| PIPS Ends Season with a Mixup Comedy | | Print | |
| Written by Amy Sloan | |||
| Tuesday, 01 July 2008 | |||
 The Poquoson Island Players have finished their season with Marc Camoletti’s Don’t Dress for Dinner, his follow-up play to Boeing-Boeing, which recently won a Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play. Don’t Dress for Dinner is your traditional mistaken identity comedy, originally set in France this adaptation by Robin Hawdon takes place outside London, England.
Being set in England, the actors were all given the, sometimes difficult, task of speaking with a British accent. Most of the actors pulled this off, but others were more unnatural in their speaking which made the suspension of disbelief slightly more difficult. Some scenes were made even more awkward by Suzette, played by Nicholle Harris, who repeatedly faced the audience head on while delivering her lines. Despite this, and being one of the actors with accent difficulties, Nicholle plays the “confused cook of many roles” well and is especially delightful when she plays a believable drunk, which is so often over-characterized in plays. Jim Seward plays Bernard and the interactions between Bernard and his best friend Robert, played by Dale Payne, were superb; they felt so natural that it was easy to believe they’d been long time buddies. Holly Johnson plays Bernard’s wife Jacqueline and I couldn’t figure out over the course of the play just who her character was supposed to be; at times she seemed the uptight prudish wife, other times the passionate lover; the only thing that seemed consistent was coming off as angry and suspicious. We all have many sides to us I suppose but the only time I found her believable, as a character, was when she shared a passionate kiss with her lover Robert. Bernard’s mistress Suzanne, played by Erica Chigos-White, was a pleasure to watch from the minute she strutted onto the stage. Erica pulled off the “hot model” persona very well, including the sulkiness she displayed when things weren’t going her way. Though his time on stage is brief, George, played by Miguel Girona, plays his part well. The director could have worked to make the stage combat a little more convincing, however, as it was painfully obvious the punches didn’t even come close to connecting. The director, Eileen Engel, made great use of the stage, taking the action all around the room. Eileen also handled costumes along with Randi Davenport and The Generic Theater, which were mostly appropriate, but I felt they could have used better choices in a couple spots, mainly concerning the dresses of the women. I was surprised that they all seemed to have called each other up to wear black dresses for dinner, and I was also confused when Jacqueline came down in her sexy black number due to her prior costume, as she went from foppish housewife to smoldering temptress. I thought they could have used something a little better for Suzanne, the hot model; maybe something with more flair and fashion.. The lighting scheme, done by Tom McIlvain was the same throughout the show until the last couple minutes but that’s all that was called for in this setting. I found myself admiring the set and all the little touches of home that they added to it with the exception of a green recliner chair sitting almost center stage that seemed so out of place with the brown color scheme that it kept grabbing my attention continuously throughout the night. I was relieved towards the end of the show when the actors started using the chair as I was starting to think this chair had no other purpose other than to look out of place. All in all the show kept my attention so well that I was almost surprised when the lights came up for intermission as the time definitely flew by. Eileen Engel has taken a clever play and turned it into a good show that certainly entertained the audience with almost continuous laughs. This choice was definitely a great way to end the season. |
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