LANGLEY – “Dinner With Friends” asks its audience to participate in a dialectical exploration of marriage.
Like a pendulum, the play swings back and forth, from acrimonious indictment of infidelity to attempts at understanding the motivation behind extramarital dalliance, to an ultimate validation of togetherness over time, even in the face of passion’s demise.
In a serious narrative that is punctuated by the very funny line here and there, Donald Margulies’ 2000 Pulitzer Prize-winning drama, now playing at the Whidbey Island Center for the Arts, examines some basic truths about marriage and friendship.
It allows that outsiders – even best friends – may never know what’s truly going on inside another couple’s marriage. It traces in painful detail the devastating effect of a marriage’s rupture, not only on the couple breaking up and their children, but on their friends. It reminds us that there are two sides to every story. And, finally, it proposes that, for the conciliatory couple at least, the wisest route lies in staying together, no matter how “tired” their ardor.
Margulies’ tale of two marriages switches from the present to the past and back again as it presents two couples whose lives have long been intertwined. There are Gabe (Mark Therien) and Karen (Deana Duncan), he a food writer, she his wife and would-be editor. And there is Beth (Brooke Weaver), an artist who Gabe and Karen years ago hooked up with attorney Tom (Jason Dittmer).
Gabe and Karen, sure the two couples “would grow old together,” are floored to learn Tom is involved with another woman and wants a divorce. As the play unfolds, though, it’s clear Beth and Tom are ill-suited to one another. She feels he’s never respected her or her art. He feels she’s constantly critical, whereas the other woman is there for him “120 percent.” In one humorous scene, the thunderstruck Gabe and Karen can only speculate about what constitutes that extra 20 percent.
The shock of the ill-suited couple’s demise forces unsettling questions for the happier pair. The controlling Karen, for example, is paranoid as she and Gabe are now forced to wonder about the balance or lack thereof in their own marriage.
This latest WICA enterprise is most ably directed by Seattle’s Laurel Pilar Garcia. The four actors are quite well cast. In particular, Therien is remarkable for the confidence and natural talent he displays, given that this role marks his acting debut.
This production uses music to great effect to establish mood and stimulate curiosity about the truth at the heart of the story. The evocative instrumental interludes range from George Winston-like New Age to John Coltrane and Joe Pass-inspired jazz.
This “comedy-drama” weighs in with more drama than comedy. While there are comic zingers that pop out to relieve particularly tense moments, the overall tone is pensive.
During intermission, one couple in the audience was heard to wonder if there might be a happy ending. Thanks to the fine script and talented WICA actors, one suspects that, like partners in an ultimately good marriage, they’re glad they hung in there to see the play through to the end, happy ending or no.
“Dinner With Friends”: Through Oct. 30 at Whidbey Island Center for the Arts, 565 Camano Ave., Langley, Tickets, 360-221-8268, 800-638-7631, www.wicaonline. com.
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