“The Cocktail Hour,” A. R. Gurney’s mild examination of an overprivileged family that fights domestic battles while downing drinks, must have seemed fairly thin when it had its premiere in 1988. Now, with so many real-life families struggling to fill the gas tank and pay the grocery bill, Mr. Gurney’s story of a self-absorbed clan whose biggest problem is whether the maid can cook a roast is in danger of registering as just plain annoying.
So any cast taking it on had better have the comic chops to get maximum effect from the script’s medium-strength jokes. The four actors in the production by Theater Breaking Through Barriers at the Kirk generally don’t. The words are there; the crackle isn’t.
In the story, John (Nicholas Viselli) visits his aging parents (George Ashiotis and Melanie Boland) to get their blessing on a play he has written that features characters based on them and his siblings. Dad doesn’t like the idea, and when John’s sister (Pamela Sabaugh) arrives, she doesn’t either.
Mom also has her reservations, especially about publicity the play might generate. (“People read your name and think you’re rich and rob you.”) The discussions lead, of course, to various revelations and confessionals, none very startling. The unseen maid’s inability to cook a roast extends the cocktail hour and provides comic relief, such as it is.
The best approach to a story like this in 2008 would be to bring out the elements of self-parody — the family itself is the biggest joke here — but the director, Ike Schambelan, plays this one straight. The result is a respectable amount of low-key laughter but no peak moments.
