The best event of Montgomery’s 2023 holiday season may be our one-afternoon-only reading of The Long Christmas Dinner by Thornton Wilder, which John Martello kindly agreed to take on as a project for The NewSouth Bookstore. The little-performed play, short in running length, showcases the lives of several generations of the Bayard family, and some of their Christmas dinners, over a period of nine decades. Wilder breaks the boundaries of time as we measure it, and invites us to partake of “one long, happy Christmas dinner” — past, present and future. As generations appear, have children, wither and depart, only the audience appreciates what changes and what remains the same. This is a masterpiece of twentieth-century theater — a little gem. The reading is directed by John Martello, with Judith Broadway, Rodney Clark, Greta Lambert, Maire Martello, and Greg Thornton in the cast.