I imagine every married couple and every divorce in the audience takes at least a moment during Dinner with Friends to reflect on their own situation. Donald Margulies’ drama investigates the breakup of a marriage—specifically, the shocks and aftershocks that jolt not only the divorcing couple but their solidly married best friends as well.
“It’s like a death, isn’t it?” mourns Gabe, staggered by the news that his buddy Tom has left his wife for another woman. Over the course of six time-jumping scenes (the half-dozen locations are cleverly squeezed onto the Theatre 14 stage by designer Daniel D. Rist) the two marriages are dissected from each participant’s viewpoint. We witness not just the agony of breaking up, succeeded by the ecstasy of newfound liberation, but also the risks and rewards of staying together.
To me, this Pulitzer-winning script is overwritten, each point made and then made again, when a bit more economy would have yielded a tauter dramatic arc and a tighter production. But under Ed Golden’s smooth direction, the excellent ensemble at New Century Theatre lend a frisson even to the redundant moments. David Mason, always a treat to see here, gives an affecting naivete to Tom’s journey from charming suitor (in a flashback) to disaffected husband to newly smitten lover. As Beth, the wronged wife, Brianne Beatrice’s tears and rages overflow just enough to make us suspect a deeper secret.
Gabe and Karen, the stable couple whose marital rock is buffeted by their friends’ breakup, are globe-hopping foodies, and their gourmet passion provides the play’s comic relief and its through-line: everyone is eating and/or drinking almost constantly. Kathy McCafferty’s Karen, livid with outrage at Tom’s U-turn, is precisely and often humorously countered by the stunned bafflement of Sam Rush’s Gabe.
New Century’s season so far, featuring impressive casts in engaging vehicles, once again confirms the company’s position as the Valley’s most consistently exhilarating summer theater.
Twisted Tales
In the daytime during New Century’s runs, Tom McCabe’s PaintBox Theatre for families performs eye-popping, lickety-split deconstructions of favorite stories, employing just three actors and constant audience participation. First out of the box this year was a frisky revision of Rapunzel that updated the Grimm version’s grimmer aspects, replacing the crafty witch who imprisons the long-haired girl with an artsy-crafty foster mother who’s driven to distraction by her tween-age charge.
All the PaintBox shows feature on-screen art by local children depicting the characters and settings, projections that invite the audience to shout out stage directions, and kids brought onstage to help out with the action. New this year is a live sound effects booth where Mia Cain accompanies the mayhem with a witty assortment of noisemakers.
In this week’s show, The Emperor’s New Clothes, a fashion-obsessed boy monarch buys into the marketing con that says clothes make the man—in this case, “magic” threads that only the cool can appreciate. McCabe promises that “by the end, everyone is running around at least once in their underwear.
New Century Theatre’s season runs through Aug. 6; PaintBox Theatre performs July 20-23 and Aug. 3-6. Theatre 14, Mendenhall Center, Smith College, Northampton. Info and tickets at (413) 585-3220 or newcenturytheatre.org.
