On Golden Pond

On Golden Pond
By Ernest Thompson

August 24 – September 2
Thursdays – Saturdays @ 7:30 PM • Wednesdays @ 2:00 PM
Jean’s Playhouse • Need Directions?
Adult – $37; Senior / Junior – $32
Reserved Seating
Rated PG

On Golden Pond is a classic American comedic drama that’s every bit as touching, warm, and witty today as when it debuted off Broadway in 1978. Retired couple Ethel and Norman Thayer are spending their 48th summer at their vacation home on Golden Pond, in the woods of Maine. Their delightful summer routine – fishing, picking strawberries, enjoying old mementos, listening to the loons call – is given a bitterly comedic edge by Norman’s unreliable memory and cantankerously morbid statements. When their daughter Chelsea visits for Norman’s 80th birthday, bringing her boyfriend Bill and Bill’s teenage son, Billy Jr., the whole family must come to grips with Norman and Chelsea’s mutual bitterness, while Norman blossoms with his chance to mentor young Billy. The turbulent relationship between father and daughter, the generation gap between young and old, and the difficulties of a couple in the twilight years of a long marriage, all combine in a play that effortlessly illustrates the hilarious, heartbreaking, human moments of which life is made.

On Golden Pond is written by VT native Ernest Thompson, who now lives most of the year right here in New Hampshire, very close to where they filmed the 1981 Academy Award Winning film version of the play, starring Henry Fonda, Jane Fonda, and Katherine Hepburn. The movie was filmed on location on both Big Squam and Little Squam Lake, only about 45-minutes away from Jean’s Playhouse! The original house still stands and can be viewed from the water if you know the right place to look. Because of this, On Golden Pond is a beloved classic here in NH.

Purchase tickets here.