Wine and Dine With Friends

Tonight is the official opening night of the Pulitzer Prize winning play, "Dinner With Friends" at the Westport Country Playhouse — a comic drama written by 2010 Tony Award nominee Donald Margulies, and directed by David Kennedy, Playhouse associate artistic director.

A preview of the show and an accompanying wine tasting was offered on Friday to those supporting the Playhouse's 80th anniversary, which it is celebrating this year.

In the gardens of Gilbertie's, dozens of Playhouse patrons walked from table to table, enjoying wine, cheese and the hazy summer night. Proceeds from the sale of wine and plants went to the Playhouse.

"As chair of the 80th anniversary celebration I am so thrilled we are able to be partnering with Gilbertie's Herb Gardens and Harry's Wine and Liquor Market," said Michele Flaster, who is a member of the Playhouse board of trustees.  "Wine in the gardens of Gilbertie's and a wonderful play at Westport Country Playhouse is a great pairing for an evening out."

Many would agree. Friends, neighbors and Playhouse supporters said they enjoyed the tasting and were psyched for the theater's newest production.

"Dinner with Friends" is about couples Gabe and Karen and Tom and Beth, two couples who have been close friends for years, and who participate in all the familiar and comfortable rituals of shared vacations, good conversation and great food.  When Tom abruptly walks out on Beth, it threatens more than just their marriage alone. This vibrant and edgy contemporary play explores the difficulties of one couple surviving the other pair's divorce. 

In the program's foreward, playwright Donald Margulies describes the play as such:

"Dinner With Friends is very much a meditation on mid-life. When I wrote it, most of my contemporaries were taking stock of their lives and the choices they made; it's themes were very much on the minds of aging boomers. When the play was first performed more than a decade ago, it seemed to hit a nerve in a way I could never have predicted. watching audiences' reactions to the play has been endlessly gratifying and interesting. It touches people, upsets people, discomfits people, but it also makes them laugh. It holds up a mirror to the universal experiences of marriage and friendship."

In addition to the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, "Dinner with Friends" received an Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Off-Broadway Play, the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Off-Broadway Play, the Dramatists Guild/Hull-Warriner Award, the American Theatre Critics Association New Play Award and a Drama Desk Award nomination.

The show will play through June 19. Click here for more information and to purchase tickets.