Four friends. Two marriages. one divorce. Whose side are you on?‘Dinner with Friends’ has long been considered playwright Donald Margulies’ most critically successful play and is counted among the most insightful works in contemporary American drama.
This month, the play will be staged here to raise funds for the AIDS Foundation and directed towards supporting Sri Lankan children living with HIV/AIDS. Hosted by Design Concept, the evening at Park Street Mews promises to be a full one. Following the staging, Kumara Sangakkara will be on hand to address the gathering at the cocktail reception. As the evening progresses, entertainment acts have been lined up to keep guests partying into the night. Those who can’t make it can still catch the second staging at Bishop’s College.
The play itself has enthralled audiences all over the world. Anuruddha Lihinikaduwa, owner of Design Concepts, first saw the play in India and says he knew that its themes would resonate with Sri Lankan audiences. This is why he invited Indian director Feroze Khan and his Moving Platform company to perform the play for the first time in Sri Lanka, subtly tweaked to appeal more strongly to South Asian audiences.
This is a story that’s all too familiar. Vikram and Maya are a middle- aged couple who have been happily married for years. They thought that their dear friends, Harsh and Dia were happy too. In fact, they fixed their two friends up in the first place. It’s why, when Dia breaks down over dinner and admits that she and Harsh are going to be divorced, Vikram and Maya are in shock. Harsh is leaving her for another woman, says Dia.
When her unfaithful husband gets back from his trip, he’s unhappy to discover that his friends have already been told about the impending divorce – he and Dia had agreed to do it together. Now that she’s stolen a march on him, Harsh must rush over to Vikram and Maya’s home to convince them he’s not entirely in the wrong. And so the tug of war begins.
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| Director Feroze Khan with the cast |
From dining room to the bedroom we see both couples at different stages in their lives. We see what it means to share their lives – so that what happens to one profoundly affects the other.
As Harsh and Dia struggle with their impending breakup, Vikram and Maya are first compelled to choose sides and then to look at their own marriage – and what may be missing from it.
‘Dinner with Friends’ is a funny, poignant take on marriage and the relationships that matter – how they fall apart and how, with a little luck and determination, we can still find ways to put them back together. The play has been showered with honours including the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Outer Critics Circle Award.
The dinner theatre performance will be held at Park Street Mews on August 18 from 7 p.m to 10 p.m followed by another show at the Bishop’s College auditorium on August 19 from 6:30 p.m onwards. Tickets are on sale at Park Street Mews (Rs. 4,000) and Bishop’s College (Rs.1500, Rs.1000, Rs.750, Rs.500 and Rs. 200). Call Nuwanthi on 0776748628 for more details. The presenting sponsor is BMW. Other sponsors include Galadari Hotel, Jet Airways, Swedish Trading Audio Visual, Masterpieces and Exclusive Lines. Media sponsors are The Sunday Times, ETV and EFM. |
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