The Waverly Gallery

by Kenneth Lonergan, Jon Robin Baitz (Foreword)

A powerful, poignant and often hilarious play, The Waverly Gallery follows the final years of a grandmother's battle against Alzheimer's disease. The play explores her fight to retain her independence and the subsequent effect of her decline on her family, especially her grandson. Inspired by Lonergan's own grandmother, it's an ode to an extraordinary woman, and to the humor and strength of a family in crisis.Kenneth Lonergan once again shows himself to have one of the keenest ears of any working playwright. Also the screenwirter of the deeply funny Analyze This, he's known for his incisive humor and brilliant knack for capturing the heart and soul of human interaction.

Genres: Plays, Theatre, Fiction, 20th Century

108 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 2000

Reviews

[Dani · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to love this play more than I did. I picked it up after hearing the folx at Literary Disco rave about it.

First the good - it's really easy dialogue that I can already hear well in my mind even before being put on the stage. It will translate nicely to the medium. It is a topic near to me, so I was ready for it to be cathartic and sure enough there's a lot of truth here.

The bad - I'm just completely over plays about white people in New York. I was also ready to be moved to tears based on what I had heard about it and I definitely never got near there emotionally. I thought the characters really needed to be developed further to get me there. Though perhaps through a live production it would hit more deeply.

[Kern · Rating 3 out of 5]

I imagine this really depends on the performers to bring it to life, because on the page, it’s a fairly typical story of a family dealing with its eldest member going through dementia. I expected more complexity.

[Justin Dudo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic. An eloquently written emotional rollercoaster.

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eloquently written and devastatingly beautiful, this the haunting tale Alzheimer's Disease and the profound effects it has on the family and loved ones.

[Jason · Rating 5 out of 5]

A devastating look at the slow slide into dementia and it's effect on the afflicted and her family. A stunning piece of theatre.

[Corey Preston · Rating 4 out of 5]

Simple, striking, lovely and powerful.

[Yourfiendmrjones · Rating 5 out of 5]

A look at Alzheimer’s in a family from the one who has it and those who love her. Funny, brutally sad and transcending the memory play genre with a sense of being there in the moment with the characters. So good.

[EJ Paras · Rating 5 out of 5]

“It’s not true that if you try hard enough you’ll prevail in the end. Because so many people try so hard, and they don’t prevail. But they keep trying. They keep struggling. And they love each other so much; it makes you think it must be worth a lot to be alive.”

There’s so much to say. So much. And I don’t think I can wholly capture it in a Goodreads review. But what I want to emphasize at the top is this is one of the best plays I’ve ever read. I’d love to watch this one day; man, I’d love to BE in this one day.

“Mom I love you so much I can’t even tell you. I don’t know what I’d do…”

Incredibly moved by this brilliant play. Kenneth Lonergan is a true master of dialogue. These characters are all humans — messy, imperfect. They just want love and to be loved. They also just want to feel purposeful.

Couldn’t help but think of my own grandparents; I only have one still with us, and unfortunately, she’s sort of like a Gladys type. Mostly in the form of feeling listless, purposeless. Feeling like no one wants to talk to her or help her… but at the same time, she puts herself in a position that doesn’t exactly, uh, encourage one to want to help her. It’s a complicated situation, and Gladys’ is also delicate; everyone tries to deal with it the best they can. It can’t ever be perfect.

My Lola is also on the other side of the world from me. So there’s only so much I can do in America. But reading this play gave me all the feelings, and just seeing the brutal stage direction for Gladys. Boy…

(GLADYS voice has now dropped to a normal level we haven’t heard before. She seems calmer and more self-possessed, more like her old self must have been once. She seems to have momentarily crossed over to another place altogether…)

Imagining Elaine May’s Tony-winning performance enhanced the read for me. This is more life outside the text, but knowing her own fascination with dark humor and the macabre (she wrote a one-act called Not Enough Rope that I loved), and seeing her eventually play the character who just proclaims, “I’m going to kill myself!” when she feels she’s not being heard… it’s a lot. Can only imagine it’s a lot to experience as an actor and to do this night after night.

It’s not filled with twists and turns. It’s life as it is, and it’s real people. I love Manchester by the Sea, and this one reminded me of that a lot. Mostly in terms of just regular, human happenings. And life constantly changing around us and we can’t have much control over it. And it sucks.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen to her but I wish it would just happen. (Pause.) I know she always drove me crazy, but she was never a bad person. She was very loving. And she always wished me well.”

This play’s also, in that classic Lonergan way, very very funny. Cackling out loud while reading at the Drama Book Shop and literally getting misty-eyed, looking away from the script after reading devastating dialogue or scenarios.

“LISTEN, IT’S NO FUN TO GET OLD.”
“What?”
“I SAID IT’S NO FUN GETTING OLD!”
“Well what do you always say that to me? Nobody wants to hear that—!”

Beautiful. I wrote so many lines down and took pictures of many pages (don’t tell the staff).

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maybe it's because I'm in my late 60's, but Kenneth Lonergan's play, THE WAVERLY GALLERY, really spoke to me. It's been compared a bit to THE GLASS MENAGERIE, not truly an apt description, though, except Lonergan lyrically depicts a family trying to deal with their 80 something year old mother who increasingly shows signs of dementia. Lonergan truly understands the love a family has for one another, while, at the same time, the frustrations of old age, loss of memory, and the tension between families who love the matriarch, but are frustrated not only by her hearing issues, but her increasing inability to understand reality. Narrated by the grandson, Daniel, Lonergan tugs at our heartstrings, but not in ways that are manipulative; if anything, the play is painfully honest about how we may love someone, but not know the best way to take care of them when their mind begins to slip. We share the characters' frustrations, especially the young artist who the aging gallery owner takes in, only to find himself part care taker, part victim of the New York art scene. The inciting incident, losing the gallery, makes for a very depressing but honest look at how much we struggle to take care of those we love as they begin to lose touch with reality. Heart breaking. I'd love to see this staged, especially because, when reading it, I found the ending to be abrupt. Still, Lonergan is a wonderful playwright, and this is a gentle, honest play.

