“Don’t Dress for Dinner” is hyped as having more twists than a corkscrew.
Iola Community Theatre’s dessert theater production this weekend and next is that and more.
Intrigue ripples through the play, which has married couple Bernard (Richard Peters) and Jacqueline (Melissa Danford) positioning themselves for time with extramarital lovers Suzanne (Nicolle Hoepker) and Robert (Todd Francis), with a liberal dash of Suzette (Regina Heier) thrown in as a Cordon Bleu-level cook. Gary Reeder II, as Suzette’s husband, George, has a cameo role.
The plan is for Bernard to have a weekend romp with Suzette while Jacqueline visits her mother. Robert, his best friend of years, also is to visit and the cook will be there to — what else? — cook. The twists turn every which way but loose when Jacqueline, who herself has romped with Robert, learns he’s coming. She feints illness on her mother’s part so she can stay home and have an amorous renewal with him.
The show is at the Warehouse Theatre, 19 S. Jefferson, where the stage is made up as a livestock barn refitted as a cottage. Challenges facing each of the philanderers create a chain of events — such as who gets the big bed in the cow shed and who ends up in the pig sty — that will put audiences in stitches.
WHAT MAKES the play so good are the actors are perfectly suited to their roles, including Regina Heier and Melissa Danford, first-timers on the ICT stage.
Heier is a hoot. And that she does so well is made more remarkable by her joining the show better than halfway through preparations.
“She’s had only 12 rehearsals,” said Director Richard Spencer, noting that two of the three original actresses had to quit the show. Hoepker, an ICT veteran, also stepped up to help out. Neither gives a clue that they haven’t been on board since day one.
Heier had the advantage of a background in performing and having been a theater student while majoring in secondary education at Fort Hays State University, just previous to this school year.
“She wanted to try out but didn’t because she’s in her first year teaching English at Iola High School and thought the time commitment would be too much,” Spencer said.
When he called two weeks ago, Heier stepped up to the plate. She is animated and comfortable as a conniving and sometimes flighty fifth wheel in the love quadrangle.
Danford brings much the same qualities.
She is detached when she needs to be, stern when the situation prompts and adept when playing husband against lover.
Hoepker is perfect as a vivacious model who tries, in concession to Bernard, to pass herself off as the hired cook.
The meal she prepares would fall far short of passing muster with Paula Deen, but Bernard, knowing of her talents outside the kitchen, is complimentary.
PETERS is known for his dry sense of humor, which translates well to his interpretation of the role of Bernard.
He is nonplused when events dictate, and also has a debonair approach that makes his characterization of husband hoping for dalliance come across well. Watch in particular for his facial expressions and a little hand jive that adds life and realism.
Todd Francis also handles with ease rapid-fire dialogue that often reverses direction in mid-sentence that lends credence to his ability as an actor.
Reeder, as Suzette’s come-to-pick-her-up husband, has little time on stage, but being an ICT veteran he does what is asked of him without a hitch.
THE SHOW is Saturday night at 7:30 and Sunday afternoon at 2 o’clock and again the evenings of March 4 and 5 at the Warehouse Theatre, 203 S. Jefferson Ave.
Tickets are $15 at Sophisticated Rose in downtown Iola.
As a disclaimer, Spencer said because of language and adult situations the show is not appropriate for children.
