If there’s ever a way of sending a smile through the telephone, Todd Thomson probably has the best chance of accomplishing the feat.
That’s because you just know he’s beaming as he explains his latest stage role in Gateway Theatre’s season-ending production Don’t Dress for Dinner, which hits the main stage April 7 and runs until April 23.
Why?
It’s a good old farce — full of wit, double takes, innuendo and adulterers skirting the edge of having their plans discovered.
It’s a new direction for Thomson, who plays Bernard, the central character who thinks he’s got everything under control when he invites his mistress, Suzanne (Krista Colosimo) over for the weekend while his wife, Jacqueline (Alison Deon) is out of town to visit her ailing mother.
Usually associated with dramatic roles, Thomson said the opportunity to play things for laughs was one he eagerly sought.
“I think I’m a pretty funny guy,” Thomson said. “And I honestly don’t think it’s much of a shift.
“I think having been provided the opportunity to explore this comedic play is something I have been waiting to do,” he added.
“I don’t think it’s more or less of a challenge. I think it’s something that’s in my wheelhouse that I am able to do. This has simply provided me the opportunity to do it.”
And an offshoot of that is the chance to have a good laugh in rehearsals.
“We’re having a ball, we really are,” Thomson said laughing. “I think it’s a testament to our director, Ashlie Corcoran and assistant director Heather Cant.
“The room of trust that they created for rehearsals, and the chance to explore our characters, was incredibly helpful for something like this.”
Thomson also credited his fellow cast members for making the conditions right.
“I’d be friends with them if I wasn’t acting with them because I like and respect them,” he said. “That really helps with an ensemble piece like this.
“Everyone has been wonderful to work with and incredibly playful. We’re all trying to have fun for each other,” he said. “And the audience sees that and they in turn have fun, which verges on slapstick, at times.”
The lightning rod for all of this onstage merriment is the hapless Bernard, who thinks he can keep several balls in the air — deceiving his wife and providing a cover story for his impending tryst.
“But he learns very quickly, the first few minutes into the play, that they come crashing down. But he doesn’t really know how hard,” Thomson said.
Originally written by French playwright Marc Camoletti, they end up crashing with panache, Thomson explained.
“They don’t crash with shards of glass everywhere. No one’s life is ruined by the end of it, which by definition is a farce. No one has a deeply cathartic experience.”
Bernard’s plans begin to unravel when he decides to also invite his best friend, Robert (Kirk Smith), for the weekend to throw his wife off the scent.
But little does Bernard know that his wife is having an affair with Robert.
Keeping up?
And when Bernard’s wife realizes Robert is coming to her house for the weekend, she cancels her trip to see her mother.
The resulting clash of couples, in and outside of wedlock, provides a riotous landscape Thomson said is littered with witty, staccato-like dialogue and scenes with plenty of well-timed entrances and exits to keep the audience on the edge and entertained.
“It becomes a very full house,” Thomson said. “There’s a lot of mistaken identities and things get kinda crazy.
“And at the end of the play, Bernard admits he’s guilty, but by that time everyone is, too.
But they are only guilty of riding that edge, dipping over that edge.
“Everyone is culpable and everyone is forgivable.”
Don’t Dress for Dinner runs April 7-23 at the Gateway Theatre.
For tickets, showtimes and dates, visit online at GatewayTheatre.com.
