The Pillowman this was not. Don't Dress for Dinner is thoroughly lighthearted and high-spirited, continuously adding plot twists one on top of another. The plot concerns a married couple, Bernard and Jacqueline, who are both having affairs. Bernard has invited his mistress Suzanne and the couple's old friend Robert to their house for the weekend, thinking that Jacqueline would be away at her mother's. Little does Bernard know that Jacqueline is having an affair of her own with Robert. When she decides to stay home for the weekend (and welcome Robert into their home, as it were), Bernard panics and asks Robert to pretend that "Suzy" is his mistress. A few minutes later, Suzette, a caterer Bernard has hired for the weekend who is also called Suzy, shows up on the doorstep, identities are mistaken, and chaos is unleashed.
The fact that the above summary only covers the most basic elements of the plot ought to hint at the almost baffling complexity of the play. (At one point, Suzette, the cook, is pretending to be Robert's niece in front of Jacqueline, but still pretending that she's pretending to be Robert's mistress in front of Bernard, even though he knows she's actually just the cook, and actually pretending to be Robert's mistress in front of Suzanne.) The audience had to essentially give in and allow themselves to be swept along by the tides of plot, without worrying too much about keeping track of everything. At the same time, all the layers of deception made the play as captivating as a thriller – when would the truth come out? Would someone's act slip? Even though it was a farce, it was an edge-of-the-seat kind of experience.
The actors did an admirable job of keeping tabs on all the convolutions of plot (there were a couple of lines that were almost like tongue twisters, menacingly full of names and "pretending to be"s). Johanna Fierke '12 made an amusingly jaded Jacqueline, playing the role of the adulterous housewife with a smirk and more than a touch of sass. Robert Hildebrandt '09, as her husband, was suitably bumbling and bewildered. Lisa Otto '10, as Suzette, the spitfire of a cook, was hilariously manipulative as she realized the advantages of pretending to be a high-class mistress and began to demand expensive alcohol and mock her bourgeois employers at every opportunity. Tyler BoddySpargo '12, as Robert, had a bit of the sitcom hero in him, stammering and kvetching through the awkwardness of his situation, but somehow still managing to come across as debonair. His performance was truly impressive in that it seemed completely natural, despite the complexity of what he had to act out. Katie France '12 made a wonderfully acerbic addition to the mix as Suzanne, snapping and snarling like the humiliated diva her character is. Finally, Jonathan Hughes '12, in his surprise appearance as Suzette's husband, was uproarious as he berated the characters for "having a bloody orgy in here!"
The ending, with all the loose ends tied off but nothing really resolved, left the audience wanting more. If Don't Dress for Dinner were actually the sitcom it resembles at times, I would definitely tune in each week.