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Spectators felt like they were part of the show during 'The Dinner Party' in Ardmore. Photo by Tom Stewart
Neil Simon’s “The Dinner Party” was on The View Thursday February 8, 2024 at 7:00 pm. The show was shared at the Jerome Westheimer Center for the Performing Arts in Ardmore. This venue is not Ardmore Little Theatre’s home stage. However, in light of the renovations at the Goddard Center, this temporary location served as the perfect place for a show as formal as “The Dinner Party”.
As the title explains, the dinner party was the setting and plot of the play. Five seemingly unrelated guests received a formal invitation for a French dinner party at a first-rate restaurant in Paris. Themysteryofwhyanyofthe invites were selected slowly unwinds as relations to one another mysteriously unveil.
The five guests arrive solo to the restaurant and the setting is nothing more than a parlor with champagne and snacks arranged on the credenza, no host or waiter is present. The first guest arrives and self serves a glass of champagne, when number two guest strolls in, the suspicion rises.
The who, what, when, where questions fill the room like water in a tub. Slowly, the other guests arrive revealing at least a hint of reason as to why they were invited.
Threemaleguestsandtwo femaleguestsappearandlow and behold, the two women are ex partners of two of the men. This left one guest, a man, without a partner and he insisted his ex is dead.
Much conversation and contemplation about the invite leads to an unsettling entry of the man’s ex. It turns out, being dead was only a metaphor and the invitations did not come from the addressee but from his metaphoricallydeceasedwife who boldly begins to unravel her reasoning behind the dinner party.
The dinner invites were to bring the separated couples back together for one last chance at reconciliation and the group setting became a therapy session leading to at least the thought of separated couples reuniting. The one- liners used like “how is half of my dog doing”, really prompted the crowd to roar.
As a guest to the performance, seatingwasasthough the dinner party included the spectators. The tables in the room were arranged just like a formal restaurant complete with white table cloths, tea, and a dessert of choice including cakes as fine as one could expect at a French restaurant.
The performance was exquisite and the plot held guests in turmoil and suspicion. As the story unfolded, one could feel the pressure in the room lowering little by little. The hilarious ending was met by standing applause as the crowd delivered their approval in a gleeful way.
For anyone who did not get the opportunity to see “The Dinner Party” performance, it is not too late to see an upcoming play. Check out the scheduled venues and plays at ardmorelittletheatre. com or call the box office(580)223-6387.