Playwright Neil Simon has been married five times.
That certainly makes him an expert on something - and what may have prompted his most recent play, "The Dinner Party," which Live Theatre Workshop opens next week.
"Dinner Party" is about three divorced-from-each-other couples who are invited to dinner, locked in a room, and left to figure out what went wrong and why.
Simon has said this play is completely different from any other he has written.
"I had the concept of creating a farce up to a certain point, and then instead of continuing the farce, to make a turn to where it becomes quite serious," Simon told The New York Times in 2000, when the play opened on Broadway.
"I wanted to break the concept that farces can never get real, even for a minute."
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He didn't quite fulfill the and-now-for-something-reasonably-different take he was shooting for.
"Structurally, it's not different, and in terms of characters, it's not different," says Sabian Trout, director of the Live Theatre production.
"But I think for the first time, Simon wrote for himself. He wrote what he wanted to say about love, based on his experience with five marriages."
Simon, it seems, was looking for some insight when he penned this, his most recent play.
"I think it's interesting to look at fault, blame, how can we love someone too much, or become self-centered and involved in our own agendas and lose track of each other in a relationship," says Trout in a phone interview.
Yes, but divorced couples - and likely not happily divorced - talking about what's gone wrong? Sounds dark, dour.
Trout is quick to point out that this is Simon here - snappy one liners are his signature.
"He's such a keen observer of human mistakes," she says. "But he seasons everything heavily with these great one-line gags."
So "Dinner Party" is a mix of the comedy we expect from a Simon play, and something more: "He says an awful lot from the soul, so it's a nice mix," says Trout.
The audience should expect, she says, "an evening of comic banter that's lightly seasoned with an exploration of the brutal nuances of love."
If you go
"The Dinner Party"
• Presented by: Live Theatre Workshop.
• Playwright: Neil Simon.
• Director: Sabian Trout.
• When: Previews are 7:30 p.m. Thursday and next Friday. Regular performances are 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 3 p.m. Sundays, Feb.19-March 20.
• Where: Live Theatre Workshop, 5317 E. Speedway.
• Tickets: Previews, $12; regular performances, $18, with discounts available.
• Reservations/information: www.livetheatreworkshop.org or 327-4242.
• Running time: 90 minutes, with no intermission.
• Cast: Eric Anson, Shanna Brock, Maxine Gillespie, Susan Kovitz, Cliff Madison and Rick Shipman.
Contact reporter Kathleen Allen at kallen@azstarnet.com or 573-4128.
