Don't Dress for Dinner
By Marc Camoletti, adapted by Robin Hawdon
November 26 - December 18, 2004

Directed by Michael Payne

Carpenter Square Theatre serves up the comedy “Don’t Dress for Dinner” on Thanksgiving weekend and it will play through December 18. 

Playwright Robin Hawdon ‘s recipe for hilarious confusion combines some sexy hanky panky, mistaken identity and, of course, dinner in a French country house. Performances of his clever comedy of errors will be held in the arena theater of Stage Center, which is located at 400 W. Sheridan in downtown Oklahoma City.

At the play’s start, Bernard is eager for a weekend rendezvous with his mistress Suzanne. Thinking that his wife will be gone for the weekend, he invites Suzanne to their country home, as well as a gourmet cook to serve up tantalizing treats and his best friend Robert to be his alibi. Much to his dismay, his wife decides to stay home because she has a plan of her own. (The audience discovers early on that she and best friend Robert have been carrying on their own affair.) With the ensuing lies and false identities, the plot soon develops more twists than a corkscrew. The madcap action guarantees that if any of the characters ever fall into bed, all they will be able to do is fall asleep!

Director Michael Payne keeps the action simmering with a cast that includes Kim R. Davis and Terry Veal as the philandering married couple, Michael Gibbons as their befuddled friend and Emily Etherton as the chic mistress from Paris.  Suzanne Proctor is the money-grabbing gourmet cook and Brian Smolensky appears as her jealous husband.  Catherine Pongratz is stage manager for the production, while Corey Martin and Steven Gillmore are production designers.

     “Don’t Dress for Dinner” has a tremendous entertainment track record.  Before playing in theaters all over the U.S., it began as Marc Camoletti’s French play “Pajamas for Six” which played for two years in Paris.  In the 1990s, Robin Hawdon’s English adaptation kept audiences howling for six years in London. This is the play’s Oklahoma City premiere.

Carpenter Square Theatre is the recipient of a project assistance grant from the Oklahoma Arts Council for this production.  Cast Sponsors are Steve and Maggie Dixon, Mr. Chris Steves and Larry and Leah Westmoreland.  Carpenter Square is an Allied Arts member agency and this show is an Allied Arts Star Card event.