Workshop Players wrangle overwrought ‘Don’t Dress for Dinner’

The laughs are strong and steady in Amherst production

To truly appreciate farce, a high pain threshold and an extraordinary tolerance for the absurd are required.

This is particularly true for “Don’t Dress for Dinner,” a British farce adapted from a French comedy by Marc Camoletti that premiered in London in 1991 and is on stage at Workshop Players in Amherst.

In the play, Bernard (Jonathan McCleery) is planning a weekend with his mistress (Melissa Lyle) while his wife, Jacqueline (Marcia Darby), is visiting her mother. He has hired a gourmet cook (Deb Burrow) and has invited his best friend, Robert (Jeff Caja), to provide an alibi. Robert, who is secretly having an affair with Jacqueline, has no idea why he was invited to the house. Of course, Jacqueline cancels her visit, which sets the madness into motion. Upon her arrival, the cook is mistaken for the mistress. Upon the mistress’ arrival, she is mistaken for the cook.

The evening consists of wild role-playing, plenty of double entendre and evershifting subterfuges whirling in and out of control with increasingly reckless abandon. While all the pronoun-heavy exchanges and vast amounts of physical comedy generate genuine hysteria in the first act, they become redundant and rather trite after intermission.

And yet director Pat Price and her cast manage to keep the laughs coming.

McCleery and Caja, as the male leads, are wonderfully endearing, and their red-faced outbursts are executed to perfection

Darby plays everything boldly and broadly, which perfectly matches her character’s preposterous position as the cheating and cheated-upon Jacqueline.

Lyle shines as Suzanne, the mistress, particularly when she is mistaken for the cook. And so does Burrow as Suzette, the cook, particularly when she is mistaken for the mistress.

Kevin Boland successfully plays Suzette’s husband, George, with the brutish force needed to give the play some urgency in the closing minutes.

The living-room setting, designed by Price and Dave Stacko, feels natural, and the mock-stone frames surrounding doors and windows cleverly suggest a converted farmhouse. It is brightly lit by Dave MacKeigan, which enhances the farce flavor of the production, as does Price’s occasionally distracting sound design that offers musical cues to introduce a character’s imminent arrival.

“Don’t Dress for Dinner” is no “Hay Fever” or “Rumors,” largely because playwright Marc Camoletti is no Noel Coward or Neil Simon. Nonetheless, it is a truly enjoyable romp in the hands of the Workshop Players.

Jeff Caja, left, and Jonathan McCleery perform in the Workshop Players production of “Don’t Dress for Dinner.”