BWW Reviews: Light-Hearted Fun in Pieter Toerien and KickstArt's DON'T DRESS FOR DINNER

Upon entering the house at Theatre on the Bay for Pieter Toerien and KickstArt's production of DON'T DRESS FOR DINNER, the audience is greeted with a funky and detailed set, designed by Greg King and evocatively lit by Tina Le Roux to entice one into the setting of this classic farce by Marc Camoletti. A dramatic painting of an elephant's eye watches over garish feathered lamps, furniture pieces with animal print accents and a glass table with a simply divine support piece. Before the play has even begun, you know exactly the kind of people that are going to walk into that room and begin to suspect the kind of shenanigans that are about to transpire.

First on is Bernie (James Cuningham), who is anxious to see his wife, Jackie (Natasha Sutherland), depart for visit to her mother. He has organised a grand scheme in which he has invited his mistress, Suzanne (Emily Child) for a weekend in the country, and hired a Cordon Bleu chef, Suzette (Janna Ramos-Violante), to provide them with a meal befitting such an intrigue. As an alibi, he has also invited his best friend, Rob (Robert Fridjhon), hoping that their lifelong bruderbund will cover this special little favour.

But when Jackie, who is having her own affair with Rob finds out that her lover will be coming for the weekend, she quickly ditches her plans. Things unravel pretty quickly from thereon out, with all of the classic conventions of farce - including the use of caricature, physical horseplay, verbal humour and mistaken identities - conspiring to provide the audience with a couple of hours of belly laughs. Rounding out the cast is Nhlakanipho Manqele as George, whose appearance late in the second act pushes the play towards its climax and dénouement. (Want to know how he fits in? Go and see the play; I wouldn't want to spoil it for you.)

DON'T DRESS FOR DINNER first appeared in Paris in 1987 before leaping across the channel to play the West End in 1991, in a translation by Robin Hawdon. A South African production of that version first enjoyed success here in South Africa in 1993. This production switches the original French farmhouse setting for a holiday lodge near the Kruger Park, with the localisation of the piece being handled by director Steven Stead. To his credit, the play - while retaining an essentially French sensibility in the way that Camoletti deals with form and character relationships - emerges as something that has a very home-grown feel about it. Stead's approach is about more than adding a handful of regional accents and a few slang words. The South African flavour of the production feels much more intrinsic to the way the piece plays out and compensates to some extent for the problem of the piece itself, a second act that is not as engaging as the first due to 20 flabby minutes during which the dynamics of the situation are reintroduced before things rev up for the eventual climax of the play.

The show is brought to life by a company of actors that offers unflagging energy as they move from scene to scene, doors slamming and doorbells ringing as they make their many entrances and exits. As an ensemble, the cast delivers performances that are uniformly entertaining, working well off one another as they manoeuvre their way through Stead's pacy staging of the text.

The character work is clean and crisp, with nuanced work from everyone in the cast. Cuningham injects enough charm into the berkish Bernie to make him a lovable rogue, with some classic moments of physical comedy as he discovers some of the limitations of his middle age at the most inopportune moments. Sutherland - a onetime Suzanne - makes a good foil for him as Jacqui, playing her dual relationship with him for all it is worth. As Rob, the man who plays an integral part in both Bernie and Jacqui's lives, Fridjhon emerges as the man of the match. Whether he is clowning around in his dressing gown or rattling off various versions of the scenario spun for the benefit of whomever is listening, he is absolutely superb.

Ramos-Violante takes no prisoners as chef-cum-actress-cum-television presenter-cum-niece Suzette. The most broadly comic role in the piece, Suzette must be a delight to play and Ramos-Violante makes the most of it. As Suzanne, Child is amusingly vacuous and, in the minor role of George, Manqele displays wonderful comic timing and turns in a memorable performance. He may have to wait for the last 15 minutes of the play to make his entrance, but when he does, it proves to be well worth the wait.

If there is any criticism to be made in regard to the performances, it is that the performance style - one of the many challenges of this difficult genre - was not always consistent on the night I saw the show. Sutherland, Child and Ramos-Violante sometimes shifted into in a mode that was either too naturalistic or too heightened for the piece. Perhaps this is not always the case; the theatre, after all, is a living medium that exists only in the moment of performance and the playing of farce is a marathon endeavour.

DON'T DRESS FOR DINNER makes for a good night out at the theatre, especially if you would like to throw your cares to the wind, fill your evening with some light-hearted fun, and walk into the night with a smile on your face and a chuckle in your throat. The play does not demand much of its audience, simply that you go along for the ride.

The show runs at Theatre on the Bay until 11 May 2013. Tickets cost R90 - R160 and bookings can be made at Computicket.

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