OPENING JULY 30th! VLT concludes its 81st Season with
“DINNER WITH FRIENDS”
The Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Donald Margulies
July 30 – August 14, 2010
The Very Little Theatre concludes its 81st season with a three-week run of Dinner with Friends, a Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Donald Margulies. This candid, often-funny comedy/drama explores the bittersweet side of friendship through the eyes of two best-friend married couples. Invited to dinner at the suburban home of husband-and-wife food critics Gabe and Karen, Beth reveals she’s breaking up with her husband Tom after 12 years of marriage and two children.
Tom, who had been away on business, finds out that Beth has told their friends about the looming divorce, and hastens to Gabe and Karen's home. Tom and Beth had planned to tell their friends about their breakup together, but Tom now believes that Beth has unfairly presented herself as the wronged party, and feels he must present his own side of the story.
The unexpected revelation forces Gabe and Karen, who at first feel compelled to choose sides, to reevaluate their seemingly perfect relationship. The effects of Tom and Beth's breakup on Gabe and Karen cause them to begin to question their friendship with two people who seem to be refusing the life they all once worked so hard to preserve.
Over the course of the play, we see both couples at different ages and stages of their lives. The story is cleverly told through a flashback in Act 2 to the beginning of the couples’ friendship.
Director Maggie Tryk has cast Michael Walker and Shannon Coltrane as Gabe and Karen, and Simon Strange and Leigh Holliday as their friends Tom and Beth.
Reserved seat tickets are $14; Thrifty Thursday (August 5 and 12) prices are $10 and senior citizens may attend the Sunday matinees (August 1 and 8) for $10. The ten performances are Friday-Sunday, July 30-August 1; Thursday-Sunday, August 5-8; and Thursday-Saturday, August 12-14. Curtain is at 8 p.m. except for the 2 p.m. Sunday matinees. An Opening Night Gala with refreshments following the show is open to all who purchase tickets to the July 30 performance.
The box office opens on Friday, July 23, from 2-5:30 p.m. and will continue Wednesday-Saturday the following weeks. For more information on tickets, call 541-344-7751. The Very Little Theatre is located at 2350 Hilyard St., Eugene, Oregon.
“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
The show is about adult themes and includes some adult language and sexual references, so we do not recommend the show for children.
NOTE: The next Very Little Theatre Backstage Tour is Wednesday, July 28, at 12:15 pm. FREE ADMISSION.
• Mainstage •
by Henrik Ibsen, Translation by Christopher Hampton
Open Auditions: Saturday, October 2nd at 12:00 pm.
A small Norwegian town has just begun to win fame and wealth through its medicinal spring waters. Dr. Stockmann, resident physician in charge, discovers that the waters are poisoned. On receiving proof of this, he immediately reports to his associates, but is shocked to find that instead of being thanked, he is looked upon as a dangerous crank, motivated by a desire to prove that his fellow townsmen are wrong, and to bring ruin upon them. More information here...
The next Very Little Theatre Backstage Tour is Wednesday, July 28, at 12:15 pm, before DINNER WITH FRIENDS opens on Friday, July 30. FREE ADMISSION. More information here...
The Very Little Theatre
81th Season 2009-2010
A Delightful Farce by Neil Simon.
Several affluent couples gather in a posh suburban residence for a dinner party. When they arrive, they discover there are no servants, the hostess is missing, and the host-the deputy mayor of New York City-has shot himself through the earlobe. Comic complications arise when they decide they need to conceal the evening's events from the local police and the media.
Rumors opens October 16, 2009; directed by Chris Pinto.
A Theatrical Play by Clifford Odets.
Odets' riveting 1950 backstage melodrama is about a washed-up actor who is given a final shot at redemption with a starring role in a new play-but his drinking threatens to derail things. Can his wife save the situation, or is she the cause of it?
The Country Girl opens January 15, 2010; directed by Chris McVay.
A Delicate Play For Rough Times by Sarah Ruhl.
This warm-hearted intellectual comedy revolves around Lane, a doctor who can't stand to clean her own house but wants to make her tidy, logical life entirely spotless. Her Brazilian housekeeper would rather be a comedienne, and Lane's sister is a mousy homebody who is obsessed with cleanliness and orderliness. Lane's world gets even messier when her husband leaves her for an older, life-embracing woman.
The Clean House opens March 12, 2010; directed by Wade Hicks.
The Tony Award-winning Drama by Arthur Miller.
This wonderful drama won the Tony Award in 1947 for Best Play; it is the sad Post-World War II story about the Kellers, a seemingly "All American" family. But during the war, Joe Keller allowed his factory to ship faulty airplane cylinders to the U.S. Armed Forces, and twenty American pilots died as a result.
All My Sons opens May 28, 2010; directed by Patrick Torelle.
The Pulitzer Prize-winning Play by Donald Margulies.
This Pulitzer Prize-winning play examines the nature of friendship, as a happily married couple discover their friends are not as happy as they thought, and they begin to wonder how sound their own relationship can be. Cleverly told through an Act 2 flashback to the beginning of the couples' friendship.
Dinner with Friends opens July 30, 2010; directed by Maggie Tryk.
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