Mayhem and laughs

‘Retour au fou-foyer’ (‘Return to the Crazy Manor’) opens on July 19 in Abram-Village

What happens when a semiretired psychiatrist temporarily moves into a seniors’ care facility to anonymously evaluate the mental health of its residents and when one of the residents mistakenly assumes the new guy is a vicious, psychotic killer?

The result is a momentous amount of manor mayhem.

And that’s what the audience will enjoy in the storyline of the brand-new “V’nez veiller” dinner-theatre production at the Acadian Musical Village in Abram-Village this summer. This new French show, called “Retour au fou-foyer” (“Return to the Crazy Manor”), is actually a sequel to the popular 2007 edition of the dinner-theatre.

After a seven-year absence, well-known playwright-director Raymond J. Arsenault is back at the helm, serving up his usual brand of crazy comedy.

“I’ll readily admit that I was a huge fan of the TV show “Three’s Company”, so you can expect to see some of that type of comedy in my new play. You’ll see cases of mistaken identity, people overhearing parts of conversations and assuming the worse plus some Jack Tripper-type physical comedy.”

Arsenault has assembled a cast of popular musicians and actors for the show, which includes a musical portion as the residents of the seniors’ facility are putting on a concert to celebrate Canada’s 150th anniversary.

Gerald Arsenault is back in a lead role as the handsome and entertaining widower Manuel who charms all the ladies (namely Hortense, the uppity old girl played by Janine Gallant, and Julienne, the sarcastic old biddy played by Julie Arsenault). When the also-charming psychiatrist Dr. Philippe Thibodeau (Michael Richard) moves in, Manuel becomes extremely jealous and sets out to discredit the newcomer and hopefully get him booted out. Thankfully, the home’s new, ditzy recreation director Suzanne (played by Kaylee Arsenault) is there to try to prevent an all-out war from breaking out. But she’ll probably just fan the fire.

The audiences will have ample opportunity to laugh throughout the evening, especially when they’re not clapping along and stomping their feet to some lively Acadian and Canadian music.

They’ll also get a fourcourse meal served by the actors.

The show plays every Wednesday and Thursday at 6:30 p.m. from July 19 to Aug. 30. Tickets must be reserved in advance by calling 902-854-3300.

SUBMITTED PHOTO The cast members of the French dinner-theatre show, “V’nez veiller”, at the Acadian Musical Village in AbramVillage are busily rehearsing their parts for this year’s production, “Retour au fou-foyer”, written and directed by Raymond J. Arsenault. From...