Don't Dress for Dinner

‘Don’t Dress For Dinner’ is Robin Hawdon’s phenomenally successful comedy (based loosely on an original play by the French author Marc Camoletti) which ran for six years in London’s West End in the 1990’s and has since played constantly throughout the English speaking world, in particular the USA where it has received several hundred productions, professional and amateur.

Bernard is planning a romantic weekend with his chic Parisian mistress in his charming converted French farmhouse, whilst his wife, Jacqueline, is away. He has arranged for a cordon bleu cook to prepare gourmet delights, and has invited his best friend, Robert, along too to provide the alibi. It’s foolproof; what could possibly go wrong? Well… suppose Robert turns up not realizing quite why he has been invited. Suppose Robert and Jacqueline are secret lovers, and consequently determined that Jacqueline will NOT leave for the weekend. Suppose the cook has to pretend to be the mistress and the mistress can’t cook. Suppose everyone’s alibi gets confused with everyone else’s. An evening of hilarious confusion ensues as Bernard and Robert improvise at breakneck speed.