In Chamberlayne Actors Theatre’s latest production, “Dinner with Friends,” one character says, “You never know what couples are like when they’re alone.” This layered, compassionate play pierces the veil protecting couples’ hidden lives and finds sadness, confusion, frustration and a tenuous bit of hope.
If that doesn’t sound like a rip-roaring night of hilarity, it’s not. You won’t find the genius of playwright Donald Margulies’ play in witty repartee or shocking plot turns but in the deeply empathetic insight it has into the dynamics of long-term relationships. While the show may not generate a continuous stream of guffaws, the vigorous nods I saw in the audience reflect the likelihood of intense conversations in the future inspired by this show.
The action begins with Gabe and Karen (played by Jim Morgan and Kerrigan Sullivan) hosting a dinner for their longtime friends, Beth and Tom (Jennipher Murphy and Skye Whitcomb). Only Beth has shown up, though, and she eventually reveals to her hosts that Tom is on the way to the airport, leaving her after 12 years of marriage.
Tom’s flight ends up getting cancelled, however, setting up two subsequent scenes that same night. Tom first returns to the house he shares with Beth, prompting a fight that ends unexpectedly, then he heads to Gabe and Karen’s house to tell his side of the story.
Through these encounters, we find out what’s behind the simple, sordid facts of Tom leaving Beth for another woman. Years of more complex circumstances, sedimentary layers of missed connections and misunderstandings, have built up until the machinery of their lives together has become hopelessly clogged.
In the second act, we see the impact of what Beth and Tom have gone through and how it now threatens their best friends. The question becomes: Can Gabe and Karen find a way back to each other or will they get sucked down a similarly perilous relationship death spiral?
“Dinner With Friends” won a Pulitzer Prize for Drama when it premiered in 1999, its rueful look at Baby Boomer marriages gaining universal praise at the time. Some of Margulies’ characterizations have not aged particularly well, though: Tom often comes off more like a non-repentant libertine than a neglected spouse and some of Karen’s “principles” seem rooted in archaic pre-feminist absolutism.
Setting the action amongst the trappings of upper-middle class suburban Manhattan life also diminishes the relatability of what is otherwise a universal story about the potential for love to give way to stagnation.
Even so, this cast under the direction of Zachary Owen gamely try, mostly successfully, to make the story vibrant and contemporary. In certain heated moments, they try too hard, some line readings tripping over each other during the performance I attended.
It’s a treat to see Sullivan, who normally toils behind the scenes as a director, dig into the role of Karen. She shines in a flashback to when Karen and Gabe first introduced Beth and Tom, giving her a chance to show a flirtier, less severe side.
Murphy and Whitcomb play well off of each other in their often high-intensity scenes, though both tend to whip between emotions with uncomfortably dizzying speed.
Morgan, best known to Richmonders for his multiple stints as Dr. Frank N. Furter in past productions of “The Rocky Horror Show,” delivers an effectively muted performance that reaches its pinnacle in a final meeting with Tom. In his crestfallen insistence that “we were supposed to grow old and fat together,” he superbly personifies the midlife angst that animates the show.
Though CAT can’t compete with the extravagance some other companies can afford, this production boasts a solid sound design by Dew Redling and a robust scenic design by Hailey Bean that successfully delineates six different locations.
Over the 36 years of my own marriage and through the experiences of family and friends who have weathered cycles of divorce and remarriage, I have said or heard variations on what each character expresses in this show. That universality gives “Dinner With Friends” its wings and, in its final hint that love can actually prevail, it truly takes flight.
Chamberlayne Actors Theatre’s production of “Dinner With Friends” is playing at Hanover Tavern through Feb. 22. Tickets and information available at https://onthestage.tickets/chamberlayne-actors-theatre.
