the gravitas is not overwhelmed by the cleverness which preceded it.
    Played under the oaks at the Theatricum Botanicum, the spare set, like a skilled artists sketch, simply conveys the elegance that would be Suzie’s dining room and the trees which dangled a crystal chandelier were like a cathedral ceiling.  Unfortunately there is no credit for the for set designer.
    Omnium Gatherum was written immediately after the 9/11 attacks. The two playwrights, sickened by the media’s simplistic analysis and messages such as “Go shop,” wrote it as a means of getting to a more intellectual understanding of what had happened.  They have said, “This is what it feels like to live in New York after that catastrophe – like a dinner party in hell.”  The surprise is how much humor they managed to pack into a very serious subject. Whether one is to literally interpret the dinner party as taking place in hell – and the smoke pouring out of the kitchen whenever that door is opened gives that interpretation credence – or interpret both the evening and the events of 9/11 as a metaphoric hell, the ingredients come together as a highly entertaining, imaginative and thought provoking evening, a difficult balancing act to pull off so well.