Don't Dress For Dinner
Set in a converted farmhouse in the French countryside, ‘Don’t Dress for Dinner" by Marc Camoletti, presents a challenge to the players, lots of fun for the audience and a story with more twists than a corkscrew!
When Jacqueline (no one seems to have surnames in this play!)
decides to visit her mother for a few days, her husband, Bernard sees the
opportunity of a cosy weekend with his new girlfriend. His bachelor pal, Robert
rings up to announce his return from Hong Kong, so Bernard invites him along as
his alibi, also hiring a Cordon Bleu cook to ensure they don’t go hungry.
Convinced his plan is foolproof, Bernard is taking his wife’s suitcase out to the car, when the phone rings and she answers it. From then on the story moves into the surreal world of high-speed farce, with mistaken identity — two girls, both known as Suzy; clandestine relationships,. the wife has a secret lover; hasty improvisation, the cook must play the mistress and vice versa, all carried along on a stream of rapid-fire, double-meaning dialogue.
One impossible situation piles on another, as the hapless Robert finds himself the target of amorous attentions from all three ladies, Bernard tries frantically to salvage at least a scrap of illicit bliss from the wreckage of his weekend, and his intended playmate, the glamorous Suzanne, ends up in the kitchen, expected to cook dinner, while Suzette, the cook, is transformed into a femme fatale!
Directed by Kate Sumner, "Don’t Dress for Dinner" was performed at Crosby Civic Hall on Thursday, Friday and Saturday 11/13 November 1999.
Report by Esther Matthews.
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