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Dinner with Friends runs until November 10

DETAILS

Dinner With Friends by Rogues Theatre
Pumphouse Theatre
Wednesday, October 31 - Saturday, November 10

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With divorce replacing depression, hopelessness and sedative abuse in the context of the modern family unit during the ’90s, it's no wonder the theme sprung up everywhere from Rosanne to The Fresh Prince — art reflecting life and all that. Then, toward the end of the decade, Donald Marguiles wrote a play exploring the theme, called Dinner with Friends, and won a Pulitzer Prize for it in 2000, making everyone else who tried look kind of silly.

“The play is about two couples who are best friends — they've been friends for many, many years,” says Stacie Harrison, director of the upcoming Rogues Theatre production of Marguiles's play. “The story is about what happens when one of those couples breaks up — what happens to their friendship, what happens to their perspective on relationships, how it changes the way they view their own.”

The play explores the human condition through its context of divorce. Weaving comedy with stark observations of reality, the text lends itself well to the Rogues' slice-of-life style presentation. “In terms of style, Rogues' productions are known for that kind of cinematic realism,” says Joe-Norman Shaw, who plays Tom in Dinner and doubles as the Rogues' artistic director. “That's inherent in the scripts that we choose, but also in the style of acting we choose to invest in our productions. That gives its own esthetic.

“Our mandate is to produce plays that explore the complexity of the contemporary human experience,” he adds. “We are about exploring relationships and human behaviour. We look for plays that have humour, but are also poignant and touching as well. They might be written by local playwrights, or they might have achieved a moderate amount of success elsewhere — like this one.”

Though the gap between director and actor may seem a chasm to those on the outside looking in, Shaw says it isn't so. He admits to having to put on his “producer's hat” from time to time, but as an actor he trusts Harrison implicitly. “I started my own theatre company when I was 19,” says Harrison. “We did an outdoor Shakespeare production in Cochrane every year — sort of similar to Shakespeare in the Park. And I've done a couple for Rogues in the past.… I've directed a lot over the years.”

Assistant director on the universally well-received Hit and Myth production of The Full Monty, in addition to her already impressive CV, it isn't hard to see why even a seasoned veteran like Shaw trusts Harrison with the creative direction of the performance. Indeed, Harrison has managed the necessarily small scale of the Rogues show with admirable efficacy, having made several directorial choices to compress the settings to their most minimal form and keep the audience's focus on the performances and story. “There's four characters in the play, and each has their own journey,” say Shaw. “As an audience member or a reader, we see or agree with all of them. It's fairly universal.”

“I think everyone is going to walk out of the play feeling something for each one of the characters,” says Harrison. “You understand them all, and you understand their struggles. Everybody views the divorce differently. It calls on a broad spectrum of beliefs and viewpoints, so, yes, I do think it's still relevant.”