Question about "The Dead"

A college theatre director asked about "James Joyce's The Dead" as adapted by Richard Nelson. I had seen it, and said that admired it enough to wish that I could be in a production of it, playing one of the aunts. The friends I saw it with were annoyed because they couldn't follow the relationships in the play: the production had been designed for a 3/4 thrust and then re-created in larger proscenium theatre, and much of it was played with backs to the audience and was consequently inaudible. I had the good fortune to have read the script beforehand-- wasn't it published in American Theatre?-- together with at least a vague but positive memory of the Joyce story.

I think it could be an excellent community theatre piece. Good parts for old experienced character actors who can sing. But it seems to me that it would suffer in a college production.