Suppose your wife suspects you’re having an affair. To calm her down, you make your best friend take the fall. For the theatre department’s first Mainstage production of the academic year, “Don’t Dress for Dinner,” this scenario is only the beginning of the wild love triangle that ensues.
“Sex draws,” said Carol Hanscom, Binghamton University theatre professor and “Don’t Dress for Dinner” director. Hanscom chose a quick-paced sex farce because of its appeal to college students.
The play, first written in French by Marc Camoletti, is a sex farce with sharp writing and even sharper plot twists. It became more famous after Robin Hawdon translated and rewrote the play in English. It’s one of Camoletti’s most famous works, along with “Boeing-Boeing,” another one of his farces and one of the most-performed French plays in the world.
“With students not having as much life experience, I‘m curious to see how they respond — watching a group of their peers who are playing middle-aged, stuck-in-their-ways people who have found that life can be boring and maybe need a little spice to keep it interesting,” Hanscom said.
The cast is dedicated to preserving the British adaption of the script by maintaining British accents and the art of fight choreography. Nicolas Coccaro, an undeclared freshman, choreographed all the fight sequences and, according to Hanscom, was a pleasure to have as an addition to the production.
“It is a lot of fun to do all the fight choreography with Nick’s advice. It’s cool to be violent but not hurt anybody,” said Anthony Gabriele, a cast member and a sophomore majoring in computer science.
Eric Berger, an undeclared freshman, said that the show’s physical interaction differentiates it from talkier, more typical plays.
“This show is a bunch of shenanigans and if there is anything that college students like, it is shenanigans, and guys beating other guys, and women being piled on top of them; three prime reasons right there,” Berger said.
Hanscom cannot stress enough how much “Don’t Dress for Dinner” could be a great respite from all the studying and academic stuff students have to do.
“They should come and laugh and relax and put the books away for a couple hours,” she said. “[They’ll] get swept up in the nonsense that happens on stage in front of them.”
Tickets for “Don’t Dress for Dinner” are discounted for students on opening night for $5 if you purchase them before 5 p.m. General ticket pricing is $8 for students, $12 for faculty, staff and senior citizens and $14 for general admission. The show premieres on Oct. 18 in the Anderson Center’s Chamber Hall at 8 p.m. There will be additional performances on Oct. 19, 25 and 26 at 8 p.m. and Oct. 27 at 2 p.m.