REVIEW: DINNER WITH FRIENDS at Golden Goose Theatre 8 - 26 Nov

‘slickly acted … but that doesn’t make up for the shallowness of the writing’ ★★1/2

Beth and Tom and Gabe and Karen have been couply friends forever, from holidays in Martha’s Vineyard to a thousand gourmet meals to confessions and cuddles and too much wine. Then Tom gets tired of coupledom and children and runs off to the arms of a travel agent, leaving his family in the dust. This leaves Beth desolate, and Gabe and Karen wondering about the strength of their own pair-bond.

Front Foot Theatre bring Pulitzer Prize winning New York wit to Camberwell. It is slickly acted by the four-person cast, slickly written by Donald Margulies, neatly directed by Lawrence Carmichael, and has a very interesting design – six tall book-cases and some cubes that the actors manipulate with choreographed elegance to make an array of playing spaces.

It is all very neat. It does give rise to an important question – why should we care? It might be instructive to see the steps that have led to Tom becoming a slug of a man, and speak to the loyalty of his wife and friends, but a flashback demonstrates with great clarity that he was slug-like in college, he’s always been that way, and it is a total mystery why anyone with even a single scruple would give him the time of day. Kim Hardy portrays him with great effect, making the character vivid, but that doesn’t make up for the shallowness of the writing, the commitment to gags over character development.

It does bring into question what the jurors of the Pulitzer committee are looking at. Maybe Neil Simon-esque domestic comedy has more sway in the USA, but this production felt very close to its sell-by date. Tom may have been seen as a free spirit once upon a time, but he doesn’t engage much sympathy now, and it’s difficult to understand Gabe’s affection for him. It is, however, a speedy show with lots of one-liners, so time passes easily.

Photography:  David Monteith-Hodge – Photographise

Golden Goose Theatre, 146 Camberwell New Road, Camberwell

8th - 26th Nov 2022

Box Office: https://www.goldengoosetheatre.co.uk/dinner-with-friends

frontfoottheatre.com

Director: Lawrence Carmichael

Cast: Helen Rose Hampton (Karen), Jason Wilson (Gabe), Julia Papp (Beth), Kim Hardy (Tom)

Instagram @frontfoottheatre

Twitter @FrontFootT

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Reviewer:

Chris Lilly read Drama at Hull University in the 70s, stage-managed a bit, spent 8 years as a community arts worker in Tower Hamlets, did the occasional tech job, then taught in East London and participated in shedloads of community theatre. Since retiring from teaching, he has acquired an MA in Theatre from the University of Surrey and indulged a passion for live performance anywhere in London courtesy of his Freedom Pass.