‘A Beautiful Day in November ...’ is joyful and bizarre

“A Beautiful Day in November on the Banks of the Greatest of the Great Lakes” is the strangest play I’ve seen in a long time. Described as a Thanksgiving play narrated by sports announcers, I was ready for a fun, long and slightly tortured metaphor whereby green beans fly and tensions run high. I looked forward to sports commentators sending up what I consider to be a very stressful holiday, and I was interested in what types of gender dynamics might be explored in the script.

I knew I was in for a very different ride the minute the play started and the three sisters came on stage, miming the setup of a large kitchen table. Their bodies were interchangeable as props and actors, and the sports commentators were necessary to help understand the action, even as they traded fast, furious and hilarious quips in their own private universe.

I couldn’t hear the people on stage very well most of the time,but I was impressed by their physicality. Whirling around the stage in the midst of family members who moved like a big audience, like a marching band, like a line of cheerleaders, I began to absorb some of the themes that the script was communicating, perhaps.

I’ll take a stab: The drama of family is just as physically demanding as a professional football game. The drama of family is worth our attention and time, especially because it’s women’s work. The family unit can feel all-encompassing, like a mass culture, like a rising tide. The sense of belonging and the sense of excommunication is both entrenched and highly produced, both constructed and deeply natural.

That was all good. But really, I found the script to be unforgiving, and maybe even unforgivable. The second-to-last scene challenged me. And I don’t mean challenged like, “I can’t hear well,” I mean challenged like, “What am I supposed to do right now? What should I think? How should I feel? Is this supposed to be funny or tragic? What kind of sense am I supposed to make of this?”

My companion and I left after the final bow and immediately started arguing about it. Bravo. Also, what the heck?