Cheap Dinner with Friends (Book) (Donald Margulies) Price

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Customer Reviews of Dinner with Friends

Realistic Play About Relationships
This is by far one of the most engaging plays that I have read recently. Margulies creates realistic characters, who, in middle-age, find themselves questioning everything in their lives they thought was real. Anyone who has been married for any length of time can certainly relate to some of the thematic questions of this play. What is the meaning of commitment? Can marriages endure a lifetime? How are long term friendships effected when a marriage fails? Dinner with Friends is a deceptively simple, yet deeply moving play.

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Excruciating Dinner Party
Margulies's play is interesting, but certainly not deserving of the Pulitzer Prize. The analyzation of characters is fairly sterotypical at times. In other instances, character portrayal is simply poor, as I find with Gabe. Gabe, at times, seems to border on being the "foppish" stock character of classical comedy; in the second act, however, he becomes more serious, seeming to deviate from his previous personality traits.

Also, elements of the play are unrealistic. For instance: rage can be an aphrodisiac, but two people who are physically beating each other do not make such a quick transition to love-making as Margulies suggests. Also, Margulies's use of conversation is not believable. Characters are always interrupting each other, which is certainly true in real life. However, in this play they do it constantly, and nobody ever seems to notice. The characters do not become upset at each other, despite the fact that other characters continually interrupt them.

An interesting play, certainly. But not nearly as good as one would believe, considering its awards.

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"...then all of a sudden the earth cracks open."
I listened to part of this play during a radio broadcast as I was driving to an appointment the other day. I found it compelling and disturbing, upsetting and fascinating...all at once. It doesn't read with the same energy it has when well-acted, but is nevertheless worth the hour or two it takes to read it.

Just the idea of being in a committed relationship is frightening for many people, and the reality can cause one to feel trapped (or alive--or both). "Dinner with Friends" captures many of the unsettling aspects of the marriages of two separate couples. Though one marriage remains intact as the other falls apart and becomes nothing but history (and two kids), the way conversations, emotions and events play out are not exactly as expected.

Although I disliked all of the characters in this play--they're simply too fake and uptight for my taste--I think "Dinner with Friends" has enough value to make reading it worthwhile. Not only does Margulies's play highlight many of the specters which lurk around the edges of some committed relationships; it also brings to light the important and interesting distinction between story and truth in everyday life.