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Community Corner

'Don't Dress for Dinner' Offers Big Laughs

The show continues weekends through May 14 at Bowie Playhouse.

Anyone looking for laughs in these days of rising gas prices and other assorted downers can find plenty of them at Prince George’s Little Theatre’s current show, Don’t Dress for Dinner, at Bowie Playhouse in White Marsh Park.

After playwright Marc Camoletti’s comedy successfully premiered in Paris in 1991, it became a major British theater favorite for most of the 1990s.

Now here in our area, we can see what tickled European audiences as we become guests at a hilarious dinner party unlike our usual backyard barbecues.

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This dinner party comedy is about a married couple where each partner has a secret lover show up unexpectedly at the door to inspire some strange explanations leading to mistaken identities and frantic role switching. 

A cook arrives to be asked to play a model and actress, who is a mistress having an affair with the homeowner. She’ll also be asked to act as niece to the houseguest and paid a substantial fee for each role she plays. The cook is also asked to help out in the kitchen where another model/mistress pretends to be the hired cook at her lover Bernard’s suggestion.

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The action takes place inside a smartly renovated barn owned by Bernard, played by Michael Dunlop, who is married to Jacqueline, played by Jill Goodrich.  Having planned a weekend at home during his wife’s absence with his mistress Suzanne (Christa Kronser), Bernard has also invited his friend Robert, played by Jack Degnan, as a weekend guest to serve as an alibi if needed.

Bernard later is dismayed when his wife suddenly decides not to visit her mother for the weekend. Instead, Jacqueline decides she would prefer to remain at home to share the weekend with her lover Robert, whose unexpected arrival delights Jacqueline.

The production at Bowie Playhouse is directed by Randy Barth in a strong debut at Prince George’s Little Theatre that illustrates his skill at moving the mayhem at a frenetic pace to ensure a steady stream of audience laughter.

Any lines actors may have missed on opening night hardly mattered because this is a script with built-in confusion for most of the characters. Dunlop is consistently amusing as he conveys Bernard’s steely determination to control every arising potential crisis situation. Goodrich’s Jacqueline is clearly his match, cleverly manipulating Bernard and Robert by whatever whim she fancies.

As mild-mannered, frequently befuddled Robert, Degnan reveals his own formidable comic skills.  

Rosalie Daelemans dominates her every scene as ambitious cook Suzette, opportunistically relishing every assigned role from mistress to mentor to the niece of Degnan’s Robert with whom she is later hilariously paired. Daelemans summons a fresh persona as loving wife when husband George arrives on the scene to unmask perhaps the real Suzette.

As Kronser’s Suzanne grows more annoyed with her lover’s antics, she adds interesting facets to what could have been a caricature role. Keith Brown provides a large share of laughs to add substance to his rather brief role as Suzette’s husband,  George.

Don’t Dress for Dinner continues weekends through May 14 at Bowie Playhouse. Tickets are $19 for adults and $14 for seniors and students. Call 301-937-7458 for tickets.

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