Dull dinner party gets sexed up

“RolePlay”

Through October 23

Directed by Ted Pappas

O’Reilly Theater

412-316-1600… “RolePlay”

Through October 23

Directed by Ted Pappas

O’Reilly Theater

412-316-1600

It’s nerve-wracking meeting your fiancee’s parents for the first time. It’s even more difficult to make a good first impression when a scantily clad lap dancer plops down from the sky and joins you for the evening.

In the Pittsburgh Public Theater’s latest production, Alan Ayckbourn’s “RolePlay” mixes an ordinary situation with some bizarre circumstances for farcical results in London’s Docklands.

Julie (Tressa Glover) and Justin (Brian Hutchison) are preparing a dinner party at Justin’s flat to announce their engagement. The mood is tense, punctuated by moments of lightening and thunder from the raging storm. Julie has moved all her belongings back to her old apartment so her parents won’t discover that they have been living together. The flatware is dirty and somehow, a pudding fork is missing (which just ruins the place settings).

Glover and Hutchison play very well together as the anxious couple. Glover’s obsessive-compulsive Julie is amusing in her desire to throw the perfect dinner party. Amusing, however, soon turns to annoying as she whines to “Justy” about the fork. Hutchison is the relative straight man of the production, as he finds himself sucked into into the dinner party from hell.

His quiet charm offers some normality for the audience, though he is not without his moments, such as when he drops to his knees in apology for exclaiming, “Bugger your mother.”

When Justin pleads with the high-strung Julie to relax, she reminds him, in a grating, singsong voice, that he must call her “Julie-Ann” in front of her parents. As Justin balks at the idea of putting on such pretenses, she delivers an even larger blow: She wants to abstain from sex during the three months before the wedding. While Justin is still reeling from the suggestion, Julie-Ann rushes out in search of another fork.

With a thud, the bruised and rain-soaked Paige Petite (Meredith Zinner) lands on the balcony after trying to escape from her sixth story apartment. Scared her boyfriend Rudy, an abusive boxing promoter, will kill her when he gets back, she tries to flee. But one of Rudy’s thugs, an ex-boxer named Mickey (Mark Mineart), tracks her down. Mineart’s portrayal of the massive ruffian is loveable, as he wields a gun one moment and in the next, asks if he can help with the preparations.

To Justin’s consternation, Paige and Mickey decide to stay for dinner and meet the folks. Laughs abound when Julie-Ann’s parents, the uptight and small-minded Derek and Dee Jobson (Ross Bickell and Cynthia Darlow), arrive.

Dee, who only introduces herself as “Derek’s wife,” takes 10 minutes to decide on a drink and then finally opts for water. Meanwhile, Justin’s lush of a mother, Arabella Lazenby (Jane Summerhays), shows up halfway to happy land.

Bickell and Darlow are at first adorable as the doting parents, but after listening to their conversations, it becomes apparent that beneath their smiling eyes lie ignorance and prejudice. Ayckbourn’s treatment of the couple, however, is never anything but comical.

Summerhays is hilarious in her drunken antics. Mistaking the trashy (yet provocative) Paige for Justin’s girlfriend, she admits how relieved she is that Justin isn’t dating another dog. She shrieks when she learns the truth of the matter and lays her eyes on the prim Julie-Ann. Ayckbourn again plays with the notion of appearances versus reality, for though Arabella appears polished, well-mannered and well-off, she’s nothing but a crass drunk.

It is, without a doubt, however, Meredith Zinner who steals the show as Paige. Her gravelly cockney accent and “what you see is what you get” attitude grabs your attention from the moment she walks – well, is carried – onstage.

With little care for manners or propriety, she calls Mickey any number of expletives and gives Arabella a run for her money in the liquor department. Despite her rough exterior, it is her appreciation for those who help her and the simple desire to live her life that puts the audience in her corner.

Under the superb direction of Ted Pappas, this strong ensemble cast is sure to delight theatergoers. And while you’re laughing at a dinner party gone awry, you might stop to consider your own experience with role-playing.