"The setting is the living room of a summer home on Golden Pond, in Maine. The room is large and old and high-ceilinged, all wood and glass, not sparkling like a picture in House Beautiful, but rich and wrinkled and comfortable-looking." Act One, Scene 1, p. 3.

"Norman Thayer, Jr. appears on the steps. He is 79. He wears baggy pants and sneakers and a sweater. His hair is white. He wears glasses. He walks slowly b upright. On the one hand he is boyish and peppery, having hung onto his vigor and his humor but at the same time, he is grand, he has a manner, a way of speaking and carrying himself that seem to belong in another era."

Act One, Scene 1, p. 5.

"In walks Ethel Thayer, his wife. She is 69, small, but energetic beyond belief."

Act One, Scene 1, p. 8.

"After a moment Charlie Martin appears on the porch...