Making Typical Fare Fresh in 'Dinner With Friends'

Tom (Darren Pettie), Beth (Heather Burns), Karen (Marin Hinkle) and Gabe (Jeremy Shamos) were a happy foursome until an unexpected breech. Photos by Jeremy Daniel.

BY TAMARA BECK

WE never really know what happens behind closed doors, do we?

As Donald Margulies puts it in his 1999 Pulitzer Prize-winning "Dinner With Friends," "we can't even tell how things are going with the couple with whom we've shared meals, vacations and pregnancies."

In 2001, the play was turned into an Emmy-nominated movie. Now, it is enjoying a revival at Roundabout Theatre Company's Laura Pels Theatre through 16 April.

"Dinner With Friends" tells a story we've all heard before: Man leaves wife for a younger, hotter woman; he lobbies their closest friends for approval, but it's too late; his wife has already easily won their sympathy. Despite their years of friendship, the couple's best friends shy away from the taint of the failed marriage.

Tom (Darren Pettie) isn't at the regular dinner in Karen (Marin Hinkle) and Gabe's (Jeremy Shamos) well-organized kitchen. In his absence, explained away as a business trip, Gabe and Karen regale Beth (Heather Burns) with adventures from their recent gastro-trip.

Allen Moyer's charmingly designed sets roll out seamlessly to reveal each mileu – from Beth's untidy bedroom to Karen and Gabe's house on Martha's Vineyard. (See opening night video below).

Before dessert is served, Beth falls apart and tells Karen that Tom has left her for a stewardess. Meanwhile, snow prevents Tom from visiting his girlfriend, forcing him to return home. He soon realizes that Beth has "spilled."

"You’ve got the advantage now!," he says.
Incredulous, Beth exclaims, "What?! I do not!"
"Of course, you do!," Tom retorts. "You got to them first!"

Tom's only recourse, late as it is, is to drive over to tell Gabe and Karen his side of the story. He explains how unhappy he's been and how much in love he is.

To Gabe, Tom's professed misery is a betrayal. Tom is not only walking out on Beth and his kids, he's also abandoning the friendship. Gabe, the domesticated, happily married man, is puzzled.

"How can he walk away? I don’t understand it. How can he just...?"

Karen echoes Gabe's sentiment, "He didn’t seem “miserable” at all," she says. "You mean to tell me we were sitting there having a wonderful time and he was not only miserable but in love with someone else?!"

Beth (Heather Burns) and Tom (Darren Pettie) are having very common marital problems in "Dinner With Friends."

DM approaches this all-too common tale as if it were all brand new. The ensemble in "Dinner With Friends," under Pam MacKinnon's well-paced direction, breathes fresh life and considerable subtlety into what could just be a cliche.

Nicely done.

Visit http://www.roundabouttheatre.org/Shows-Events/Dinner-With-Friends.aspx to learn more about "Dinner With Friends."

Afraid/Denying Terminal Illness in 'Milk Train'

Darren Pettie and Olympia Dukakis. Photos by Joan Marcus.

BY TAMARA BECK

TENNESSEE Williams, esteemed for “A Streetcar Named Desire” and many other works, wrote the very disturbing “The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore” in 1963 just after his lover had died.

Flora “Sissy” Goforth (Olympia Dukakis) is outlandishly louder-than-life. She is full of contradictions – at once cantankerous, exuberant, bullying, randy, despondent and vulgar. In “The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore, ”she is also dying and is deeply in denial about her illness, yet cunning and scared. OD commands the stage as Flora broadcasts her wishes and orders over the sound system she has installed.

Maggie Lacey and Darren Pettie

To help Flora ease her way is Frances “Blackie” Black (Maggie Lacey) who takes equal parts dictation and abuse. Even the compassionate Blackie can be cruel, suffering as she does under Flora’s bravado and heartlessness, the former tells the handsome poet, Christopher Flanders (Darren Pettie). Christopher has mysteriously shown up at Flora’s Italian mountaintop villa.

