Dinner with Friends is a 1998 stage play written by Donald Margulies.
The story revolves around two married couples, Gabe-Karen and Tom-Beth; the couples are close friends. Beth is over at Gabe and Karen's while Tom is out of town. Gabe and Karen are telling a boring story about their Italian vacation when Beth bursts into tears. It seems that Beth and Tom have separated and are getting a divorce, and the reason Tom is out of town is that he's gone to see his girlfriend. Gabe and Karen, shocked, offer sympathy, with Karen being more actively supportive of the woman in the bad marriage.
As it happens, the airport is snowed in and Tom isn't able to leave after all. He comes back home and is furious to find out that Beth told their mutual friends when they'd agreed to tell Gabe and Karen together. Tom immediately goes over to Gabe and Karen's only to leave again after getting scorn from Karen and skepticism from Gabe. The rest of the story plays out in a series of flashbacks, as we see how Tom and Beth came to this, and as Gabe and Karen start wondering about their marriage.
Lisa Emery was in the original cast as Karen.
Tropes:
- Ambiguously Jewish: Gabe is more or less revealed to be Jewish early in Act II when he addresses Tom as "Bubbe."
- Bickering Couple, Peaceful Couple: Happily married Gabe and Karen watch their best friends' marriage fall apart.
- Call-Back: Early in their relationship, as shown in the flashback, Gabe and Karen had a game where he'd say "It's time for me to scare you." She'd protest and say "Oh no, please please don't," and eventually he'd say "Boo!" At the end they're contemplating the wreckage of Tom and Beth's marriage and wondering how they can avoid things going stale in the same way, and Karen says "How do we not get lost?" Gabe then plays there "It's time for me to scare you" game again. He says "Boo!", and the play ends.
- Flashback: Act II starts with a flashback to Tom and Beth's first meeting, which was set up by newlyweds Karen and Gabe.
- The Ghost: Two in the persons of Nancy and David, the new lovers that Tom and Beth have respectively taken up with. Much discussed, never seen. Tom reports that David was a Dogged Nice Guy who had a fling with Beth ten years ago and then sort of hung around hoping that Beth would put herself back on the market.
- Lap Pillow: Gabe lays his head on Karen's lap even as they're expressing their shock over the news, demonstrating the easy intimacy in their own marriage.
- Lie Back and Think of England: One of Tom's complaints about Beth, that she never initiated sex or even wanted it, but did it because she was supposed to.Tom: It was never about her wanting me, it was never about desire, it was all about obligation.
- Minimalist Cast: Only four parts.
- Secret Test: Tom tells Gabe about how he gave a secret test to his wife, refraining from touching her to see if she would ever touch him. When they went a whole week and she never touched him at all, he was crushed.
- Shower of Love: Discussed Trope. Tom cites this specifically as a part of his new, exciting sex life with his girlfriend Nancy.
- Slap-Slap-Kiss: Tom confronting Beth about telling their friends leads to her slapping him, calling him "Prick!" and him calling her "Bitch!", and, after that, sex. Later a quietly amazed Tom tells Gabe that the collapse of his marriage has actually made the sex better and that hate can be a great aphrodisiac.
- Two-Act Structure: The first act is Beth sharing the news, followed by Tom and Beth's argument, followed by an ugly scene when Tom goes over to Gabe and Karen's. Act II is a series of flashbacks showing the history of Tom and Beth's marriage.
- Visual Innuendo: Discussed Trope. When Gabe is talking about how he found an old Italian lady handling food "sexy", Karen objects, saying that the woman was in her seventies. Gabe says "you should see how she handled a zucchini."
