The Apple Family: Conversations on Zoom

Richard Nelson

Note

This bundle consisting of three books is sold at 20% off the regular price for its individual titles.

$37.95

Book โ€” What Do We Need to Talk About?

In the midst of our unsettled world, The Apple Family, last seen in 2014, return; though not over the dinner table but via Zoom. This hour-long play picks them up in the midst of their now suspended and quarantined lives. They talk about grocery shopping, friends lost, new ventures on a hoped-for horizon, all during a time when human conversation (and theater) may be more needed that ever before.

Book โ€” And So We Come Forth

AND SO WE COME FORTH is set in early July, 2020, amidst massive protests against racism in America and over the murder of George Floyd, as well as the anxious easing of a worldwide lockdown. Over a family dinner, and over Zoom, the Apples talk about their fears and hopes, who they are, what has been lost, and where they now belong in a world that keeps becoming more and more uncertain.

Book โ€” Incidental Moments of the Day

After six months of self-imposed pandemic isolation, the Apple siblings again gather on Zoom for an evening of dinner, conversation and performance, while the world continues to sputter more and more out of control, amidst anger, loss, death and a coming election.

Description

In THE APPLE FAMILY: CONVERSATIONS ON ZOOM: A PANDEMIC TRILOGY, after six months of self-imposed pandemic isolation, the Apple siblings again gather on Zoom for an evening of dinner, conversation and performance, while the world continues to sputter more and more out of control, amidst anger, loss, death and a coming election.

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Reviews

Press Quotes

WHAT DO WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT?

“No previous works of theater have been topical in the resonant and specific ways of The Apple Family plays โ€ฆ They are a rare and radiant mirror of the way we live โ€ฆ ” โ€”Ben Brantley, The New York Times

The critics on The Apple Family’s first Zoom play, WHAT DO WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT? viewed over 80,000 times in over 30 countries:

“Infinitely poignant.” โ€”The New York Times, Critics Pick

“The first great original play of quarantine.” โ€”The New Yorker

“The best example of Zoom theatre I have watched so far.” โ€”The Guardian, Five Stars

“It’s almost like you are watching a new art form being born.” โ€”Vogue

“It couldn’t be more relevant to how we are right now.” โ€”The Washington Post

“Brilliant theater on Zoom.” โ€”Daily Beast

“Stakes claim as first powerful drama of the pandemic.” โ€”Deadline

“Immensely tender and beautifully constructed new drama that responds directly to the current situation.” โ€”Financial Times

AND SO WE COME FORTH

“A minor masterpiece โ€ฆ that authenticates Zoom as a grown-up dramatic medium.” Five Stars โ€”Sunday Times (UK)

“The question that hangs in the virtual air of AND SO WE COME FORTH, Richard Nelson’s wistfully stirring new Apple Family play, is ‘What have we done to ourselves?'” โ€”The Washington Post

“Powerful.” โ€”The New York Times

“Richard Nelson’s extraordinary, intimate saga.” โ€”Variety

“Couldn’t be more current, more relevant, more poignant, more powerful.” โ€”Northwest Herald (Illinois)

“The effect is kind of a balm to the audience as we identify with the family’s unease, uncertainty, and unfamiliar emotions โ€ฆ The family ask[s] whether art will still be important as part of the human experience in whatever the new world there will be after this โ€ฆ This play is itself the answer.” โ€”Gay City News

“The Apple Family is back, offering much-needed comfort โ€ฆ By giving voice to the anxieties and angers felt by so many these days, Nelson’s characters have become old friendsโ€ฆ” โ€”Lighting and Sound America

“The beauty of Nelson’s Apple Family Cycle lies in the context. Like the concentric circles in Chekhov’s plays, characters contemplate the past and the future.” โ€”Theater Pizzazz

INCIDENTAL MOMENTS OF THE DAY

Critic’s Pick
“Truly profound โ€ฆ The genius of INCIDENTAL MOMENTS is in how it extends social and verbal uneasiness within a family to embrace the most important and divisive subjects of the day.” โ€”The New York Times

โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…โ˜… Five Stars (out of Five)
“Beautifully composed.” โ€”The Guardian (UK)

“Virtually perfect.” โ€”Daily Mail (UK)

โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…โ˜… Five Stars (out of Five)
“Nelson subtly shines a light on the anger and angst of modern-day America. Underneath their chit-chat, you feel the tide of history turning.” โ€”The Stage (UK)

โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…โ˜… Four Stars
“The piece’s unspoken liberalismโ€”real liberalism, which allows for different points of viewโ€”is a moving rebuke to our parched, stark times.” โ€”The Sunday Times (UK)

