Don't Dress For Dinner

The setting is Bernard and Jacqueline’s country home, a converted French farmhouse northwest of Paris, in the 1980’s. While Jacqueline is to be away for the weekend, Bernard arranges for his Parisian mistress to call, for his friend Robert to be there too as an alibi and finally a cook to prepare the gourmet meals. What could go wrong? Everything. It begins when Jacqueline senses something and does not go – she is having an affair with Robert.  Hilarious confusion follows as Bernard and Robert improvise at breakneck speed with the cook supposedly the mistress, while the mistress has to cook. This evolved with farcical, side-splitting speed in front of us.

Director Keith Wilson has brought a strong cast to the various roles and maintained the necessary speed and inter-play very well. David Scheiwe as Bernard and John Honey as friend Robert blustered and interacted as you imagine friends in this situation would. They made their characters real – not necessarily nice - and this carried the play.

Karen Matthews as Jacqueline had our sympathy as the only normal one of the group, being the relatively steady influence in the rapidly changing scenes. Outstanding was Caitlin Jones as Suzette, the cook come mistress come cousin, with her excellent stage presence. The mistress Suzanne was played very suitably by Susie Bushnell. We were confused sometimes by the clever use of the names of Suzette and Suzanne. Jonathan Sweeper as George brought the madhouse to an end.

It is fascinating to imagine the thoughts and feelings of audience members as they laugh so much at what is happening before them. Did it bring back memories?  One thing for sure is that Mousetrap has maintained its high standard with this farcical play/production with so much laughter. It is more than a giggle, it is good.

William Davies