Guild Hall’s production of ‘The Father’ looks at change in relationships

There’s an elephant in the room when discussing the drama “The Father,” staged by Guild Hall Players next weekend.

It’s a major plot point that both playwright Florian Zeller and director Phil Speary want audience members to realize for themselves – which makes interviews and preview stories difficult.

“I think it’s important that people experiencing the play not know everything that’s going on before they see it,” Speary said. “He intends to give it a little bit of mystery to it.”

At its core is the relationship between an 80-year-old man, played by Bob Peterson, and his 50-something daughter, portrayed by Deanne Zogleman.

No matter the situation, Speary said, the play honestly looks at the changes that take place through the years between parents and their children.

“Parents are in command of the situation when the child is a child,” he said, “and as the parent gets older and the child becomes an adult, the dynamics of that in any situation inevitably shift because the adult child will have independence but have responsibility for the adult.”

Peterson said the challenge in portraying the aging father was “plumbing this role, getting into this gentleman’s reality.

“I have to make sure I’m playing it honestly,” he said. “It’s an actor’s trap to play too many emotions, and I play it real for him, real from his standpoint.”

Zogleman said she liked the reality of “The Father.”

“I love realistic, compassionate, human shows that I can dig my teeth into and research the mentality of the character with the actors around,” she said. “I feel like a lot of us have known someone in their family or friends and have watched that. To have to deal with this as the caregiver, it’s compassion fatigue at times. But it’s more for an actress to dig her teeth into.”

Zeller, Speary said, is “one of the leading playwrights in the world, but Americans don’t particularly know him.

“This is one of the few of his plays that’s done in all of the United States,” he said.

An English-language adaptation was created by Christopher Hampton, and the two shared screenwriting credit for the movie version of “The Father,” which was in theaters in February. Although it received little exposure thanks to pandemic-related restrictions at movie theaters, it earned an Academy Award nomination for Olivia Colman as the daughter and a best actor Oscar for Anthony Hopkins in the title role.

The movie, which neither of the actors interviewed has seen, is very loyal to the stage script, Speary said. Guild Hall Players is keeping the setting as French but using American stage diction.

“It’s very human, very compassionate, very real,” Speary said.

‘The Father’ by Guild Hall Players

When: 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, Nov. 4-6; 7 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 7

Where: St. James Episcopal Church, 3750 E. Douglas

Tickets: $12 adults, $10 for students, military, medical personnel and first responders, by calling 683-5686