DON’T DRESS FOR DINNER…Again!

0 0

Fast-paced farce returns to CentreStage Theatre
Mike Butler

Laughter makes the winter blues disappear, it’s a fact! Well, if you are suffering from the cold, sleety, slushy down time of the winter, it’s time to put some pep in your step and laugh until you hurt.

CentreStage Theatre in Kentville, like most theatres, has had two very pandemic-induced years. In March 2020, Don’t Dress for Dinner was shut down halfway through its 14-show run due to Covid restrictions, with the set still intact and left for the reopening.

In 2021, following successful virtual radio shows and a short run of The Travelling Trunk Theatre Troupe’s Storybook Theatre, CentreStage decided to give it a go with a soft reopening in March 2022 and the return of the hit comedy that was prematurely closed two years ago. Welcome back everyone!
Jump ahead to present day. Written by by Marc Camoletti, Don’t Dress for Dinner is a rapid-fire laugh-fest that’s been keeping its reunited rehearsing cast and crew in stitches for months! I am a proud member of the DDFD troupe and it’s been almost too much to handle in the laugh department. I can’t express what it’s been like to be re-bubbled and re-motivated to get on stage.

The basic premise: Escape for the evening to the French countryside home of Bernard and Jacqueline. Bernard is planning a weekend with his chic Parisian mistress, Suzanne. He has attended to every detail including hiring a gourmet cook, named Suzette, packing his wife Jacqueline off to her mother’s and inviting his best friend, Robert, to provide his alibi. It’s foolproof! What could possibly go wrong? Suppose Robert shows up not knowing why he has been invited and he mistakes the cook for the mistress and the mistress for the cook? Mix these ingredients and you have the recipe for an evening of hilarious confusion that will have you laughing until you cry.

Don’t Dress for Dinner was a sold out short run at CentreStage in 2020 and even though we will be following all current Covid protocols, we are sure to get a terrific not-capacity audience. You can laugh behind a mask right? Then plan to see this show!

Junie Hutchinson, no stranger to being involved in many CentreStage farces, including The Odd Couple and Leading Ladies, is the director, with Brittany Chapman as producer. Vince Fredericks is back doing the lights and sounds in the newly-renovated booth, and Karen Court and Delores Gaudet are returning stage managers for this production.

A glorious shift in the casting of the Bernard role has placed newcomer (to the role, not to the theatre) Ross Chapman in Bernard’s shoes while Linda Levy Fisk, myself, Jane Kerr, Alan Tupper, and Tracy Churchill all return for seconds (and some of us thirds) to this uproarious dinner party from hell!

CentreStage will be following all the current Covid restrictions, so if you have any questions, please reach out.

Don’t Dress for Dinner will be performed on the main stage March 4, 5, 11, 12, 18, 19, 25, and 26, with matinees on Sunday March 13 and Sunday March 20. Front of House opens at 6:45pm for the evening performances and 1:15pm for the matinees. Tickets are adults $15; seniors/students $12; children, age 12 and under, $5. This play does have some mature subject matter. CentreStage takes cash and now they take debit and credit card at the door! Reservations are strongly recommended and are held until 15 minutes before show time. You can call 902-678-8040 for reservations and please visit centrestagetheatre.ca to find out about upcoming shows, auditions and special events happening at the little theatre with the big heart!

So have a laugh, embrace local theatre and brush off the winter blues with a farce like nothing you’ve seen before!

Happy
Happy
0 %
Sad
Sad
0 %
Excited
Excited
0 %
Sleepy
Sleepy
0 %
Angry
Angry
0 %
Surprise
Surprise
0 %