Over The River And Through The Woods

Written by Joe DiPietro
Directed by Brendan Phelan
Performed in: dlr Mill Theatre – 22 to 26 March 2022

 

Balally Players' performances of Joe DiPietro’s hilarious comedy was the group's first show in dlr Mill Theatre after the two-year break in performances due to the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. Nick Cristano is a single, Italian-American guy from New Jersey. His parents retired and moved to Florida and he lives the life of a modern young professional in New York City, but his loving grandparents never let him forget where he belongs: in New Jersey, in the bosom of his tenacious, tender-hearted, loud, loving, and well-fed Italian-American grandparents, who live two doors down from each other in Hoboken, and who lavish all of their affection on their last unmarried grandchild.

Nick sees both sets of his grandparents every Sunday for dinner. This has become a routine that is as expected as it is enjoyed by the grandparents. However, when Nick is offered a dream job – marketing executive in Seattle, Washington – he threatens to break this routine by a distance of some 2,800 miles. When he tells them, the news doesn’t go down well at all.

Frank, Aida, Emma, and Nunzio are heartbroken at the prospect of their beloved grandson raising a family all the way across the country -- or worse, not raising a family at all! Besides the usual tactics of emotional blackmail, in order to keep him safe at home, these wily elders cook up a matchmaking scheme, inviting lovely nurse Caitlin O’Hare over for Sunday dinner.

Will the prospect of true love keep Nick from moving across the country? Over the River and Through the Woods is a warm-hearted, boisterously funny, and touching story about inter-generational relationships, deep familial love, and the inevitable little heartbreaks that occur as time passes and children grow.

Joe DiPietro’s intimate family comedy was published in 1998. It played Off-Broadway at the John Houseman Theatre for 800 performances over two years.