Open Tables

Set within the walls of the trendiest Chicago restaurants and behind the closed doors of exclusive dinner parties, Open Tables explores colliding stories of love lost, love found and all the details between. The ensemble characters - friends and acquaintances navigating through blind dates, missed connections and odd encounters come together over dinner with a number of ulterior motives. Sam and Kate host the party in hopes that sparks will fly between Kate’s younger, idealistic sister Cassie and their shy friend Ryan. Joining them at the table is Jon and Dana, a couple whose seemingly perfect relationship is anything but. As the group sits down to shared plates and good wine, stories - and possibly lies - emerge. Ryan boasts about his sexual escapades in France to impress Cassie, Jon and Dana share the story of their meeting while dating other people and the betrayal that led to their becoming a couple, and Sam and Kate tell the group about their friend Hannah who falls in love with Dean, a man who has no memory. Told in flashbacks but always returning to the warm glow of the dinner table, the first act of Open Tables presents a world where true love prevails, the guy gets the girl (or the guy gets the girl and the guy) and where even the most complicated of people can find their soul mate, even when - and sometimes because - their circumstances are unique. After the meal ends and the parties go their separate ways, the second act of Open Tables lets the sometimes heartbreaking aspect of love surface and the reality that not everyone lives happily ever after is considered. Jon and Dana deal with the realities of betraying someone you love, while Dean gets his memory back and dumps Hannah, and Cassie unimpressed by Ryan’s boastfulness, ignores him until the thought of being alone compels her to go on an unusual first date.