Dinner With Friends
As its final play of the 2007-08 Season, Theatre 40 is presenting Donald Margulies’ comedy, Dinner With Friends, for which he won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
The play takes place in a suburb in Connecticut where two couples have had a longtime friendship. As a matter-of-fact, Gabe (Grinnell Morris) and Karen (Julie Lancaster) introduced their best friend Tom (Garrett McKechnie) to Beth (Dee Ann Newkirk) twelve years ago and since that time, the two couples have been inseparable. They have had dinners, family vacations, and close ties with each other for all of these years. When Beth attends a dinner party at Gabe’s and Karen’s home minus Tom, she explains to them that he had to go out-of-town, until near the end of the meal, she breaks down and tells them that Tom has left her. Is it a mid-life crisis or is it for real? As the play looks back on the time that Gabe and Karen brought Beth and Tom together, it seems that they were a perfect match. But, over the years the two of them have discovered that they are not compatible any more and their break-up is for real.
This changes the friendship of the two couples completely. At first, Gabe and Karen are offended by the fact that they were left unaware of what was happening to their best friends. Shouldn’t Beth and Tom have confided in them without dropping the news on them like an atom bomb? How much of a couple’s personal life need be told just because they are close with their friends? As time elapses, it is obvious that both Tom and Beth find more happiness, each with someone else, and life goes on for Gabe and Karen.
This fine production was delicately directed by Laura James with four exceptional
Actors. The set design, by Jeff G. Rack and the set decoration by Christine Clausen is very effective.
Theatre 40’s Reuben Cordova Theatre
Beverly Hills High School Campus
241 Moreno Drive
Beverly Hills, CA