[NEohioPAL] Review of "Don't Dress for Dinner" at the CVLT

[Bob Abelman]

CVLT's 'Don't Dress for Dinner' succeeds against all odds

 

Bob Abelman

 

News-Herald, Chagrin Valley Times, Solon Times,

The Morning Journal, Geauga Times Courier

Member, American Theatre Critics Association 

 

This review will appear in the News-Herald 6/10/11

 

The British apparently lack the gene that dictates common sense. 

 

How else can you explain their fondness for farce-that bizarre brand of exaggerated comedy that places clueless characters (usually in their underwear or nightclothes) in unlikely situations that escalate in pace and improbability to the point of absurdity?

  

Why else would they adore paper-thin plots, inane misunderstandings, and mistaken identities so transparent that they fool only the oblivious louts on stage?

 

Average Americans have that gene in spades.  Consequently, we don't get farce. 

 

We won't see farce unless told its classic literature, like Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest.  We can't appreciate farce unless it is as cleverly conceived as Noel Coward's Hay Fever.  We don't like farce unless it is disguised as a TV sitcom, such as Neil Simon's Rumors.   And even then not so much. 

 

American common sense offers no quarter to the clueless or the cross dresser.  American ingenuity squelches the improbable situation in a heartbeat by asking: "Yeah, but what if they just.?"  American knowhow spies an absurdity on a cloudy day and suggests: "Yeah, so why don't they just.?"  We simply have no patience for the preposterous.  

 

We fix farce.

 

Nonetheless, the Chagrin Valley Little Theatre just opened its summer season with Don't Dress for Dinner, a British farce that was adapted from a French comedy by Marc Camoletti.  Against all odds and despite the sovereignty of our national genome, it is very funny indeed.   

 

It's not the play that accounts for this production's success, for Don't Dress for Dinner  unfolds in true farce fashion and is as predictable as it is maddeningly redundant.  

 

Bernard is planning a weekend with his mistress while his wife, Jacqueline, is visiting her mother. He has hired a gourmet cook and has invited his best friend, Robert, to provide an alibi. Robert, who is secretly having an affair with Jacqueline, has no idea why he was invited to the house.  Of course, Jacqueline cancels her visit, which sets the madness into motion.  Upon her arrival, the cook is mistaken for the mistress.  Upon the mistress' arrival, she is mistaken for the cook. 

 

This unlikely scenario is established in the opening moments of the play.  The remainder of the two-act evening is devoted to these characters and their ever-shifting subterfuges whirling in and out of control with increasingly reckless abandon, accompanied by head spinning wordplay.

 

What makes Don't Dress for Dinner a success is that these asinine characters are inhabited by some of the best comedic talent in local community theater.  Their on-stage antics are orchestrated by one of the best community theater directors.

 

Barbara L. Rhoades keeps this production flowing and has the wherewithal to give each rehashing of the contrived plot a distinctive tempo and temperament.  She uses every inch of Edmond Wolff's attractive, built-for-broad comedy set to full advantage.  As a result, this production creates its own perpetual motion, which off-sets the play's occasionally static moments.

 

Adam Young and Don Bernardo are funny just walking into a room.  They are so endearing that they make the unlikable Bernard and Robert sympathetic characters.  Having played together in numerous productions, including several recent farces, the two actors know the territory and have a chemistry that adds charm to all that they do.

 

Chris White is delightful as the cook-turned-mistress.  Her comedic sensibilities allow her to milk a moment without the risk of spoilage, and she is given an increasing number of these moments as the play progresses.  She is a pleasure to watch.

 

As the mistress-turned-cook, Amy Pelleg hits her comic beats with delightful understatement.  Her subtle physicality-a raised eyebrow, a cocked head, an incredulous stare-builds laughs from meager beginnings and finds laughs in places the playwright overlooked.  

 

Jen Klika, as Jacqueline, has the dubious responsibility of laying out the play's preposterous premise in the first act and rejuvenating it for the second act.  She does this remarkably well and is brilliant in her playful transformation from being victimized to vengeful.    

 

Brad Baker, as the cook's husband George, comes in at the end to offer an excuse for the last-minute resolution of the play.  He turns a thankless task and a one-dimensional role into some fun moments that propel this play to its conclusion.

 

As is typical of farces, Don't Dress for Dinner ends with a bit of forced morality-in this case, a sober statement about promiscuity and marriage.  Rhoades and the gang once again come to the rescue of this play by not allowing this bit of posturing to suck the air out of the room.

 

It is as unlikely that the British will grow a chromosome as it is that Americans will fancy farce.   Remarkably, the CVLT has found some common ground. 

 

Don't Dress for Dinner continues through June 25 at the Chagrin Valley Little Theatre, 56 River Street, Chagrin Falls.  For tickets, $12 to $16, call 440-247-8955 or visit www.cvlt.org.
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