Dinner with Friends
Notes
Act One
Scene 1: Karen and
Gabe's kitchen in Connecticut. Evening, December, 1998
Scene 2: Tom and
Beth's bedroom. Later that night
Scene 3: Karen and
Gabe's family room. Later still.
Act Two
Scene
1: A house in Martha's Vineyard. August, 1986
Scene 2: Karen and
Gabe's patio. May, 1999.
Scene 3: A bar in
Manhattan. Later that afternoon.
Scene 4: Karen and
Gabe's bedroom in Martha's Vineyard. That night.
Director's Notes
Can relationships survive after the break up of a marriage?
How do friendships change when unexpected events upset our lives? Can you
remain friends with someone you thought you knew?
Tonight you will share a meal or two with Gabe, Karen, Tom
& Beth. Two couples whose close friendships have stood the test of time
over the years until one of the couples decides to divorce. This 2000
Pulitzer-Prize winning play is not so much about divorce as it is about changing
friendships and evolving marriages. The two couples are more than friends,
they are family. And family sticks by each other through thick and thin,
right?
When I first read Dinner with Friends, what struck
me was the "realness" of the situations and dialogue. Donald Margulies has
a unique talent for understanding and capturing the complexity of human nature.
He also has a knack for eloquent, witty use of the language as he constantly
shifts viewpoints so that the audience is left to make up their own minds whose
side they wish to take. In an interview for "The News Hour" on PBS,
Margulies was quoted as saying "You know, I think it's [the play's] really about
the aftershocks that we all experience when certain constants in our lives,
things that we perceive to be constant, suddenly shatter and are no longer
dependable. It touches people, it upsets people, it discomforts people...
it also touches a nerve, and I think that's one of the reasons why it has had
the success it has had."
Like all of his plays, Dinner with Friends was
written to reflect observations Margulies had at a particular time in his life.
Born in 1954, his observations came from influences from his generation.
The play is set in 1998 and flashes back to 1986. Therefore, these
characters were born in the late 1950s, were raised in the 1960s, and entered
into young adulthood in the late 1970s/early 1980s when divorce rates were
peaking. Their generation saw their parents "ride it out for the sake of
the kids" while they learned that is was okay to admit past mistakes and move on
with their lives.
What holds a marriage together? Why stay together?
Why marry in the first place? Mr. Margulies doesn't give us any clear
answers to these questions, but allows us to contemplate our own lives... and in
the process, we might just find ourselves laughing as we recognize ourselves on
stage this evening.
