Quick Take
In “The Viewing Room,” a dead patriarch suddenly sits up at his own funeral and tries to make amends to family. “If we do this right,” says director Peter Gelblum, “there will be some tears along with the laughter.”
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It’s not a spoiler to say that the corpse in the coffin in the new comedy “The Viewing Room” is not really dead — or no longer dead. In the play’s first few minutes, the dead patriarch suddenly sits up at his own funeral largely because he couldn’t pass the admission test at the Pearly Gates, and now he’s been sent back to the land of the living to make amends to his grieving (and aggrieved) family.
Such is the setup for the latest production at Mountain Community Theater at its home stage at Park Hall in Ben Lomond. Director Peter Gelblum said the play is a brilliant comedy that’s actually an unpublished play. Gelblum has worked directly with the playwright Mark Edward Smith and has even suggested changes. The play has been produced by various other theater groups, but this is the first time it’s been produced in the Bay Area/Central Coast.
“Act 1 is people coming to grips with the fact that their father is not dead after all and is up and around, walking and talking,” said Gelblum. “And Act 2, he calls on each of his five children and his wife to ask them if he was a good father or spouse. And they let him have it.”
Gelblum said that just about anyone with parents, or children, can relate in some way to the revelatory family conversations in the play: “If we do this right, there will be some tears along with the laughter.”
“The Viewing Room” opens Friday at Park Hall, and runs weekends through June 11.
