Dinner With Friends by Donald Margulies


My reaction to reading and seeing this play


I recently read again Dinner With Friends by Donald Margulies. I saw this play off-Broadway in May of 2000 (with Matthew Arkin as Gabe, Kevin Kilner as Tom, Lisa Emery as Karen, and Julie White as Beth) and also saw the HBO version.
This play has won lots of awards. It premiered at the 1998 Humana Festival of New American Plays and opened in New York in 1999. It is the winner of the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and is also the recipient of the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Off-Broadway Play, the Dramatists Guild/ Hull-Warriner Award, the Outer Critics Circle Award, the American Theatre Critics Association New Play Award, and a Drama Desk Award nomination.
The most interesting thing to my mind about this play is that it is about a divorce, but instead of exploring its effects on the people getting the divorce it explores the effects it has on their friend's marriage - and in a way it is as much a divorce of two couples from each other as well.
Clearly, Beth and Tom do not have much of a foundation for their marriage - he thinks little of her aspiration to be an artist, and she does not share his interest in sensuality. Gabe and Karen, though have a strong marriage, with shared interest in cooking and mutual respect. Gabe is certainly taken aback by Karen's judgemental streak (she will have nothing to do with Tom, and does not even really want to hear him out.
Of course, it is not that simple, and even though Karen is firmly on Beth's side, she does not really want her to get her act together either, and Beth needs to break off with Karen in order to change her life.
Perhaps my favorite moment in the play was watching Gabe and Karen discussing their relationship while turning down the bed in Act Four. As they talk, it is clear that they have done this little domestic act hundreds of times - they do not need to even think about what they are doing. This is what a good relationship is all about - sharing their lives, including the chores. I thought it was beautiful.

Posted: Wed - January 28, 2004 at 07:34 PM          

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