Don't Dress for Dinner
The North Coast Rep is reprising its popular show. Each of Marc Camoletti's characters becomes a different person for different people. Bernard and wife Jacqueline live in a converted barn outside Paris. Both are having affairs, and their lovers, Suzanne and Robert, come to spend the weekend unannounced. Add Suzette, a gourmet cook who makes a wicked sauce veloute, and ruses run riot. The North Coast Rep's production, wonderfully directed by Rosina Reynolds, is unafraid to perform broadly. One wouldn't want a steady diet of this hectic stuff (devices that worked earlier just feel like devices in the last quarter of the two-and-a-half-hour show). But along the way Reynolds and a game cast evoke many good-sized laughs. As Bernard and Robert, Phil Johnson and Christopher M. Williams romp all over Marty Burnett's handsome set, one usually chasing the other with a semilethal weapon. Lisel Gorell-Getz provides icy stares as Jacqueline. Amanda Sitton's Suzanne has little to say, so Sitton fills in with style and subtexts. Newcomer Jacque Wilke's a real find as Suzette and, thanks to designer Michelle Hunt Souza, performs an unforgettable costume change.
Worth a try.
When
Ongoing until Wednesday, August 2, 2000
Hours
Sundays, 2pm & 7pm |
Thursdays, 8pm |
Fridays, 8pm |
Saturdays, 2pm & 8pm |