On Golden Pond, Ernest Thompson's tender comedy about growing older, will get a Bay Area revival Dec. 4-Jan. 5 at Palo Alto's TheatreWorks. Returning to the company in the lead roles of Ethel and Norman Thayer are 2002 Bay Area Theatre Critics Award winner Linda Hoy (The Grapes of Wrath) and George Ward.

Katherine Hepburn and Henry Fonda (in his last film appearance) won Academy Awards for their portrayals of Ethel and Norman in the respected 1981 film. In the play, set at a summer home on Golden Pond in Maine, the 80-year old Norman is depressed as he feels this will be his last season on the pond before he dies, while his wife Ethel, ten years younger and more vital, is getting her first tastes of mortality. The arrival of their daughter Chelsea with her fiancé Bill Ray and his son Billy changes everything, however, as the stubborn, resentful boy bonds with Norman.

Thompson won a Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar for "On Golden Pond." His other works include Answers and The West Side Waltz and the screenplay to "Sweet Hearts Dance."

Also in the cast are Howard Swain, Nancy Carlin, Michael Keys Hall and Max McClure. Jules Aaron is the director.

Tickets are $20-$45. The Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts is located at the corner of Castro and Mercy Streets in Mountain View. For tickets, call (650) 903-6000. TheatreWorks is on the web at http://www.theatreworks.org. — By Christine Ehren