[Ellyn Lem · Rating 3 out of 5]

This play is in NYC right now and received glowing reviews. It centers on the family matriarch who runs an art gallery, but is slowly losing her mental faculties. While I appreciated that the protagonist was a woman in her later years, at times, it felt like there were too many stereotypical tropes--she cannot hear well, has a terrible memory and talks all the time whether people are interested or not. The play could have done more to develop Gladys as a complex character worthy of our interest not just our pity. None of the other characters seemed super developed either...the daughter, a psychiatrist says that she will slit her wrists if her mom moves in with her even tho' she seems to love her and hopes that her mom dies in her sleep. The play is from 2000 and maybe we live in more progressive times now where we don't write off characters quiet so easily when they shed their former selves. I wanted to like this more than I did. . .but wonder if the performance of the play might have brought more of its sparkle to light.

[Steven Owad · Rating 5 out of 5]

Owad’s Micro-Review #105

This “memory play” follows the last years in the life of Gladys, a Greenwich Village art gallery owner who is dying slowly of Alzheimer’s disease. While Gladys falters, her children are left to deal with a growing sense of helplessness. Grandson Daniel guides us through the journey with an honest perspective and not a little humor. This isn’t a dirge. The subject matter is tragic, but the play is actually a celebration of human strength, a beautiful depiction of a woman who, in her own understated way, rages against the dying of the light. Everyone over 50 (and under 50, for that matter) should read it.

[Will Schmitt]

Kenneth Lonergan is such a fantastic writer! I always have a deep appreciation for his work. I love this that was said in the intro about him:
“Kenny understands something Chekhov and Lanford Wilson know: that mere human yearning to live a little longer (and perhaps a little better) can be a more powerful passion than lust or even vengeance. It has staying power, and it's instantly recognizable.”

This play captured a lot of truth. Very funny and very sad. This play wasn’t my favorite, but I still appreciate it!

[Brian McCann · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked reading this play more than seeing the recent revival (although Elaine May was OUTSTANDING as Gladys).

Too many scenes fizzle at their end for me, especially the conclusion of Act I.

The playwright does capture beautiful an elderly woman’s mental decline. Sometimes his writing becomes too real for me and maybe a little too close to home.

The characters’ frustrations are palpable even when reading this.

[Corvyn Appleby]

I like the frantic crosstalk, and I like just how bleak and unfiltered this feels towards the end, but it's really hampered by a habit of direct address monologues that makes sense for something like, say, The Glass Menagerie, but for a style like Lonergan's that's less poetic than Williams', it feels jarringly unnecessary as a device. Not without merit, but definitely minor even just considered in the scope of Lonergan's oeuvre.

[sina · Rating 4 out of 5]

i have put off reading this play for a while now, because i did not want to read about taking care of a family member when that is already happening at home but i could not wait any longer. i’m so glad i enjoyed this play as much as i did because i’ve been looking forward to it for forever. anyways daniel’s final address to the audience was beautifully put. everything in this play felt so real (to me) which is nice i guess. okay i’m done.

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Plays are meant to be seen, not read, so it is probably best for me to wait and see the production next month (starring Elaine May, Michael Cera, Lucas Hedges and Joan Allen) before rating it. But in the meantime I give it four stars for its breezy dialogue, poignant moments and often hilarious scenes.

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tough play to read. Gladys totally should have been in a facility where she could be cared for. It doesn't make any sense for everyone else to keep saying "I won't put her in a home. She wants to be where the action is." But she isn't, because there is no action and she's all alone most of the time. Yeah, but then there wouldn't be a play.

[Si Squires-Kasten · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probably the highest rating I'd give to a naturalistic play about a bourgeois, artistic New York Jewish family. Daniel's monologues didn't work for me, but the scenes with Gladys beautifully infuse small moments of miscommunication with deeply felt sadness, and dread.

[Steve · Rating 1 out of 5]

There are better plays about Alzheimer's. Jesus Christ, I was ready to throw this play after the 'hilarious' scene where the grandmother can't hear and every other line is people shouting. Why the playwright decided to give her Alzheimer's AND a hearing problem is beyond me. Beyond frustrating.

[J Dubyuh]

Nothing makes you appreciate how precious life is more than someone who lived so much of it and can’t remember any of it.

[Jane Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sad look into a family dealing with the alzheimers of the matron of the family. It was a play script so it was short.
As my family is dealing with this I am glad I read it.

[Mike Rudden · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hard to read, and I imagine harder to watch.

[m · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was so sad reading this, it reminded me of my nana. Alzheimer Disease destroys so many wonder people.

[James Bachmann · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love how Lonergan encapsulates the essence of his characters within their mere first few words.

Beautiful and depressing, knew exactly what I was getting into.

[Isaac Bortner · Rating 5 out of 5]

this is the most beautiful play I have ever read. he gets everything right.

[Bobby Sullivan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brutal play. At times, laugh out loud funny, but man, mental deterioration is just ugly. And tragic.

[Kimberly Girkin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lonergan

[Gabriel Weaver · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel like this would be much more emotional to watch than it was to read it.

I can see his influence on David Lindsay-Abaire for sure.

[Seth Weaver]

Took me a stupidly long time to read this

[Lila · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great. I just know this is so funny live.