Talk about midlife crises! Now that they're happening to early baby boomers, what are they like, and are they typical?
Just in from Italy, food writers Gabe and Karen have asked their best friends to share the new-found recipes they've cooked up. "A relationship to food is so private," Gabe maintains, "sexy really." But Beth tearfully trumps their ace dessert with her own news: Tom's not there because he's left her for another woman. Immediately, the couples' relationships come into question as well, for Gabe knew Tom since college, Karen worked with Beth and admired her artistic talents, and the happily-wed couple introduced the now divorcing one. How could they have been so close for twelve years without detecting what Beth described as Tom's rage, hatred, misery, sexual dissatisfaction? Soon, Tom visits to present his case, having already accused Beth of prejudicing it during a violent session that ends in a sexual turn-on. Gabe tends to defend Tom, partly not wanting to abandon his oldest friend, partly because from the start he had questioned Tom's reasons for marrying her.
"You never know what couples are like when they're together alone," he tells Karen as she questions her past judgment about each and the friendship. Could it be that Gabe found the others' situation too close to home. Accordingly, they explore their own relationship while examining that of the others to themselves and to each other, as couples and individuals, past and present. We see with them how marriage can relieve social pressures or create them, how some people (like Tom) simply aren't made to marry.
We find Beth viewed Karen as controlling and perfectionist, while Karen makes a discovery about Beth and husband-to-be. When Tom confesses the extent of his past unhappiness and present euphoria being a "boy toy," Gabe feels he's repudiating everything from the last decade, including their children. Despite times when the temptation is to chuck all responsibility, doesn't civilization need families to cling together? And friends? How will Gabe and Karen deal with that loss? How will they face old age? And morality? Love and friendship, life and death matters demand involvement that FST's cast definitely wins. Gabe's doubts are transparent in George Tynan Crowley's stance and expressions. As much as words, the different ways in which he hugs Tom convey his heart or hesitancy toward him. Both he and Susan Greenhill are pretty deft handling the necessary kitchen chores too. Her Karen flirts easily but more often accomplishes the difficult task of letting her doubts be known when she seems most assured. Kathy Danzer easily makes transitions from hurt, wronged Beth to an earlier artsy crafty gal to a later confused accuser and then fashionable society wife. J. R. Robinson seems as selfish and unlikeable as Tom should be but could register a bit more charm in the flashback scene. He never shows himself worthy of Gabe's friendship, which is a bit of the author's problem too.
Also, there's little sense of the presence of the couples' children, despite Gabe in the first scene shouting up at, the briefly tending to them offstage. When Tom talks about just having visiting his, the set seems to have him entering his bedroom from outside his house. Otherwise, the scenery eases nicely into multiple times and places, looking especially good in the writers' woodsy retreat.
Director Victoria Holloway displays her usual command of her cast and the author's concepts, producing near-perfection.
