We are pleased to announce the publication of Richard Nelson’s The Apple Family: Scenes from Life in the Country, his triumphant American epic in the form of a four-play cycle. The plays premiered at The Public Theater in New York City over the course of 2010 through 2013 featuring the same cast in each production.
“No previous works of theater have been topical in the resonant and specific ways of the Apple Family plays . . . they are a rare and radiant mirror of the way we live . . . In another fifty years audiences will be watching these plays to remember how we remembered.”
—Ben Brantley, New York Times
This critically acclaimed play cycle about loss, memory and remembrance follows the Apple family of Rhinebeck, New York, as they grapple with events both personal and political in their immediate present: the 2010 election (That Hopey Changey Thing), the tenth anniversary of 9/11 (Sweet and Sad), Obama’s reelection (Sorry) and the fiftieth anniversary of JFK’s assassination (Regular Singing). Delicately constructed and precisely observed, this quartet of plays — each of which premiered at The Public Theater on the day it was set — is a masterpiece of stage naturalism and a powerful reminder of the theatre’s unique capacity for civic dialogue and public communion.
“Positively shattering . . . the Apple Family plays cement Nelson’s place in American theatrical history.”
— Melissa Rose Bernardo, Entertainment Weekly
Richard Nelson’s many plays include 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).