BARNARD — It often feels like we’re living in an age where the value of dining out is being called into question.
In his final column as food critic for The New York Times, Pete Wells wrote in 2024 about servers being replaced by apps that make ordering and paying for one’s meal faster and more removed from the human touch.
Ordering in has also become more popular, with almost three out of four restaurant orders eaten outside of the establishment, the National Restaurant Association reported in 2024.
The routine of sitting down to break bread with friends, of interacting with the people who make and serve one’s food, seems to have fallen by the wayside.
Written in the 1970s, “The Art of Dining,” a new production at BarnArts that opens Friday, March 20, recalls an age when such a shift had not yet come into play.
“We’re tackling the relationship culturally we have with food, and how we use food to come together and connect with each other,” Linda Treash, BarnArts’ executive director said in a phone interview.
Under Treash’s direction, the play follows Ellen and Cal, a plucky couple running a burgeoning restaurant, The Golden Carrousel, on the Jersey shore. Played by Olivia Piepmeier, BarnArts’ communications and project manager, Ellen is the visionary chef behind the French-inspired cuisine, with Cal (Shu-Nan Chu) her loyal maitre d’.
Guests trickling in throughout the night bring their own senses of humor and complicated relationships with food.
A wealthy couple finds an almost erotic pleasure in the dishes they’re served, while a friend at a birthday dinner refuses to touch her plate, unearthing a history of disordered eating.
Then there’s a nervous writer who arrives for a meeting with a prospective publicist, who’s a lover of good food. The writer’s anxiety ebbs and flows throughout their meal as she recounts stories from her troubled childhood and fraught family history.
“There’s a lot of humor amongst the anxiety and worry,” Treash said.
Like horses spinning by on a carousel, the diners offer a window into just how many lives can fit around the table.
At the center of it all are the intrepid owners, who are plagued with their own worries about how to make the restaurant profitable, an evergreen concern among restaurateurs.
One of the trickiest parts of staging “The Art of Dining” has been coordinating all the food that’s served in the show, some of which, such as the trout, must be made fresh each day in Barnard Town Hall’s kitchen.
“Usually your props don’t have a shelf life,” Treash said.
Treash’s 17-year-old daughter Marlena Farinas has been in charge of managing the food, with the help of the stage manager and an additional pair of hands.
While preparing the food has been challenging, it’s also helped bond the cast. One night Treash had everyone over for a party at her house where they cooked all the food on the play’s menu.
“That was a way of helping everybody understand the food and understand what was being talked about and what goes into it,” Treash said.
Audiences will also get to taste the feast. An oxtail soup that features in the play will be sold at concessions, the tails for which were donated by the Village Butcher in Woodstock.
BarnArts has amassed a dedicated cohort of actors over the years and many of the show’s cast are returning participants.
Among them is Fergus Ryan, who plays the wealthy Paul Galt, and who starred in “Macbeth” two years ago. Bridgette Hammond, who plays his wife, Hannah Galt, was the titular character in “Antigone” last year. Albert Falcone, who plays the publicist, performed the part of Captain Georg von Trapp in a past production of “The Sound of Music,” and Killian White, who performs as one of the friends at the birthday dinner, directed Ryan in “Macbeth.”
“While we always have strong actors, this script really drew in some of BarnArts’ strongest leads to play a variety of roles,” Treash said in an email.
Part of Treash’s decision to stage “The Art of Dining” came from the desire to showcase work by a female playwright. Though nominated for two Pulitzers, the play’s author Tina Howe, who died in 2023 at age 85, often hasn’t received the same recognition as her male counterparts, Treash said.
Working in the ’70s, she pushed up against the same sexism that female chefs did at the time.
“How excellent this play is is clear evidence of just how many great scripts by women there must be out there,” Treash said. “We hope to keep finding them.”
BarnArts’ production of “The Art of Dining” is up through March 29 at Barnard Town Hall, with performances Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays and one Thursday. For tickets ($15-$20) and more information go to barnarts.org.
Kiss party
This week in Wilder, KIS Thrift (that’s spoken as KISS Thrift) is throwing a belated celebration of the store’s opening… one year later. Matt Mazur aka The Caring Babies will perform at 6 p.m. on Friday, followed by Etna pop diva Sir Babygirl. The show is free and open to the public. Visit KIS’ Instagram @kis_thrift_vt to learn more.
Kids’ party
Grammy award-winning children’s music duo 123 Andrés are bringing their interactive performance to Dartmouth’s Hopkins Center for the Arts this Saturday. With ties to Colombia, husband and wife Andrés Salguero and Christina Sanabria have performed in Spanish and English across the U.S and Latin America and on PBS Kids. Saturday’s show starts at 2 p.m. For tickets ($20+) go to hop.dartmouth.edu.
Tweens’ party
Students at Hartford Memorial Middle School will once again break out their best moves for the school’s annual 12-hour dance marathon fundraiser, starting at 7 p.m. this Friday. Last year the school raised over $11,000, and this year students are going for $12,000, all of which will be donated to the Upper Valley Haven. To learn more about the marathon and how to donate, go to hmmsvt.com/extracurriculars/hmmd.
Indie party
A few tickets remain to indie band Lucius’ show at Lebanon Opera House at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 19. The band recently released an eponymously titled album and their fourth LP. “Lucius” explores the complexity of relationships and motherhood filtered through soulful pop rhythms. For tickets ($41-$58) and to learn more go to lebanonoperahouse.org.
Hey, clean up that cello
All the way from San Francisco, Dirty Cello will perform at Court Street Arts in Haverhill on Friday, March 27. The band, which “accidentally became popular with the nudist community,” Dirty Cello leader Rebecca Roudman writes, fuses blues, rock and Americana sounds. Next week’s show starts at 7:30 p.m. Dinner will be served beforehand, at 6:30 p.m. For tickets to the dinner ($20) and the concert ($30; $20 for students) go to csa-alumnihall.org.