By Jennifer Mustoe
In Cedar City, there are two summer festivals to bring theater lovers lots of different options. You may not know about the Neil Simon Festival, celebrating its 15th anniversary, but you should. The four shows in the Neil Simon Festival take place at the lovely Heritage Center Theater, and this year’s lineup is amazing. Shows include Neil Simon’s The Dinner Party, and Broadway Bound, Michael Frayn’s Noises Off, and the world premiere of Under Construction: The Blue Collar Musical, by Peter Sham.
I am reviewing all four shows this year, and all are preview shows. If last night’s performance is any indication of what these people can do with preview nights, they are ready to go for opening night. I am floored by the talent I saw last night.
I’ve never seen Neil Simon’s The Dinner Party, so this was a treat. (See what I did there?) I admit, having done no research about the piece, I was expecting some raucous, uproarious comedy. What I saw instead is a commentary on marriage and divorce, the complexities of relationships, a fun bit of scholarly verbiage and synonyms (my word nerd was duly impressed and delighted), and—well, I’ll save my take away for later.
The Dinner Party takes place on one set only (Scenic Designer Randy Lawrence Seely), a tastefully decorated room in a Paris restaurant. One fun bit is every time the doors to the room opened, the sound of muted hubbub and milling about of a restaurant filters in and the sound (Marty Shurtleff and Selena Price) is always perfect. There was one mic drop, but it was quickly recovered and I couldn’t really even tell because the actress just projected more.
To tell too much of the story is practically a complete spoiler alert fiasco, so I will just give you the bare facts. If you want more of the plotline, you can go to Wikipedia, but you won’t hear it from me. The Dinner Party is a gathering of ex-spouses. None of them know their exes are going to be there, and as they trickle in, at first all they do is shout and snipe at one another. Albert (Richard Bugg) opens the show and is a delight. He is a very subtle yet physical actor, with lots of facial expressions, hand motions and appears nervous and maybe even unhappy. Which we find out, he is. He is joined by Claude (Clarence Gilyard) who, I admit, was my favorite. Gilyard plays the hail fellow well met type, very affable, and as we find out later, a total romantic who adored his ex and still loves her completely. (I’m a romantic at heart, so his story resonated most with me.) Gilyard is funny in a goofy, bumbling, self-deprecating way that utterly charmed me. The third ex-husband, Andre (Peter Sham—playwright of Under Construction) arrives and the three men discuss, spar, and wonder together what they are doing there. They had been supposedly invited by their high-powered divorce attorney, but he and his wife are nowhere to be seen. Andre is a rather schmoozy, slimy character and Sham gives the character desperation rather than perversion and it works well.
The ex-wives arrive. Marriette (Holly Barrick) doesn’t know ex-husband Albert will be there and when they meet, all Albert can do is rant about all the money he lost in the divorce. Marriette has become a successful author of popular, though by no means fine literary novels and Albert, who owns a fine bookstore and is an aspiring author, is envious of his ex and his bitterness is sharp. But soon Albert’s barbs turn to a rather sad wailing of the loss of his wife, not just the money and the dog she got in the divorce. We see Albert weakening. Maybe even forgiving.
Claude’s ex, Yvonne (Kirsten Sham) is darling, with an interesting voice and lots of angst when faced with her ex-husband. It turns out Claude has been following her around in the year since their divorce, but hasn’t spoken one word to her—and this drives Yvonne nuts. I liked Sham’s frustration at dealing with this long-term silent treatment, but was slightly troubled with why Yvonne ever left Claude in the first place. This is a problem in the script, not with Sham or Gilyard and is the only imperfection in the script. If I’d been married to Claude, the only way he’d leave my life is death, and yet Yvonne left him twice—they married, divorced, then married and divorced again. Baffling. However, Sham is wonderful, funny, sweet, and sassy. Another favorite.
Gabrielle (Alyson King) slinks in, and from the moment she addresses her ex Andre, you can tell that this couple has seen it all, done it all, and they were unhealthily forged together and ultimately destroyed by their frantic connection to one another. Gabrielle won’t let go and Andre mourns the loss of their marriage, too. But he is more sure they are not right for one another. I tend to agree. King does a fine job of wounded snob, a mincing, sultry seductress who is so hurt she can’t say anything but hurtful, unkind, and jarring barbs to the entire company. I wanted to see more vulnerability from her and not sure if this was her character choice or director Henry Ballesteros’ but do understand Gabrielle being the foil and also being the lowest benchmark in the piece. The, we can at least be better, do better than Gabrielle benchmark.
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As I said before, I don’t really want to give away any of the story, but suffice it to say, things get ugly, they get real, they get beautiful, and there is some hope. There are many really funny moments and I attribute this to not only Simon’s funny, quirky humor, but the talent of those who’ve tackled this piece. Simon is not easy—you need spot on timing to make it work. Most of the time, this cast does this to perfection. There is wrenching pain in the piece, too, but I didn’t cry, so it was more hurtful, angry pain than sorrow. (I know this because at the first glimpse of sorrow in a piece, I cry.)
I spoke to director Ballesteros after the show and told him how much I’d enjoyed The Dinner Party. I told him that it was an introspective piece and my take away was the redemptive quality of gratitude. He said, “Good. That’s what I was going for.”
If you are looking for a lovely little piece of life that can give you a perspective about relationships and will make you think, go see Neil Simon Fest’s The Dinner Party. It’s a lovely work and deserves a big crowd.
Neil Simon Festival presents The Dinner Party, by Neil Simon
The Heritage Center Theater, 105 North 100 East, Cedar City, UT 84720
Tickets: $25 or $80 for all four shows.
Contact: info@simonfest.org, 435-267-0194
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