Confusion And Comedy

Well-oiled RLT machine brings French farce to life

Friday, November 1, 2013

Bernard is planning a special weekend for himself and his mistress. What he doesn’t know is his wife also is having an affair - with his best friend.

In “Don’t Dress for Dinner,” a farce set in the 1960s in the French countryside, confusion and mistaken identities abound, says Ed McClure, director of this weekend’s adult comedy at Rogers Little Theater. Bernard (Travis Mitchell) believes his wife Jacqueline (Sarah Mouritsen) is going to be away, so he tells her he’s planning to hang out with Robert (John Honey) for the weekend. In truth, he’s planning to spend his time with Suzanne (Elizabeth Wax).

“Unbeknownst to Bernard, Robert and Jacqueline are having an affair,” McClure says.

When Jacqueline learns that Robert is coming, she makes an excuse not to leave, so Bernard has to “go into overdrive to figure out how to explain Suzanne’s presence there that weekend,” he says. Bernard also has arranged for a cook to prepare meals for the weekend, and her name happens to be Suzette (Autumn Trout-Mitchell). Bernard tries to get Robert to convince Jacqueline that Suzanne is actually his girlfriend, but Robert doesn’t want to because he doesn’t want Jacqueline to think he has another girlfriend, he says. He finally agrees, though.

When the cook shows up, Robert thinks Suzette is Suzanne and says she is his girlfriend, McClure notes. Bernard comes back into the room and sees that Robert got the wrong girl, so Suzette has to continue the whole weekend pretending to be the girlfriend while Suzanne has to pretend to be the cook.

“Hilarity continues to ensuewhile everyone’s trying to remember what they’ve told to someone else,” McClure says.

Suzette’s husband George (Ross Butler) also shows up and sorts things out “in a sometimes violent but always hilarious way.”

The play, written by Marc Camoletti, is a sequel to his “Boeing-Boeing.” Robert and Bernard appeared in that play as well. “Don’t Dress for Dinner” is set about eight to 10 years later, and Bernard is married nowbut still a philanderer trying to balance many women in the life, McClure says.

McClure says the play fortunately features seasoned veterans in the ensemble cast.

“Farce is so different from so many other types of live theater. Farce is almost mechanical,” he says, requiring precision and choreography, much like a machine with six moving parts.

A person has to open a door just as another is closing or fall out of a chair just as something else is occurring, he notes. If the audience members had time to digest what was being said, they might think the situation was ridiculous, but because ofthe speed at which they are hearing and seeing a situation, they don’t have time to process it. The result is any situation can be seen as hilarious, he says.

When all the actors are on stage, he says they move around effortlessly. McClure says he has infused the script with a lot of movement and comedy bits. He has told the actors during the rehearsal process that “you’ve got to commit to the physical comedy.” It cannot be subtle, he adds.

McClure describes “Don’t Dress for Dinner” as a fun show that is a little bit naughty but in a “very funny, sweet, hilarious way.”

Whats Up, Pages 13 on 11/01/2013