‘Pyjama Tops’ was initially a farce called ‘MouMou’ written in French by playwright Jean de Letraz, this was then translated and adapted for English humour by Mawby Green and Ed Feilbert.
This very funny farce, which is more confusion that numerous doors opening and closing, can be seen at the Camelot Theatre in Mosman Park Memorial Hall, 16 Lochee Street in Mosman Park, where Jo Sterkenburg always has a warm welcome. The curtain goes up on the 2-hour performance at 7.30. The season runs every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday until 3rd August with a matinée at 2.00 pm on Sunday 4th August.
The Scene: is a wealthy villa, the ‘Clair de Lune’ in the French village of Deauville.
The Set: was designed by Tina Barker and painted by Brian Mahoney, Grace Hitchin and David Eggleston. They were joined in the initial construction by Phil Redding, Julie Mackay and Ben Wade. The extra unusual props were supplied by Tina Barker, Marcus McGavock and Marina Del Borello.
The loungeroom has pale cornflower blue walls with white picture rails and woodwork. Centre of the rear wall are patio doors with an attractive external scene of a garden overlooking the sea beyond; this was painted by Melissa Bassett. Centre stage is a large three-seater couch with coffee tables at each side. The artwork was modern French. Attractive well-constructed set. On one side, a set of stairs led to the bedrooms, on the other side a corridor to the kitchen.
The stage manager, Marina Del Borello kept things moving smoothly along.
The effective lighting design, rigging (a difficult one) and operation was by Rob Tagliaferri and Callum Hunter. Vanessa Gudgeon’s sound design included some popular French tunes.
George Chauvinet (Gordon Park) is planning a ‘business trip’, commonly known in Australia as a ‘dirty weekend’. As he is about to leave, he discovers that his wife Yvonne (Kirstie Francis / Halbwirth) has invited a voluptuous friend, Babette Latouche (Tasha Jane) around for the weekend. George is confused – should he go or stay with his new bosom friend?
To make things worse, the attractive maid, a ‘cocotte’ (tart) in training, Claudine Amour (Kezia George) announces the arrival of a famous poet, Leonard Jolijoli (Alec Fuderer) a young gay friend of George’s who is being sought by a police officer, Inspector Legrand (Marcus McGavock).
Suddenly an unknown, ruggedly handsome butler, Jacque (Peter Scarrott) appears in the household and joins in with the pandemonium.
Will George get his wild weekend?
Award winning Director, Tina Barker likes to have a challenge and seems to change her genre regularly. With a fabulous cast of regular farce performers including Gordon and Peter, I expected the best. Then with the ladies proving their comedy skills, the show really took off. My award for best performer of the night goes to a quite young and inexperienced actor, Alec who was fabulous as MouMou. Great teamwork, slick movement and good control of the tricky dialogue.
The stylish and slightly daring costumes which were supervised by Tasha Jane, were wonderful; from Leonard’s suave suit, to the maid who could barely contain herself. Faced with the difficulty of finding pyjama tops in this day and age, the cast settled for equally sexy Baby Doll nighties.
The play was in three Acts. The first was a little slow with scene setting for the domestic shambles that was to follow. Act Two was very funny and the final Act was hilarious. There were a couple of young teenagers in the audience and even they seemed to get the subtly of the humour. A very good night was had by all.
The tickets are going well so check with TAZtix.com.au