Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.66 AVERAGE
3.66 AVERAGE
Listen to an audio production by L.A. Theatre Works at https://beta.prx.org/stories/38128
"The thing is, you never know what couples are like when they're alone, you never do. You know that. There's no way of knowing. It's all very mysterious."
Dinner with Friends, the Pulitzer Prize winning play, explores how the relationships change between two married couples when one couple's marriage falls apart. Who takes whose side? Who do you "claim" as the friend that you'll continue to see? What happens when your other half "claims" the other? Which part of this former "best friend couple" do you invite to dinner parties now?
Most of the couples' scenes were truthful and authentic - it's indeed how couples' relationships work, especially one centred on blame and betrayal, following on an affair. But as entertainment, I just found the shouting rather annoying, especially Tom's defensive, paranoid ranting in Act One that easily turned him into a jerk unworthy of any sympathy (even though a failed relationship is almost never exclusively the fault of one party). Tom does, for a brief moment, complains to his buddy Gabe about the depth of his loneliness due to lack of intimacy but apart from that, I hardly empathised with his character at all.
There were a few occasional laughs but by and large, I just found this a rather pitiful portrayal of typical midlife marriage breakdown after one leaves another after an affair. There appears to be hope though! Because both halves of the divorced couple hardly felt any pain! In Act 2, both Tom and Beth quickly moves on to pastures anew, concluding confidently just how much their new lives have improved with new partners. I wished instead that there was a bit more reflection on what caused their marriage to fail and what they've learnt from it to their new relationships.
"The thing is, you never know what couples are like when they're alone, you never do. You know that. There's no way of knowing. It's all very mysterious."
Dinner with Friends, the Pulitzer Prize winning play, explores how the relationships change between two married couples when one couple's marriage falls apart. Who takes whose side? Who do you "claim" as the friend that you'll continue to see? What happens when your other half "claims" the other? Which part of this former "best friend couple" do you invite to dinner parties now?
Most of the couples' scenes were truthful and authentic - it's indeed how couples' relationships work, especially one centred on blame and betrayal, following on an affair. But as entertainment, I just found the shouting rather annoying, especially Tom's defensive, paranoid ranting in Act One that easily turned him into a jerk unworthy of any sympathy (even though a failed relationship is almost never exclusively the fault of one party). Tom does, for a brief moment, complains to his buddy Gabe about the depth of his loneliness due to lack of intimacy but apart from that, I hardly empathised with his character at all.
There were a few occasional laughs but by and large, I just found this a rather pitiful portrayal of typical midlife marriage breakdown after one leaves another after an affair. There appears to be hope though! Because both halves of the divorced couple hardly felt any pain! In Act 2, both Tom and Beth quickly moves on to pastures anew, concluding confidently just how much their new lives have improved with new partners. I wished instead that there was a bit more reflection on what caused their marriage to fail and what they've learnt from it to their new relationships.