There are two plotlines competing for attention in The Gathering . Gabe is a Holocaust survivor, and he finds it intolerable that the President would visit a cemetery where German soldiers are buried. These questions are worthy of discussion, and they get a decent airing in The Gathering . The circumstances of the discussion, however, are highly improbable. This is no time for Egon to start quizzing Gabe on his feelings as a survivor, but he does, and the dialogue that is the real point of The Gathering gets moving under unlikely circumstances.
More improbable occurrences are necessary to resolve the play, as the plotlines interweave.
The Gathering ultimately resolves, but not without an obligatory tearful scene in which Stuart reveals a secret about his past, and Gabe reveals a bigger one. It induces sniffles and sobs in the audience, but the emotional response is not well-deserved. Playwright Arje Shaw makes the audience choke up by bringing in a last minute tear-jerker, not from anything inherent in the play he has crafted. Hal Linden gives an excellent performance as Gabe, equally convincing in the light comic scenes with his family and the more dramatic moments with Egon. Coleman Zeigen's Egon is also very effective.