Written by Donald Margulies, Dinner With Friends follows two couples as they navigate the fallout of a crumbling relationship and confront their own insecurities, desires, and loyalties with humor and heart. This Pulitzer Prize-winning play offers a deeply relatable and touching exploration of love, loss, and the true meaning of friendship.
Dinner With Friends features Gabe and Karen, a happily married couple who are international food writers living in Connecticut, and their best friends, Tom and Beth, whom they introduced to one another 12 years ago. Tom, a lawyer, travels often for his business, while Beth, an artist of uncertain talent, works from home.
The two couples have drinks and dinner together often, they are raising their children together, and even share Gabe’s family’s vacation house at Martha’s Vineyard every year. They love one another dearly, supporting each other in every phase of their lives.
Gabe (played by Christopher Hoffer) is an easy-going guy who cherishes his family and friendships. Karen (Jennifer Blumenthal) values the life she has built with Gabe. She is a nurturing woman with a tendency to micro-manage.
Beth (Jessica Walck) is a bit timid but creative as an artist, with a somewhat fragile demeanor, and in a state of emotional upheaval. Tom (Michael Murray) is confident, assertive, and a bit self-centered.
In the opening scene, Gabe and Karen go into grand and comical detail about their recent trip to Italy and the food there – Oh! The food! – but Beth is very distracted. Finally, she blurts that Tom – who is not present – is leaving her for another woman.
Then things start to unravel.
Gabe and Karen are crushed. Tom has been Gabe’s best friend since “the first hour” of college freshman orientation; Beth has been Karen’s bestie for decades.
Later the same evening, seeking to subdue curiosity, Tom regales Gabe with his side of the story about his new love, Nancy (whom we never meet), pointing out that she really listens to him – even as Gabe seems to tune out.
The remainder of the play follows the couples and individuals as they strive to make sense of the new status of their entwined relationships.
Jennifer Blumenthal as Karen and Jessica Walck at Beth rehearse their lunch scene in Dinner With Friends.
How do couple friends navigate the rest of their lives with a now-splintered friendship? How do they take sides – or do they not? Who was right and who was wrong? What about the children? What’s ahead for each couple?
The cast is composed of four seasoned local performers. Hoffer, who is vice president and treasurer of the board of Sea Glass Stage Company, recently appeared as Louie in Sea Glass Stage’s Lost in Yonkers.
Murray, who grew up on Hilton Head Island, as well as Blumenthal and Walck, both of whom recently moved to Bluffton, are appearing on the Sea Glass stage for the first time. All three performers have a history of community theatre.
Directing the local production is Mark Erickson, co-founder and president of Sea Glass Stage Company.
Christopher Hoffer, left, as Gabe and Michael Murray as Tom rehearse their uncomfortable conversation in Dinner With Friends.
“After our rousing success with our hilarious and large production of The Great American Trailer Park Musical, we wanted to bring a smaller, more thoughtful, yet somewhat humorous drama to the stage,” Erickson said. “Dinner With Friends struck me as a well-written story about the nature of friendship. It is a dramatic comedy – or maybe comedic drama – about how relationships change as we get older. We think the theme will hit home for our community.”
Dinner With Friends made its world premiere at the 1998 Humana Festival of American Plays. It premiered in New York City in 1999 and won high praise from critics. One reviewer for Aisle Say NY, said “What would seem to be a light comedy about friendship and shifting loyalties becomes instead a surprisingly touching rumination about the changes that come with age.”
The play won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2000.
The local production will run October 4-20 at Sea Glass Stage at Coligny Theatre, 1 N. Forest Beach Drive on Hilton Head Island. Shows are 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 2 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $35 adult, $20 student; the show has a PG-13 rating for language and adult content. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit sgstage.org/tickets, or follow Sea Glass Stage at Coligny on Facebook and Instagram.
From left, Jessica Walck, Jennifer Blumenthal, and Michael Murray as Beth, Karen, and Tom, respectively, rehearse a scene in Dinner With Friends, produced by Sea Glass Stage Company at Coligny Theatre Oct. 4-20.
