The Apple Family: Scenes from Life in the Country

"Sharp, engrossing . . . a soft-spoken play of ideas."?Time, on That Hopey Changey Thing

"A soul-stirring new play. . . . Mr. Nelson has a peerless grasp of the perils of family intimacy."?The New York Times, on Sweet and Sad

"Sorry?one of the best plays to emerge this fall in New York?affirms the Apple cycle as the prolific Nelson's most satisfying drama to date."?The Washington Post

"No previous works of theater have been topical in the resonant and specific ways of the Apple Family plays... a rare and radiant mirror of the way we live ? and fail to live ? now."-The New York Times on Regular Singing.

This critically acclaimed, searing play cycle about loss, memory, and remembrance follows the Apple family of Rhinebeck, New York, as they grapple with events both personal and current in the immediate present: the 2010 election (That Hopey Changey Thing), the tenth anniversary of 9/11 (Sweet and Sad), Barack Obama's re-election (Sorry), and the fiftieth anniversary of JFK's assassination, (Regular Singing). This quartet of plays, directed by the author, has featured an ensemble of six actors who, together, have delivered a master class on acting for the stage.

Richard Nelson's many plays include Rodney's Wife, Goodnight Children Everywhere, the Drama Desk-nominated Franny's Way and Some Americans Abroad, Tony Award-nominated Two Shakespearean Actors, and James Joyce's The Dead (with Shaun Davey), for which he won a Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical. Over the next ten years, Nelson will be collaborating with pre-eminent translators Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky on a major translations series of important Russian plays, beginning with Nikolai Gogol's The Inspector in 2014.