Truth be told, I would rather spend an election evening with the Apple family than my own. After all, the clan from Rhinebeck and I have been through a lot together since they entered the scene 16 years ago in That Hopey Changey Thing. Since then, the family created by Richard Nelson and brought to life by a consummately talented cast have been through good times and bad, happy election results and not. So it was a pleasure to make their reacquaintance on the evening of November 3, when it was clear that both they and I were severely on edge.
[Read Melissa Rose Bernardo’s ★★★★★ review here.]
By the time you’re reading this, you know that the anxiety was for naught. But it was more than palpable among the audience and the Apples, the latter reuniting for one of their trademark evening meals in which talk of politics often comes to the fore. Gathered around that familiar dining room table were Richard (Jay O. Sanders), the now retired lawyer; his schoolteacher sisters, Barbara (Maryann Plunkett) and Marian (Laila Robins); and his non-fiction writer sister Jane (Sally Murphy), who lives with her oft-mentioned boyfriend. Joining later in the evening is Richard’s considerably younger romantic partner Yvonne (Yvonne Woods, a newcomer to the cast), an actress who lives in Manhattan.
If you’ve seen any of the preceding plays, either live or the online versions during the pandemic, you know what to expect. Lots of quietly thoughtful, casual conversation, delivered in soft tones (they don’t offer headsets for nothing), in which the family members discuss their personal and professional lives while dealing with political and social events surrounding them.
To say that the Apples are a bit traumatized by now is an understatement. They’ve made a vow that a certain person’s name — think someone a bright shade of orange — will not be mentioned in the course of the evening. And for good reason.
“Every time I hear his voice I want to throw up,” Barbara exclaims.
But of course, his reign of terror, I mean second administration, comes up anyway. When the women despair over the damage he has caused, Richard tries to point out the bright side. “There’s one good thing that could come out of this mess,” he offers. “We are no longer burdened with feeling ‘special.’”
Barbara goes on to explain how she answers her students when they question why so many have bent the knee: “I said to them, think of him holding your baby out a window. At any minute he can let go. You can’t argue, you certainly can’t threaten. So you suck up, and for the sake of your child, you even praise, flatter, say anything you can, to keep him from letting go.”
Meanwhile, Jane scandalizes her sisters when she announces that not only did she not vote, but she’s also no longer a Democrat.
Personal issues are discussed as well. Richard amusingly describes accidentally running into his former boss Andrew Cuomo not once but twice while in Paris. And Barbara laments how she’s essentially being forced into retirement after losing her temper in the classroom.
And throughout it all, they eat and drink, although now Richard has to limit the salt and is forced to imbibe non-alcoholic “fake beer.” Watching these plays as both we and the characters age has become a vivid reminder of the passage of time. But who better to spend it with than the Apples?
Happily, the sense of dread that the audience members were feeling on opening night will now have dissipated thanks to the election results — at least for two years. So when Richard announces at the end of the evening, “We should do this again,” it’s enough to make you mark your calendar for Nov. 7, 2028.
We’ll See opened November 3, 2026, at the Public Theater and runs through November 29. Tickets and information: publictheater.org
