STAGE REVIEW : ‘Long Christmas Dinner’ Sweetens Holidays : STAGE REVIEW : Wilder’s ‘Long Christmas Dinner’ Sweetens the Holidays

Thornton Wilder’s “The Long Christmas Dinner” is one of the shortest, and sweetest, theatrical meals in the repertory. And one of the more challenging, since this wistful little one-act play (a scant act at that) requires its actors to riffle through 90 years in far less than that many minutes.

Sitting around a carefully laid table (props include dishes but only imaginary food), scions of the Bayard family race from childhood to old age, in virtually no time at all.

It’s a simple, you might even say a pure idea. People come and go from this table in telescopic time. Babies are born; young people get old and die; new generations fill their seats. Wilder, who was preoccupied with the simultaneity of time in “Our Town,” is fascinated with its cyclical roll in “Long Christmas Dinner.” Other than the birthing and dying and the slow hardening--or mellowing--that occurs in between, nothing much “happens” here. As Wilder sees it, life’s experiences are not all that different from one person to another or one family to another.

At the Pacific Theatre Ensemble in Venice, the actors add a few fillips. In a welcoming pre-show, they pour mulled cider and invite their audience to sing along in some familiar caroling. In the course of the various meals, they read to one another from such varied sources as the Protestant prayer book, Ogden Nash and e.e. cummings. They also sing more carols in voices that would melt angels’ wings (Billie Romanus is musical director).

This not only serves to stretch the program to a pleasant hour and 15 minutes (give or take a few), it also lends it grace and warmth, which is what Christmas dinners should be all about. True, the production is never more than artistically stark. The ensemble’s space has its usual lean and hungry look, even though the Bayards are not exactly poor. Director Paul Yeuell might consider making this table more festive in appearance.

The acting varies too, with the young cast not always good enough at avoiding the pitfalls of playing age. Susan Hegarty is more interesting as cousin Ermengarde, the poor (and intelligent) relative, than she is as Mother Bayard, while Carla Obert’s Leonora is more believable older and mellower than young and bereft.

Jeremy Roberts could lose some of his starch as paterfamilias Roderick, but Vince Melocchi is nearly perfect as cousin Brandon, a self-effacing bachelor content to grow old benignly--his back to life’s and the theater’s audience for most of that time. This is an actor who can fill a part no matter how poor his position on stage.

Anthony Grumbach’s Charles handles the transitions from boyhood to manhood to age with ease, but it’s Martha Hackett’s Genevieve who won’t let us take our eyes off her solitary trajectory from rebellious, independent youth to a bitter old age. (She’s also pretty funny as one of many servants in the household, performed in turn by various members of the company.)

One of the ensemble’s best ideas is sharing the glow of this event with less fortunate others. The price of admission is reduced by $1 if you make a contribution of canned or packaged foods at the door for the Westside Food Bank. That’s known as living up to the letter as well as the spirit of Christmas. Accepting these donations tonight: PTE’s guest, actor Daniel J. Travanti.

At 705 1/2 Venice Blvd. in Venice, Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 7 p.m., until Dec. 18. Tickets: $10 ($9 with contributions of $2 or more in canned or packaged food); (213) 306-3943.