“An achingly poignant trilogy that maps out the existential black hole we seem to have fallen into.” โ€”The Washington Post

“The pieces (the trilogy) will be remembered, mostly, for how they told the story of our feelings while isolated.” โ€”Chicago Tribune

About the Author

Author

  • Richard Nelson

    Richard Nelson's plays include the four-play series, THE APPLE FAMILY (THAT HOPEY CHANGEY THING, SWEET AND SAD, SORRY, REGULAR SINGING (Nominated for Outstanding Play in Drama Desk Awards 2014; Public Theater, 2010 โ€“ 2013), NIKOLAI AND THE OTHERS (Lincoln Center Theater, 2013), FAREWELL TO THE THEATRE (Hampstead Theatre, 2012), HOW SHAKESPEARE WON THE WEST, (Huntington Theater, 2008), CONVERSATIONS AT TUSCULUM (Public Theater, 2008), FRANK'S HOME (Goodman Chicago, Playwrights Horizons, 2007), RODNEY'S WIFE (Playwrights Horizons, 2004), WHERE I COME FROM (National Theatre Connections), MADAME MELVILLE (which ran in the West End starring Macaulay Culkin and Irene Jacob and opened in May 2001 Off-Broadway); GOODNIGHT CHILDREN EVERYWHERE (winner of Olivier Award for Best New Play, 2000), KENNETH'S FIRST PLAY (with Colin Chambers, RSC), THE GENERAL FROM AMERICA (at the RSC and the Lucille Lortel Theatre, New York), NEW ENGLAND (RSC and Manhattan Theater Club), MISHA'S PARTY (with Alexander Gelman, RSC and Williamstown Theater Festival), TWO SHAKESPEAREAN ACTORS (Tony nomination for Best Play, RSC and Broadway), COLUMBUS AND THE DISCOVERY OF JAPAN (RSC Barbican), SOME AMERICANS ABROAD (Olivier nomination, Best Comedy; RSC, Lincoln Center and Broadway), LEFT, BETWEEN EAST AND WEST (Hampstead), PRINCIPIA SCRIPTORAE (winner of Time Out Award, RSC and Manhattan Theater Club), THE RETURN OF PINOCCHIO, AN AMERICAN COMEDY, BAL, CONJURING AN EVENT, RIP VAN WINKLE, JUNGLE COUP, THE KILLING OF YABLONSKI, THE VIENNA NOTES (Obie Award). His musicals include JAMES JOYCE'S THE DEAD (starring Christopher Walken and Blair Brown; Playwrights Horizons, Belasco Theatre, Broadway, Ahmanson Theatre, Los Angeles, Kennedy Center, Washington; for which he received a Tony Award in 2000 for Best Musical Book), CHESS (the book for the Broadway musical), PARADISE FOUND (dir: Harold Prince and Susan Strohman), MY LIFE WITH ALBERTINE (with Ricky Ian Gordon; Playwrights Horizons), UNFINISHED PIECE FOR A PLAYER PIANO (with Peter Golub). His translations and adaptations include TYNAN starring Corin Redgrave (with Colin Chambers, RSC and West End), LOLITA with Brian Cox (National), Molnar's THE GUARDSMAN (Kennedy Center), Carriere's THE CONTROVERSY (Public Theater), Fo's ACCIDENTAL DEATH OF AN ANARCHIST (Broadway), Strindberg's THE FATHER with Frank Langella (Broadway) and MISS JULIE (Yale Rep), Beaumarchais' THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO (the Guthrie and Broadway); Moliรจre's DON JUAN, Ibsen's WILD DUCK and ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE, Pirandello's ENRICO IV, Goldoni's IL CAMPIELLO, Erdmann's THE SUICIDE. With the esteemed translators Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, he was co-translated Chekhov's THE CHERRY ORCHARD, Gogol's THE INSPECTOR, Turgenev's A MONTH IN THE COUNTRY and Bulgakov's DON QUIXOTE. Films: Hyde Park on Hudson, staring Bill Murray and Laura Linney (Dir: Roger Michell), Ethan Frome, starring Liam Neeson (Dir: John Madden); Sensibility and Sense, staring Elaine Stritch and Jean Simmons (Dir: David Jones). Television: The End of a Sentence with Edward Herrmann (Dir: David Jones). Radio Plays include: HYDE PARK ON HUDSON, LANGUAGES SPOKEN HERE (Giles Cooper Award), EATING WORDS (Giles Cooper Award), ADVICE TO EASTERN EUROPE, AN AMERICAN WIFE (all BBC).