12
May
2014
The Playcrafters Barn Theatre's latest production, Dinner with Friends, explores the impact of a marriage-ending extramarital affair on not only the couple involved, but also their best friends. And while what results can be correctly guessed before the finale, playwright Donald Margulies manages to incorporate some unexpected paths along the way, particularly in the evolving responses of the couple's pals. While I did find my mind wandering during Friday's performance due to a lack of interest in some of the longer-winded conversations, I still enjoyed the overall presentation for being thought-provoking regarding relationships, and for offering some great laughs, too.
If I were to detail the plot of playwright Matthew Lopez's The Whipping Man, it would sound like the outline of a soap opera, given that the twists seem so melodramatically shocking. However, the story doesn't play out that way, both because Lopez handles the revelations so well, and because New Ground Theatre presents this story of a Confederate soldier and two of his family's freed slaves with respect and sincerity.
You can tell that the Playcrafters Barn Theatre's production of Strangers on a Train is doing its job, and doing it quite well, because - at Friday's opening-night performance, at any rate - the show appears to be making a large segment of its audience really uncomfortable.
