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Dinner by Moira Buffini


IN THE BAR

dinner poster image

Thursday November 22 – Sunday 25 November at 7-45

Dinner by Moira Buffini directed by Pauline Armour

BOOK TICKETS

PREVIEW
Pauline Armour makes a welcome return to Bar Theatre at BLT for the first
time since launching this intimate addition to the main house in January
2011.  Pauline directs Dinner by Moira Buffini a deliciously dark satirical
comedy  which centres around the dinner party from hell. First seen at the
National in  2002 with Harriet Walter playing Paige – the hostess with the
mostest – this  definitely bad-taste comedy is Abigail’s Party but transported to
the realms of  the well -heeled middle classes. The viciousness of the
humour makes Mike  Leigh’s cringingly embarrassing play look like a work of
Catherine Cookson and  Paige’s painstakingly prepared menu is definitely not the
kind of thing you  would find in Delia Smith. Acerbic and caustic comments
fly like poisonous darts  across the dinner table leaving a trail of carnage
in their wake …….. and  what is the real identity of the sinister
waiter?
Paige, a self-confessed ‘rich-bitch’ is throwing a dinner party in honour
of  her husband Lars who is celebrating the fact that his pop psychology
book  ‘Beyond Belief ‘ is now a best seller. Like any fastidious rich host
Paige  anxiously checks with the waiter, whom she has employed for the
occasion, that  everything is prepared for the imminent arrival of her guests. It is
only when  she hands over his payment of £25,000 in cash that one suspects
the meal may  contain some rather nasty surprises.
The guests at this feast of horrors are Wynne , a post-feminist dippy-hippy
artist who specialises in so called erotica, Hal, a microbiologist who
knows a  great deal about deadly micros and who has not written a best selling
book,  Hal’s girlfriend Sian, a journalist and news reader who resents the
way Hal  keeps referring to her as a ‘news babe’; and Mike, an uninvited
guest who having  crashed his van in the fog calls at the house seeking the use
of the telephone,  and ends up staying for dinner.
Dinner is certainly not for those of a weak stomach, faint heart or nervous
disposition. But if you are broad minded, have exotic tastes and a robust
constitution book your ticket early and bon appetit!!
Contains VERY STRONG LANGUAGE and a very small amount of  smoking

Cast:

The Waiter – Martin Bunyan
Paige – Emma Sweeney
Lars – Stevie Hughes
Wyn – Debbie Griffiths
Sian – Timmy Wright
Hal – Matthew Eades
Mike – Andrew Newbon