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• "Dinner with Friends" Review

  • Civic Theatre whips up tasty 'Dinner'

    Friday, March 19, 2004

    BY JULIE HALPERT
    News Special Writer

    If you plan to see the play "Dinner with Friends," here's a word of advice: Don't go hungry.

    As one enters the auditorium, the song "Food Glorious Food" from "Oliver" provides a serenade. And the opening scene of the Ann Arbor Civic Theatre production delivers, as food writers Gabe and Karen prepare a feast that should make every audience member salivate. The food writers and their guests savor grilled fish, fine wines and a lemon tart, made with polenta, not white flour, Gabe and Karen emphasize.

    "Dinner with Friends" uses Gabe and Karen's passion for good cooking as a backdrop to the theme of the play: the break-up of their two closest friends. Gabe, played by John Elliott, and Karen, played by Kim Perlman, learn over a succulent dinner that their friend Beth (Wendy Wright) is divorcing her husband, Tom (Karl Kasischke), because he's been unfaithful. The news rocks Gabe and Karen's world and causes them to re-examine their own relationship. The play tackles a common subject: As we get older, does practicality take the passion out of marriage?

    "Dinner" is at its best when it portrays Gabe and Karen resorting to discussion of food when divorce talk gets dicey. As Gabe, Karen and Beth linger over their luscious lemon tart dessert, Kim asks her husband, "Did I put in too much vanilla? Could I have beaten the eggs more?" Tom, later explaining the break-up to a shaken Gabe, stops to admire the delicious grilled fish. These are clever, comic moments that work well. Kudos to pastry chef Alexis Elliott, who made the delicacies that left me hungering for a feast at intermission.

    The highlight of the play is Elliott, who is a master at showing the betrayal he feels as one of the anchors of his world, his best friend, charts a new course in life. Even when he's sitting silently by himself on the couch, absorbing his friend's news, he effectively conveys his anguish.

    Elliott and Kim Perlman are an extremely believable husband and wife. They have the casual banter and familiarity of a couple married for a dozen years, and their witty repartee brings life to the play. When Perlman asks Elliott, "Am I judgmental? Am I intolerant?" and Elliott responds, "Am I supposed to answer that?" there is the true feel of a real-life couple. Similarly, their tender moments together are touching.

    For her part, Perlman beautifully conveys a range of emotions with the other cast members: devotion to her girlfriend; cold anger to Tom once she's learned he's been unfaithful; and, ultimately, forgiveness.

    Wright and Kasischke do a fine job portraying the emotions of a couple whose marriage is falling apart. Sometimes listening to their battles gets tiring, though, as it would in real life.

    In the second act, where specific food items are no longer highlighted, the play drags a bit. The subject is well explored by this point and the extensive dialogue proves to be a challenge at times for some of the actors, who occasionally tripped on their lines opening night.

    "Dinner With Friends" continues at 8 p.m. tonight-Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday at Washtenaw Community College, 4800 E. Huron River Drive. Information: (734) 971-2228.