by Marc Camoletti, adapted by Ron Haydon
at Crown Showroom until June 25, 2000
Reviewer: Kate
Herbert
Nudge, nudge. Wink,
wink. You need to see Don't Dress For Dinner to believe it. It is like a
time capsule. Benny Hill still lives, I'm here to tell you!
In fact, perhaps he lived with the Carry On movie team and
some old Panto dames and the mènage à trois wrote Don't Dress For Dinner. Are
you getting the picture?
Lots of people laughed lots at the show. A Parisian man
(Dennis Waterman) and his wife (Lisa Broadby) both hope to have a fling with
their lovers (John English, Tottie Goldsmith) during a weekend at their country
retreat which looks oddly like The Little House on the Prairie. The spunky little
cook arrives (Sue Hodge) and everything gets silly.
Hodge, a UK TV comic, is a great clown with a rubber face
and good timing. Waterman seems uncomfortable with farce while Broadby never
wavers from one style of delivery. English has his moments but he is not
believable as a sophisticated Parisian while Goldsmith is awkward in the bimbo
role.
The script, adapted from a successful French play by Marc
Camoletti, and the production directed by Peter Farago are a throwback to 60s
UK TV comedies, 18 century French farce and the 15th century Italian Commedia
del 'Arte.
From the 60s comedies, it borrows bimbos with big tits,
tight bodices and short skirts, bad taste, sexist jokes, women as objects and
sleazy middle aged men with too much money and a drink problem.
From French farce it takes - well, all of the above plus -
double identity, secret rendezvous, illicit affairs, lies confusion and plenty
of entrances and exits through five doors.
From the Italian Comedy comes (all of the above plus) lots of slapstick, spilt wine, drunkenness,
falling over and a servant just like Harlequin who is willing to do any deception for a franc
or two hundred.
Oh, and there's pantomime acting too: work to the audience,
pull faces, shout, laugh at your own jokes and hassle the audience if they
don't laugh.
This is a very old-fashioned and frighteningly sexist piece
of farce with uneven acting and loose direction.
If this is the style of comedy you like, please see it. Many
of the audience laughed. I found it offensive and childish.
By Kate Herbert
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