By Martin F. Kohn
The Purple Rose Theatre presents its 39th world premiere, "Best of Friends," through Dec. 18. Photo: Danna Segrest
The first bit of drama theory I ever absorbed came from my second grade teacher who informed us that the reason we laughed at silly comedians on TV was because we were so happy we weren't them. I immediately rejected her theory as a putdown: We liked the Three Stooges, and she was an old sourpuss with no sense of humor.
Still, I must say I laughed at the characters in Jeff Daniels' new comedy "Best of Friends" and I am mighty glad I'm not them.
And in return for that early lesson I proffer a theory of my own: the dramatic subspecies henceforth to be known as the Prepositional Couples Play, a play about two married couples whose title is evenly divided by a preposition, like "Dinner With Friends," "God of Carnage" and the mother of all prepositional couples plays, "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" In each, the couples are symbolically balanced, attached at and separated by the prepositional fulcrum.
A subset of my theory is that the title of a prepositional couples play might be split at the middle and exchanged with another. Daniels' play, in its world premiere run at The Purple Rose Theatre, could be called "Who's Afraid of Friends?" Or "Dinner With Carnage." Friendship, dinner and things that go very, very wrong lie at the heart of "Best of Friends."
Daniels cheerfully acknowledges that this, his 14th play, was inspired by another play about two couples at war, Yasmina Reza's "God of Carnage," in which Daniels recently starred on Broadway.
"Best of Friends" begins happily enough in one couple's elegant living room, with the two women (played by Michelle Mountain and Rhiannon Ragland) literally ROFL and their husbands (Matthew David and Alex Leydenfrost) laughing nearly as uproariously on the couch. Soon, though, director Guy Sanville relocates them to four separate spots where they take turns talking about how their friendship turned to bitter hatred – how, but not why.
Instead of being talked about, the why mostly plays out before our eyes, which is a good thing. Give Daniels credit, too, for avoiding the cliched, outside causes of friendships going bad. Nobody has an affair with another's spouse; neither couple has children to criticize or defend. No, this relationship disintegrates entirely on its own. Jealousy, envy, condescension, resentment, unequal status, misperceived motives and unmet expectations are all at work here.
There are plenty of specifics; one will have to suffice. The Martins, Beth and John (Mountain and Leydenfrost), serve an absolutely awful dinner to the Porters, Hannah and Ken (Ragland and David). Ken responds by stealing something from the Martins, launching a furious cycle of worsening behavior.
It takes good actors to make bad behavior believable, and Daniels and Sanville are well served by this able foursome. Leydenforst exudes pomposity as smug John; Mountain seethes with disdain, not only for the other couple but for her husband; David has a handle on Ken's resentment of the wealthier couple, and Ragland delivers a memorable meltdown.
That said, there are problems with the script, chief among them an excess of foreshadowing and flashing back, too much talking about what happened and what will. The playbill says the action takes place "now and then" but it's really now, then and later, with a coda that feels slapped on with pins and duct tape.
Daniels provides much to laugh at and think about, and if two couples should see the play together I'd love to hear the conversation on the way home. But "Best of Friends" could be better.
REVIEW:
'Best of Friends'
The Purple Rose Theatre Company, 137 Park St., Chelsea. Wednesday-Sunday through Dec. 18. $25-$40. 734-433-7673. http://www.purplerosetheatre.org
