French Bedroom Comedy, “Don’t Dress For Dinner,” Coming To Quogue Community Hall

The Hampton Theatre Company will present Don’t Dress for Dinner, a two- act comedy originally written in French by Marc Camoletti, and adapted from the original French production by Robin Hawdon, as its fourth and final play of the 2017-2018 season. The play will open Thursday, May 24 and run for three weeks at the Quogue Community Hall.

The chaotic comedy features Barnard, who has invited his mistress, Suzanne to his home – while his wife, Jacqueline is scheduled to visit her mother. He invites a Cordon Bleu chef, Suzette, to cook for them, as well as his best friend Robert, as an alibi. However, Robert and Jacqueline are having a secret affair and refuse to leave for the weekend. The chef pretends she is the mistress, and the mistress, who is unable to cook, pretends to be the chef, and the chef’s husband, George shows up in the second act to add to the mayhem.

In a whirlwind of chaos, the couples ensue in a hilarious evening of confusion and infidelity. “Gut-busting! Hilarious!” Entertainment Weekly wrote, while The Guardian called it, “a near faultless piece of theatrical invention.”

French playwright, Marc Camoletti, best known for his award-winning hit, Boeing, Boeing, returns the two main characters, Robert and Barnard to “Don’t Dress for Dinner.” The original play premiered in Paris and ran for two years. The Hawdon adaptation ran for six years with more than 2,000 performances in London, and opened on Broadway in 2012 and has since been performed all over the United States, Australia, and Canada. A review in Chicago Style Magazine called the earlier performances, “two of the most rib-tickling, hilarious hours I have spent in the theatre in some time,” and Variety encouraged, “pile on the comic chaos!”

The cast features five Hampton Theatre Company veterans, Andrew Botsford (Bernard), Rosemary Cline (Jacqueline), Matthew Conlon (Robert), Rebecca Edana (Suzanne), Amanda Griemsmann (Suzette), and new to the Company, Sam Yaraek (George). Hampton Theatre Company’s veteran actor and director, George A. Loizides directs. Set design is by Sean Marbury, with lighting by Sebastian Paczynski, and costumes by Teresa Lebrun.

Terry Brennan, general manager of Hampton Theatre Company notes, “This bawdy bedroom farce offers two rib-tickling, hilarious hours of theater.”

Don’t Dress for Dinner will run at the Quogue Community Hall from Thursday, May 24 to Sunday, June 10. Shows are scheduled for Thursdays and Fridays at 7 p.m., Saturdays at 8 p.m., and Sundays at 2:30 p.m. On closing weekend, there will be an additional matinee performance on Saturday, June 9.

Special dinner and theater packages will be offered in collaboration with Westhampton, Southampton, Hampton Bays and Quogue libraries, as well as a special lunch and theater package from the Saturday, June 9, matinee performance, in association with the Quogue Club at the Hallock House. All packages can be purchased online or through the libraries.

Tickets range from $10 to $30.

Quogue Community Hall is located at 125 Jessup Avenue in Quogue. For more information please visit hamptonstheatre.org or call OvationTix at 1-866-811-4111.