Dinner With Friends
by Donald Margulies

Off-Broadway
Dinner With Friends Book Cover
Dinner With Friends Cover

Highlights

Present DayUnit Set/Multiple SettingsContemporary Costumes/Street ClothesAmericanComedy

Why we like it

"'Dinner With Friends' explores the dynamics of friendship through the lens of marriage and divorce, revealing how relationships evolve over time."

From: Plays Centered on Friendship

Awards & Recognition

Pulitzer Prize

Winner! 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Drama

What readers are saying

Readers appreciate the realistic portrayal of relationships and the nuanced exploration of friendship and love in 'Dinner With Friends.' Many highlight the clever dialogue and character depth, noting the play's ability to resonate with personal experiences. The play has been well-received as a modern masterpiece, valued for its relatable themes and insights into mid-life marriage challenges.

Realistic and relatable themesClever and witty dialogueInsightful character developmentExplores friendship dynamicsSome dialogue feels contrivedA bit too structured for some

Synopsis

Winner of the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Drama

“In pondering issues of intimacy, passion and the pleasure and dolors of conjugal routine, Margulies writes about relationships with such intelligence and spiky humor that his comedy-drama…becomes something quite wonderful.”

–William Tynan, Time

“A true feast.

Dinner with Friends is sober, wise and extremely funny…Mr.

Margulies writes with elegance and wit about intimacy, trust, privacy and the toll of time and monogamy on sexual passion, matters that aren’t easily expressed in dramatic dialogue.”

–Vincent Canby, New York Times

“The complexities of marriage and friendship are dissected with wit and intelligence in Dinner with Friends

.

At once tender and disturbing drawn with an intriguing psychological complexity that feels quietly real.

Margulies depicts the vagaries of spousal relationships with humor and pathos in an insightful manner that will undoubtedly spur meaningful conversations between couples.”

–Frank Scheck, Hollywood Reporter

Filled with humor, warmth, insight and wisdom, Dinner with Friends is a modern day masterpiece on the destruction of today's marriage.

Through Margulies's flawless use of language and his ability to convey the truest of dialogue and characterization, we watch, as the two couples do, our closest friends going through a wrenching breakup.

Not only does he create vivid detail of a marriage in decline, he also brilliantly depicts the couple's closest friends, and how this new mirror to their own marriage sends them through a whirlwind of raw emotion and self-reflection.

Donald Margulies received the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Dinner with Friends

.

The play received numerous awards, including the American Theatre Critics Association New Play Award, the Dramatists Guild/Hull-Warriner Award, the Lucille Lortel Award, the Outer Critics Circle Award and a Drama Desk nomination, and has been produced all over the United States and around the world.

In addition to his adaptation of God of Vengeance

, his many plays include Collected Stories

, The Country House, Sight Unseen

, The Model Apartment

, The Loman Family Picnic

, What’s Wrong with This Picture?

and Time Stands Still

.

Mr. Margulies currently lives with his wife and their son in New Haven, Connecticut, where he teaches playwriting at Yale University.

Press Reviews

"Margulies writes about relationships with such intelligence and spiky humor that his comedy-drama... becomes something quite wonderful."

— Time

"Wry and keenly observed and bathed in the unspoken sorrow that can sneak up on you in middle age.” ­"

— The New York Times

"A breezy comedy of modern manners that turns poignant and deeply affecting by its end. Margulies touches chords that resonate with a deep affecting humanity."

— San Francisco Examiner

Characters

Character
Gabe
Tom
Beth
Karen

Videos

Dinner With Friends Clip

Available Editions

FormatPrice
Paperback
£8.55
Paperback · First Edition
£10.99

Publication

Year2000
BindingPaperback
EditionFirst Edition
Pages76
PlaceNew York, NY
LanguageEnglish
ISBN-139780822217541
ISBN-100822217546
eISBN-139781559367493
LCCN41784
LCCPS3563.A653 D56 2000
DCC812/.54

Dinner With Friends is a American comedy play written by Donald Margulies and published by Theatre Communications in New York, NY (2000).

Digital editions available on Amazon Kindle, Apple Books, Google Play (eISBN 9781559367493).

Community Reviews

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Rating

4.5

2k ratings·5k reviews

Review

Buy Play

Paperback

Dramatists Play Service · 2000 · 76 pp

From £5.50 total

Digital prices may vary by region and tax jurisdiction.

Performance Rights

Available for Licensing
Amateur & Professional
Fee:Minimum Fee: $130 per performance

Restrictions: Major Markets Plus (US) / Standard Plus Add'l Postcodes (UK)

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