Well attended and well received play (Northern Echo)
It was a “whirlwind farce of adultery and fine dining” for more than 750 theatre-goers as Gainford Drama Club staged its latest play. Don’t Dress for Dinner by |Marc Camoletti, and adapted by Robin Hawdon, has been well received by audiences at the Academy Theatre, Gainford, over the last two weeks.
The play was a sequel to Camoletti’s populat play Boeing-Boeing, which reintroduced Robert and Bernard and relocated them to a weekend retreat outside Paris.
Director Lawrence Chandler, assisted by Fiona Minay, asembled the cast including Paul Richardson as the increasingly frantic husband, Bernard, while Jan Richardson-Wilde portrayed his mistified wife Jacqueline.
Sam Beamish-Young also made his debut with the club.
Gainford Drama Club’s autumn offering is a whirlwind farce of adultery and fine dining.
Don’t Dress for Dinner by Marc Camoletti (adapted by Robin Hawdon) has been well received by audiences at the Academy Theatre, Gainford over the last two weeks. This sequel to Camoletti’s popular play Boeing-Boeing reintroduces Robert and Bernard and relocates them to a weekend retreat outside Paris.
Director Lawrence Chandler assisted by Fiona Minay assembled a talented cast that included Paul Richardson as the increasingly frantic husband, Bernard, whilst Jan Richardson-Wilde competently portrayed his mystified wife, Jacqueline. The cast deserve recognition for sustaining this high-energy French farce over ten performances including for the first time a matinee as well as an evening performance on the middle Saturday.
Bernard is anticipating an illicit weekend with his mistress Suzanne (played by Paris Lowcock) when Tom Brown enters the fray as the put-upon best friend, Robert Dubedat. He is reluctantly persuaded into providing an alibi when Bernard’s wife unexpectedly cancels her visit to her mother in order to spend the weekend with her lover – Robert! Further complications ensue when cook Suzette (Maria Lowcock) hired by Bernard to prepare a cordon bleu meal is mistaken by Robert for Bernard’s mistress, leaving the mistress to prepare the dinner. Both men provoke some hearty laughter with their energetic attempts to distract Jacqueline while Robert devises ever more complicated aliases to prevent her from discovering the truth. Add copious amounts of alcohol, several costume changes and increasing puzzlement from Bernard and Jacqueline and it doesn’t really matter if the audience can’t follow the machinations of the labyrinthine plot.
Sam Beamish-Young made his debut with the Club as a final complication to the evening’s antics arriving as the Suzette’s husband, George. Sami Nash of Vintage Tinsel deserves a mention for the hair styling with an outrageous Mohican for hard man George and progressively more dishevelled looks for Suzette and Suzanne. Maria Lowcock’s matter-of-fact delivery and demands for more money every time the plot thickens delighted the audience. Tom Brown received a well- deserved ovation for his deft handling of an outrageously complicated monologue. Although the script is often silly and implausible, the cast works well together, allowing the audience to suspend disbelief and enjoy the visual and verbal gags. Overall a very entertaining evening.