Don't Dress for Dinner
Pumphouse Takapuna
Review: Stuart Young
Since launching itself boldly 18 months ago with Charlotte Keatley's feminist play My Mother Said I Never Should, Shore Theatre has retreated to safer commercial fare.
Their fourth production is Marc Camelotti's Don't Dress for Dinner (translated by Robin Hawdon), a cleverly crafted farce in the rich French tradition of Feydeau and Labiche.
Around the staple scenario of sexual intrigue - schemed, dissembled and repeatedly thwarted - Camelotti concocts a hilarious web of deceptions and counter-deceptions involving, of course, multiple misunderstandings and mistaken identities.
At the centre of the play, and certainly of this production, is Suzette, a cordon bleu cook who, first with reluctance but with increasing alacrity, assumes a variety of roles foisted upon her by the double-dealing philanderers.
Using her buxom presence to titillating comic effect, Lyn Jordan performs with panache, becoming variously guest, mistress, cousin, call girl and, appropriately, actor. The evening's coup de theatre is the transformation of Suzette's maid's uniform into a lowcut evening dress executed by Robert (Mark Jensen) and Bernard (David Berresford) while the costume is on her.
Jensen handles Robert's con-voluted explanations of what's going on with aplomb, but the acting is otherwise uneven and there are clumsy moments. Some will soon disappear with repetition, but the awkward fisticuffs and face-slapping need serious attention. Nonetheless, the cast does sustain the farce's momentum.
In English this play is usually given a British setting, with cockney and Home Counties accents. But Robert Letcher - who has directed, designed the set and lighting and also plays a cameo - restores the play effectively to its French milieu.
His detailed naturalistic set suggests a converted French barn. A particularly amusing touch is a doorbell which plays La Marseillaise. Four of the characters even speak with French accents, although why the two male leads are "English" is inexplicable.
Judging by the enthusiasm of the opening night audience, the play's appeal will be wide. South-siders should venture to cross that bridge to see it, and at the same time enjoy the ambience of one of Auckland's most attractive theatres.
Theatre: One to cross the bridge for
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