THE PLAY PROQUCED- -

DONT DRESS FOR DINNER by Marc Camoletti adapted by Robin Hawdon

Cyril Bennett discusses his production for Mow Cop Players Milton Stoke-an-Trent

bullbull t Jacqueline needs to be attract ive and wholk

The policy of o ur capable of working company is to produce out the most comedies or farces for co mplicat ed our a udiences and for situations at the same this we are known time covering up the We are always fact tha t she and interes ted in the latest Robert were lovers relea ses and on this Next we have Robert occasion Sam uel Jacqueline s lover French as usuaJ had prior to his sojourn in notified LI S that DOl1 Hong Kong What is DRESS FOR DI I _ ER required here is an was to be released at actor wh o ca n the beginning of maintain a comic September las t year panic throughout We obtained copies of together with the the play and decided ability to handle ylts this was for us complicated situations Although the front quickly together with cover of the acting on occasions thl ed ition calls it il longish speeches that comedy believe me go with them Suzette this is a farce but not a is the Cordon Bleu tearing aro und th cook who gets s tage farce this is mistaken by Robert for sop hi sticated farct Bernards mistress relying on the speed of She need s to swi tch the words rather than her movemen ts and the speed of the feet demeanour in You need pace timing accordance with the cue-bite and style rut charac ter she has to these together and you ass ume at any givenhave the audience time Her poses as a rolling in the aisles model and her

exaggerated walks all add to this part Next

I3ernilfd we come to Suzanne Jacqueline his wife Bernard s mistress have converted a small complete with Chanel French farmhouse that coa t She must retain is ideal for weekends her Parisian mode and has the added throughout a lithe attraction of being less disasters w hich await than two hours from her Lastly we have Paris I3ernard this George who is particular weekend is Suzettes husband hoping to entertain his He a burly chef chic Parisian girlfriend complete with Tyson Suzy He ha9 arranged punch has arrived to mistress who cant cook mistaken need for bog us French accents for a Cordon Bleu cook to furnish for the cook Mix all these for any of the cast but some Gaelic take Suzette home only to find the gourmet delights and is in the everybody in a state of undressingredients and you come up with hand and arm gestures helped to process of packing his wife off to together with the confusion as to a perfect recipe for a hilarious establish the French her mothers He has also invited which Suzie everybody is talking evening of entertainment characteristics his bes t friend Robert as a suitable about This is a cOIlpara tively alibi its perfect what could go CA silNt~ - ----~ First we have Bernard husband of small part but essential to the plot

~~-----wrong Suppose Robert and Jacqueline who has the unca nny

Jacqueline are secret lovers Or There are three male and three knack of turning a simple tryst

how about the cook being female characters in this play into a giant cock-up and all the mistaken for the mistress and the Although the action of the play time skilfully manipulating the Centre where there is a small hall

We rehearse in a Youth and Adult

takes place in France we saw no situations to his advantage

FEBRUARY 16

that is in fact slightly bigger th iln the Mitchell Mem oria l Theatre tage where we produce our

~hows This means thilt we ca n se t ut the hall to give us Virtually the

jame positio ns as we w ill have o n stage As this farce has only six cha racters and there is only one point when all six are on stage we found that we could have a mailer set than usual to give that warm intimate fee ling to the ic tion After all this is all abo ut ronlculce

As we rehearse twice a week we were able to take one act each evening thus allowing George to ha ve a night off until a week or so before the actual production week This is also a play which can be broken down to allow for holid ays

v me mbers of the cas t Producers e not allowed time off from rehea rsals as fellow producers (at this moment nodding their heads) will know I

Then is one major costume change which happens on stil ge in f1l ll view of the audience and lllust be very slick Suzette must change from a ma id s costume into a very ti ght black mini-skirted dress leav ing her ilrms and shoulde rs bare The maids cuffs and apron are eas ily d lt tached by Robert and Be rnard they turn he r ba ck to the ~udience and rip off her blouse hich was black in colour with e lrro up the back The skirt part d her costume WilS a black d asticilted tube which when pu lled under the arms formed the d ress The actress wore a black

r whose straps finished off the dress O ur production was adjudica ted for a local festi va l and I luote the adjudicators remarks

arding the change Costumes ere always in character me times inspiredly so but

~ lZeuro ttes transformation was the rdrobe$ co up de theatre middot

UliI rd requires severa l changes hirts which are constantly

_ ting covered by va rious forms Link sa uce etc We borrowed a

rod for the Chane coat and nly other major requirement

a nightdress which allows leline to ha ng out All the

l tumes need to be in line bull e eha racters portra yed

~igltl rd to the fi xed props nrst toy with the idea of

tireplace but found that t suit the positioning of

the furniture so a radiator was s ubstituted for this After a ll a ll houses are made wa rm by some form of heating We were lucky to be able to borrow a low-backed settee which gave us a nice acting space beh ind this w ithout cutting off half the actors bodies Apart from this there were no complicated props unless you count a constipated soda syphon on our first night This was put right be fore performance number two and g ushed merrily ilWilY

after that l There is a considenlble amount of French currency but in the form of twenty franc notes

One other prop which we found to be very useful indeed was a bent baguette On re turning from shoppi ng w ith his wife le rnard is about to entl the front door ca rrying shopping ba gs from which 11 s tick of breil d protrudes when the door is shut in his face lewing us with the droopin g bag uette which is then used to advantage by Bernilfd

UGH ING

We had floods behind the window and front door at the rear of the set a nd fl oods throug h the two archways left and right the bed rooms were at the very front of the stage we found thil t we did not have to light these from behind O therwise the se t W il S well lit to give interior lightin g and there was n() change to this until the end of the play when there Wil S a blackout of the main aeting areil leaving just the fl oods lit This gave a dim but v isible and romantic end to the play

