The Cocktail Hour

by A.R. Gurney

A gadfly son shatters his uptight WASP parents' veneer of civility in upstate New York by announcing that his soon-to-be-produced play is about them.

Genres: Plays, Drama

72 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

A.R. Gurney was an American playwright and novelist.

Reviews

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

In all honesty, I read this as a desperate attempt to reach my reading goal for the year. But it was a happy accident that I picked this particular play off of my shelf, because it seems to fit nicely with all that today stands for. This play’s themes of wrestling with the past, coming to terms with family relationships, clarifying one’s individual identity, embracing risk, and refusing to settle for anything other than happiness aligns with my NYE ruminations this year. I could relate to the characters and their relationship with one another, and I really appreciated the scene between John and his mother where she shares some of her own story that wasn’t formerly known to John. The continual exploration of who we are in context of our families, our past, our choices, and our future goals is center stage in this play, and I’m glad I read it as my final book of 2018.

[Steve · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read along with "The Perfect Party" in the collection, "TCH and Two Other Plays".
In the Days of Yore A R Gurney would be known as "Neil Simon the Lesser". God he cranked them out! Theatre by numbers - has not aged well. Keep the number of characters simple - 4 here (5, if brother on phone is counted). Throw in some Cultural References, so the audience can pat itself on the back for catching the jokes. Some self-referential bits. Oh, and in my volume, he wrote his own Introduction, and starts it out rather more-or-less comparing himself to Shakespeare!
OK, how did I come to this? Well, in my F&B reading, came across a reference to this play. Best point of the play - "cocktail hour" is family, "cocktail party" is outsiders included. And, yes, this will drop me down a rabbithole to Eliot's play ("The Cocktail Party") and the Euripides play he based his play on.
"The Perfect Party" - throw in some Wilde and French farce.
"The Cocktail Hour" - WASP, non-NY, family angst. Frost with a touch of Marxist and Freudian subtext. Make jokes about critics. One of his other good points - theatre critics are vicious, while book critics all seem to be buddies reviewing each other's books. Everyone is happy (or semi-happy, and paid off by big-pockets daddy) by the end. I can see the surburbanite filled matinees just eating this stuff up.

[Ime Atakpa · Rating 2 out of 5]

I feel like I was definitely reading this wrong. But I'm also certain the the characters are dreadful. I couldn't really get a handle on the attitudes of the characters toward each other. At times they were cordial, then quick to snap soon after. Maybe because I don't read plays often. This is apparently a well-received theatrical production(although I do have a habit of not liking well-received things) but I just couldn't get anything out of it beyond the obvious thematic elements. It's very referential and on the nose though, so it's not as though I can pat myself on the back for that. This very clearly isn't a good play for reading. Best to experience it from a theater seat.

[Kathy Piselli · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The cocktail hour is sacred" says one of the characters. The 1988 production date threw me, seeming a little recent because this family is so stuck in the past, but apparently the action is to take place in the seventies. Still, at the time a NYT review described it as a play about the "nearly extinct patrician class". I don't believe the patrician class is extinct and I know the cocktail hour will never die.

[Bobby Sullivan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Works on the level of complicated family relationships, but the characters seemed kinda two-dimensional to me. I confess, I'm not a fan of plays that end up being about writing plays, like DEATHTRAP and [title of show]. (I don't mind MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG, though.) I'm just not sure I see the point, in the final analysis. As John says, there's just not much of a plot.

[Ed Dougherty · Rating 4 out of 5]

If I counted mangas and plays, I would have beaten my reading challenge months ago. My god and if I included self help books I read in secret? Well I’ve decided to include plays again, and I randomly pulled this off the shelf. What a delight, especially seeing that Nancy Marchand played the mom. Impossible not to read all those lines as Livia Soprano.

[Makaylah J Chambers · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this for my Playwriting Class

[Rish · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow!! This book is so fun

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hilariously on the nose. A must read for anyone with a melodramatic family.

[Neil · Rating 4 out of 5]

I quite enjoyed this play about a playwright and his family. Playwright John goes home to visit his aging parents, primarily to seek some kind of permission from his father to get a play (called The Cocktail Hour) produced that is inspired by the father. The parents object, the son withdraws the request, but the cocktail hour discussion that it creates reveals many flaws in the underlying family dynamic. An adult sister is also visiting, and the different treatment that her urge to put her family aside while she explores the possibility of becoming a veterinarian makes for an interesting point of contrast.

The meta-commentary on the playwright's life and how one should use one's personal and family experiences is enlightening, and Gurney has a sense of humor about all of his characters. None of them is the villain or the hero of the piece.

I don't know, maybe plays like this about the death throes of WASP culture are passe, but I would be happy to act in or direct this piece, and I think it still has plenty to say. Family dysfunction doesn't have to be as dark as something like Tennessee Williams or August Osage County to work on stage.

[Jack Goodstein · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reflexive play which is cleverly about itself--Ecsher in words. Four parts all of which are actors dreams. Includes some especially witty banter on coctails and T. S. Eliot.

[Brian McCann · Rating 5 out of 5]

So glad I revisited this play after reading and seeing it 25+ years ago. Wonderfully crafted. Gurney at his best!