"Dinner With Friends & Ghost Writer" Compare And Contrast

“Dinner With Friends” & “Ghost Writer” Compare and Contrast by Diana Alvarez

To my humble point of view, both productions: “Dinner With Friends” produced by Palm Beach Drama Works and “Ghost Writer” produced by Florida Stage, were great! But they differ in many ways and are somehow alike in some other ways as well. I will like to talk about the differences first.
I have to admit that theone I liked most was “Ghost Writer” and there were many things that caught my attention, especially the smooth and fluid way in which Myra (the main character) spoke. The production itself was very smooth and even if she talked the whole play, she had the ability to make the audience feel comfortable and get her emotions/feelings in a very deep way. She told jokes, we laughed. She felt sad, we feltbad for her. She is a character that is very easy to love. Mr. Woolsey gave the production the sensation of mystery and although he looked like a very serious man, yet he could show his affection for Myra in very small gestures, such as a lingering touch on her forearm. And we also find Mrs. Woolsey, who looked very fancy on her dresses and engulfing hats, a woman needed of much attention.Now, we have Dinner with friends’ characters completely different from ghost writer’s characters. There are Gabe and Karen who are happily married and enjoy the time they share togethers and the time they share with their friends Beth and Tom, who happened to be getting divorced. At the beginning of this particular play, there was a sensation between the audience of discomfort. I guess it was becauseof the same discomfort that Beth was feeling in the conversation she was having with their friends. She seemed to be not in the place she was supposed to be. On the other hand, Gabe and Karen were enjoying their time with Beth, and Karen was very talkative. They both tried to please their friend and later they find the truth, which adds more sense to the whole story. As I said, at the beginningit was not easy to realize what the situation was with these people.
Next, Both plays are directly linked to relationships. In the case of “Dinner With Friends”, the main thing we can experience is that all around us, relationships are changing, marriages are breaking up, and it is completely normal. In the case of “Ghost Writer” we experience the relationship between employer and employee, andthis relationship suddenly becomes something else more than just a job relationship, even if the characters don’t get involved and talk much about love, they are directly connected by their duties. Mr. Woolsey is impressed about Myra’s performance, she is proud, precise and determined. She is a particular character that represents a woman who can please Mr. Woolsey passion for his books and she isnot even his wife.
Finally, about the productions themselves, the lightning, scenic, and costume designs were completely better in the Palm Beach Stage production “Ghost Writer” , than in the Drama Works production “Dinner With Friends.” As a matter of fact, I have to admit that I liked “Dinner With Friends”, especially that the space was smaller and I could hear and see better. And that isnot all, I liked the story itself, and at the end of the production, I ended up with this “unhappy” feeling because the production did certainly affected me in a way that I couldn’t control my thoughts about my own relationships. However, “Ghost Writer” gave me a feeling of comfort, even thou it is not a happy story and it is either ending happily ever after. But I enjoyed the way “Myra” spoke, Ireflected my life on her life just on watching how hardworking this woman was and the way she even left most of her own life behind and worked as hard as she could. Also, she was a perfectionist, and all this facts I admire a lot in women. I guess it’s because I know we (women) are capable of accomplish great things.
About the lightning design, I enjoyed the way the thunder and lightning was...