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The Arts Intel Report

The Apple Family: Life on Zoom

Streaming on Zoom

Zoom gives family get-togethers a “Brady Bunch” appearance, each member’s face windowed by a black frame. This is the tableau of Richard Nelson’s latest trilogy of plays, which focuses on the Apple family. Like his previous seven Apple-family works, these streaming shows take on the national conversation—here, primarily coronavirus and lockdown—through the lens of a middle-class, small-town white family, who in turn bring rifts and resentments to these broader issues. The final installment sees the loosening of lockdown, tinged with trepidation and uncertainty. As Barbara, the eldest sibling remarks, “It feels to me like we’re making it all smaller and smaller.” Documenting the era of social distancing through a new medium, the three Zoomed Apple-family plays are now available to stream. —C.J.F.