Happy meal? ‘Dinner with Friends’ in Sonoma

Dinner With Friends, a Pulitzer Prize-winning play, plays the Rotary Stage in Andrews Hall of the Sonoma Community Center through June 18. The Sonoma Arts Live production is directed by company veteran Carl Jordan (Sunset Boulevard, Master Class).

John Browning and Ilana Niernberger play one couple, Katie Kelley and Jimmy Gagarin another. When an affair rocks one relationship, all four lives are affected. Friendships are questioned, relationships reexamined. 

“We see ourselves identify and sympathize with one character, only to find those emotions challenged and changed as the story evolves,” Jordan says. “Who gets our allegiance?” The Petaluma-based Kelley and Gagarin are a couple in real life. Both gifted actors, Jordan says, they have the advantage of the trust and joyful banter that comes with a committed relationship.

The dramatic comedy opened off Broadway in 1999, and won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2000.

$25-$42. @76 E. Spain St., Sonoma. Sonomaartslive.org.

Photos: Oberlin Photography