Newtown, Bucks County – The Langhorne Players, an historic community theater group that specializes in staging thought-provoking plays, will present “Dinner With Friends” starting August 22.
Author Donald Margulies won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2000 for the play, which tells the story of a seemingly happy couple (Gabe and Karen) who come to terms with the reality of middle age and their own relationship when their best friends (Tom and Beth) decide to divorce. Forced to reexamine their lives and values, the four characters lead the way for an intellectual and emotional journey.
Debra Jo Immergut of The Wall Street Journal called it “one of the most complex and convincing portraits of a marriage in recent memory." John Simon of New York Magazine described it as “entertainment as succulent as it is sobering."
Heather MacHenry, who is co-directing “Dinner With Friends along with Alice Weber, said audience members will be stunned by the ending.
“They think they know everything,”
MacHenry, a Levittown native and sixth-grade teacher at Maple Shade Elementary School in the Bristol Township School District, is a community theater veteran with 40 years experience as an actor and director. The cast includes Fairless Hills resident John Weber as Gabe; Kathy Garofano of Morrisville as Karen; Patti Vidakovic of New Hope as Beth: and Kevin Korowicki of Doylestown as Tom.
Performances of “Dinner With Friends” are scheduled for August 22 through August 24; September 4 through September 7; and September 10-13. Curtain is at 8:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, 7:30 all other nights.
Tickets are $14 and $12 and can be ordered by calling the box office at 215-860-0818. Reservations are strongly recommended.
The Langhorne Players’ 2008 season will conclude with “String of Pearls” by Michele Lowe Oct. 17.
The Spring Garden Mill, on the property of Tyler State Park in Newtown, Bucks County, is home to the Langhorne Players. The intimate, 73-seat Betty Davis Memorial Theater features air conditioning and plush velvet covered seats to give patrons the ultimate in theater-going comfort. It is conveniently located just 10 minutes from I-95.
Founded on February 24, 1947 by the late Edward Macon, the Langhorne Players Theatre Company held its first performance May 16, 1947 in Penndel’s old Casino Theater. Since then, the group has developed a reputation for exploring the human condition through some of most daring and talked-about material offered by the freshest voices in modern play writing. Its diverse range of productions cover the gamut of human relationships in all their flawed and celebrated glory. With original sets, innovative production values and — most of all — edgy, challenging, ideas, which make their plays the kind audiences talk about long after they’ve left their seats.
For more information about the Langhorne Players’ 2008 season, call the box office at 215-860-0818 or visit www.langhorneplayers.org.