A difficult and troubled work, “The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore” gets star treatment at the Roundabout Theatre’s off-Broadway Laura Pels Theatre through 3 April. Among its most egregious failings are disquieting character/plot twists. TW breaks with realism; the resulting changes in tone are jarring. (See video: http://www.roundabouttheatre.org/video/1011/milk_2.htm?utm_source=todd_email&utm_medium=email_internal&utm_campaign=milk_train)

Christopher’s sudden appearance and his place in Flora’s world is an oddity, but “The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore” veers completely off course with the appearance of “The Witch of Capri” (Edward Hibbert).

All semblance of naturalism is suddenly disrupted and the actors, as if they were in a late 19th century melodrama, become stilted and wooden as if to signal a change in tone. They soon revert to the more naturalistic tone from the beginning of the play, except for EH whose delivery remains outlandish. He is deliciously vicious and swish as the gossipy Witch.

Edward Hibbert and Olympia Dukakis

Since Flora has allowed Christopher to stay in her pink cottage – probably because her fourth husband, Alex, was also a poet and handsome – she has invited The Witch to dine so that he can her the lowdown on her new houseguest. Christopher, it turns out, has been a companion to a number of rich women all of whom have died under his care. The Witch informs Flora that Christopher is known as the Angel of Death in their social set.

Director Michael Wilson makes an admirable attempt to bring the seldom-revived work to life. Unfortunately, it has many obstacles for both director and actors to overcome.

To learn more about “The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore,” visit http://www.roundabouttheatre.org/offbroadway/themilktraindoesntstophereanymore/about.htm.

Fear and Foreboding in 'Milk Train'

The mysterious Christopher (Darren Pettie) may or may not mean Flora (Olympia Dukakis) harm in “The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore.” Photos by Joan Marcus.

BY TAMARA BECK

TENNESSEE Williams, esteemed for “A Streetcar Named Desire” and many other works, wrote the very disturbing “The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore” in 1963 just after his lover had died.

Flora “Sissy” Goforth (Olympia Dukakis) is outlandishly louder-than-life. She is full of contradictions – at once cantankerous, exuberant, bullying, randy, despondent and vulgar. In “The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore, ”she is also dying and is deeply in denial about her illness, yet cunning and scared. OD commands the stage as Flora broadcasts her wishes and orders over the sound system she has installed.

Frances (Maggie Lacey) and Christopher (Darren Pettie) have a moment in “The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore.”

To help Flora ease her way is Frances “Blackie” Black (Maggie Lacey) who takes equal parts dictation and abuse. Even the compassionate Blackie can be cruel, suffering as she does under Flora’s bravado and heartlessness, the former tells the handsome poet, Christopher Flanders (Darren Pettie). Christopher has mysteriously shown up at Flora’s Italian mountaintop villa.

A difficult and troubled work, “The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore” gets star treatment at the Roundabout Theatre’s off-Broadway Laura Pels Theatre through 3 April. Among its most egregious failings are disquieting character/plot twists. TW breaks with realism; the resultant changes in tone are jarring. (See video: http://www.roundabouttheatre.org/video/1011/milk_2.htm?utm_source=todd_email&utm_medium=email_internal&utm_campaign=milk_train)

Christopher’s sudden appearance and his place in Flora’s world is an oddity, but “The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore” veers completely off course with the appearance of “The Witch of Capri” (Edward Hibbert).

All semblance of naturalism is suddenly disrupted and the actors, as if they were in a late 19th century melodrama, become stilted and wooden as if to signal a change in tone. They soon revert to the more naturalistic tone from the beginning of the play, except for EH whose delivery remains outlandish. He is deliciously vicious and swish as the gossipy Witch.

The Witch (Edward Hibbert) gives Flora (Olympia Dukakis) an earful about a certain handsome stranger in “The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore.”

Since Flora has allowed Christopher to stay in her pink cottage – probably because her fourth husband, Alex, was also a poet and handsome – she has invited The Witch to dine so that he can her the lowdown on her new houseguest. Christopher, it turns out, has been a companion to a number of rich women all of whom have died under his care. The Witch informs Flora that Christopher is known as the Angel of Death in their social set.

Director Michael Wilson makes an admirable attempt to bring the seldom-revived work to life. Unfortunately, it has many obstacles for both director and actors to overcome.

To learn more about “The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore,” visit http://www.roundabouttheatre.org/offbroadway/themilktraindoesntstophereanymore/about.htm.