Playcrafters Theater Company welcomes spring with The Out Going Tide, a contemporary family dramedy exploring choices, conflicts, and the complexities of the parent-child relationship. Directed by Deb Starker and featuring Amelia Chiaramonte, Jack Hartman, and Richard Schindler, the show runs from March 28 to April 6, 2025.
Set in a summer cottage on the tranquil and secluded Chesapeake Bay, this deeply relatable play explores several existential dilemmas faced by a trio of characters as they grapple with the painful repercussions of their past actions while confronting agonizing decisions about end-of-life issues in the future.
Written by Bruce Graham, one of Philadelphia’s most accomplished playwrights, The Outgoing Tide premiered at Chicago’s Northlight Theatre in 2011 and won the Joseph Jefferson Award for Best New Play. The play starred John Mahoney as Gunner, a retired South Philly truck driver. Mahoney, who received a Tony Award for his role as Artie in Lincoln Center Theater’s The House of Blue Leaves, is best known for his portrayal of Martin Crane, a retired police officer and father of Niles and Frasier on the long-running NBC sitcom Frasier. The Tony Award-winning actor Rondi Reed played Gunner’s wife, Peg, while Thomas J. Cox portrayed his son.
Graham’s plays have been produced in the United States and Europe. His impressive body of work includes Burkie, Minor Demons, Belmont Avenue Social Club, and Coyote on a Fence. In 2016, Playcrafters produced his coming-of-age tale Moon Over the Brewery.
When I asked Graham to comment on his writing process, particularly how it relates to The Outgoing Tide, he responded, “Almost everything I’ve ever written is based on me or people I know. (I have absolutely no imagination.) Then, I take those characters and place them into some stressful situation. Aging can be a pretty stressful situation, and dealing with aging parents is no picnic either. Hence, the play. I also own a weekend place on the Chesapeake, the setting. When The Philadelphia Company produced the play, the actors rehearsed in the house and on the deck. Very Pirandello.”
This well-crafted three-character play revolves around the dysfunctional Concannon clan, which includes Gunner and Peg, teenage sweethearts who have been married for 50 years, and their son Jack, a 49-year-old father in the midst of a divorce. Gunner is a retiree whose worsening dementia causes him to forget words and confuse the microwave with the television. He devises a plan to secure his family’s future, much to the dismay of his devout Catholic wife and devoted son. With Gunner’s declining cognitive abilities front and center, this familial triangle faces difficult choices.
An “outgoing tide” alludes to a gradual lessening of something or a slow decline, serving as an apt metaphor for Gunner’s deteriorating memory and thinking skills. However, the term “Alzheimer’s” is never mentioned in the play, which is a deliberate choice by Graham. In a 2015 Q&A with the Merrimack Repertory Theatre, the playwright explained his reason for avoiding the name of the disease: “Sometimes if you say it, it turns into ‘Uh-oh! It’s an Alzheimer’s play.’ And it’s not about Alzheimer’s. To me, it’s a play about regret.”
Founded in Bellport in 1960, Playcrafters is one of the oldest not-for-profit community theatre groups on Long Island. Their mission is to present quality amateur theatre and encourage community members to participate in all aspects of the performing arts, including acting, directing, backstage work, and technical support. Playcrafters serves Long Island’s mid-South Shore towns, such as Bellport, North Bellport, Brookhaven, East Patchogue, Patchogue, Yaphank, Mastic, Shirley, and the Moriches. They are a multiracial, multiethnic, and multigenerational theatre company, and on their website, they proudly state: “we hope YOU will get involved!”
The Playcrafters’ past productions include some of the most beloved plays of all time, such as Bell; Book and Candle; Tea and Sympathy; Death of a Salesman; Look Homeward; Angel; A Streetcar Named Desire; South Pacific; Guys and Dolls; Jesus Christ Superstar; Our Town, Into the Woods; Private Lives; Man of La Mancha; Plaza Suite; Steel Magnolias; Wait Until Dark; and All My Sons.
Overflowing with humorous, heated, and heartrending moments, you don’t want to miss the Playcrafters’s production of The Outgoing Tide. Content Warning: this production contains adult themes and language and may not be appropriate for all audiences. With Friday, Saturday, and Sunday performances, the show runs from March 28 through April 6, 2025, at the Playcrafters’s theatre space at Brookhaven Elementary School, 101 Fireplace Neck Road, Brookhaven, New York. For tickets, contact the box office at 631-748-7863 or their website at bellport-playcrafters.com.
