Total Rating: 
***
Opened: 
April 16, 2003
Ended: 
May 3, 2003
Country: 
USA
State: 
Florida
City: 
Venice
Company/Producers: 
Coastal Productions (Robert Ennis Turoff, producer)
Theater Type: 
Regional
Theater: 
Venice Golden Apple Dinner Theater
Theater Address: 
U.S. 41 Bypass at Holiday Inn Complex
Phone: 
(941) 484-7711
Running Time: 
2 hrs, 30 min
Genre: 
Comedy
Author: 
Alan Ayckbourn
Director: 
Roberta MacDonald
Review: 

 Despite the tackiness of their respective yellow and purple living areas, wealthy Frank and Fiona are upscale, while recent parents Bob and Teresa are on the way up in the same business. On the sly, Fiona and Bob have been up to some monkey business. To excuse their dalliance, they tell their respective spouses that they've been out late with a different couple in marital difficulties. As farcical luck would have it, the latter get drawn into the former couples' duplicities when invited to their homes for dinner. Cover-ups introduce the fun but its centerpiece is a simultaneous staging of the two dinners that drives spouses to drink and the audience into spasms of laughter. This is Alan Ayckbourn at his farcical best; never mind the social significance of the characters' disparate lives!

Jenny Aldrich as Fiona looks handsome with her sleek blond hair and high-fashion outfits, perfectly natural as she "darlings" Richard LaVanaway's often-befuddled Frank. In her oversize chenille houserobe, it's no wonder Elizabeth Palmer's Teresa doesn't turn on Don Walker's otherwise flirtatious Bob. Bordering on silly, Waylon Wood plays starchy William Detweiler. As a comic surprise, usually exuberant Kyle Ennis Turoff bites her nails and sputters in the role of Detweiler's repressed wife. Director Roberta MacDonald is enjoying a second turn at pacing the actors and spacing the cross-cutting dialogue -- to the enjoyment of all.

Cast: 
Jenny Aldrich, Elizabeth Palmer, Richard LaVanaway, Don Walker, Kyle Ennis Turoff, Waylon Wood
Technical: 
Set: Michael Newton-Brown; Costumes: Dolly Nichols; Stage Mgr: Garry Breul; Tech. Dir: Trez Cole
Critic: 
Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed: 
April 2003