As wi ll be seen from the photographs we placed th front door and window to the rear of the set I found that to allow the smooth running of the play it was better to have two archways back stilge left ilnd right th a n two d oors There are many quick en tra nces and exits via these hyo areas The flats were pilinted with a warm terracott emulsion pa int with wood beams added to give a farmhouse appearance

If you are a company that likes to do a good farce from time to time then I can recommend this play both from a production point of view and from an audience point

with me mbers of the a udience that they thoroug hly enjoyed this play A word of warning prompters beware there are pages of one and two word speeches coming in rapid succession often repeating the same words again and again As they SJY Follow that We used the song If you knew Suzie like I know Suzie as our opening music with Little White Lies to open the second half

For the firs t time ever o ur company had a matinee on the Saturda y star ting at 400 pm and following the trend of supermarkets we offered to pensioners ilnd unemployed people two concessionary priced seats for the price of one It

of view We know from consulting worked We had a good audience4

for the matinee

As I said at the beginning this is a

farce on word s not feet Enjoy it as

we did

ALL SCRIPTS SCORES AND LIBRETTI FEATURED IN

THE PLAY PRODUCED AND THE MU ICAL PRODUCED

CAN BTAl ~OM

TEL 0171-837-5655 FAX 0171-833-0609

17

that is in fact slightly bigger th iln the Mitchell Mem oria l Theatre tage where we produce our

~hows This means thilt we ca n se t ut the hall to give us Virtually the

jame positio ns as we w ill have o n stage As this farce has only six cha racters and there is only one point when all six are on stage we found that we could have a mailer set than usual to give that warm intimate fee ling to the ic tion After all this is all abo ut ronlculce

As we rehearse twice a week we were able to take one act each evening thus allowing George to ha ve a night off until a week or so before the actual production week This is also a play which can be broken down to allow for holid ays

v me mbers of the cas t Producers e not allowed time off from rehea rsals as fellow producers (at this moment nodding their heads) will know I

Then is one major costume change which happens on stil ge in f1l ll view of the audience and lllust be very slick Suzette must change from a ma id s costume into a very ti ght black mini-skirted dress leav ing her ilrms and shoulde rs bare The maids cuffs and apron are eas ily d lt tached by Robert and Be rnard they turn he r ba ck to the ~udience and rip off her blouse hich was black in colour with e lrro up the back The skirt part d her costume WilS a black d asticilted tube which when pu lled under the arms formed the d ress The actress wore a black

r whose straps finished off the dress O ur production was adjudica ted for a local festi va l and I luote the adjudicators remarks

arding the change Costumes ere always in character me times inspiredly so but

~ lZeuro ttes transformation was the rdrobe$ co up de theatre middot

UliI rd requires severa l changes hirts which are constantly

_ ting covered by va rious forms Link sa uce etc We borrowed a

rod for the Chane coat and nly other major requirement

a nightdress which allows leline to ha ng out All the

l tumes need to be in line bull e eha racters portra yed

~igltl rd to the fi xed props nrst toy with the idea of

tireplace but found that t suit the positioning of

the furniture so a radiator was s ubstituted for this After a ll a ll houses are made wa rm by some form of heating We were lucky to be able to borrow a low-backed settee which gave us a nice acting space beh ind this w ithout cutting off half the actors bodies Apart from this there were no complicated props unless you count a constipated soda syphon on our first night This was put right be fore performance number two and g ushed merrily ilWilY

after that l There is a considenlble amount of French currency but in the form of twenty franc notes

One other prop which we found to be very useful indeed was a bent baguette On re turning from shoppi ng w ith his wife le rnard is about to entl the front door ca rrying shopping ba gs from which 11 s tick of breil d protrudes when the door is shut in his face lewing us with the droopin g bag uette which is then used to advantage by Bernilfd

UGH ING

We had floods behind the window and front door at the rear of the set a nd fl oods throug h the two archways left and right the bed rooms were at the very front of the stage we found thil t we did not have to light these from behind O therwise the se t W il S well lit to give interior lightin g and there was n() change to this until the end of the play when there Wil S a blackout of the main aeting areil leaving just the fl oods lit This gave a dim but v isible and romantic end to the play

As wi ll be seen from the photographs we placed th front door and window to the rear of the set I found that to allow the smooth running of the play it was better to have two archways back stilge left ilnd right th a n two d oors There are many quick en tra nces and exits via these hyo areas The flats were pilinted with a warm terracott emulsion pa int with wood beams added to give a farmhouse appearance

If you are a company that likes to do a good farce from time to time then I can recommend this play both from a production point of view and from an audience point

with me mbers of the a udience that they thoroug hly enjoyed this play A word of warning prompters beware there are pages of one and two word speeches coming in rapid succession often repeating the same words again and again As they SJY Follow that We used the song If you knew Suzie like I know Suzie as our opening music with Little White Lies to open the second half

For the firs t time ever o ur company had a matinee on the Saturda y star ting at 400 pm and following the trend of supermarkets we offered to pensioners ilnd unemployed people two concessionary priced seats for the price of one It

of view We know from consulting worked We had a good audience4

for the matinee

As I said at the beginning this is a

farce on word s not feet Enjoy it as

we did

ALL SCRIPTS SCORES AND LIBRETTI FEATURED IN

THE PLAY PRODUCED AND THE MU ICAL PRODUCED

CAN BTAl ~OM

TEL 0171-837-5655 FAX 0171-833-0609

17