Dishing out the bitchiness and suspense

It’s a clever title for a theatre production. When friends tell you they’re “going to Dinner” you could be forgiven for thinking they’re off to dine somewhere special, left wondering “Why aren’t I invited?” But then they might mean they’re going to see Black Swan State Theatre Company’s new black comedy Dinner – something different altogether.

Then again your friends might tell you they’re “doing dinner before the show”, so when they say they’re going to dinner before going to see Dinner, things will only sound even more confusing…

Semantics aside, Dinner is a splendid theatre production, packed with delicious morsels of wit, and great big bites of bitchiness.

The plot starts out simple enough: debutante Paige (Tasma Walton) plans a small dinner party, supposedly in celebration of the release of her husband Lars’ (Steve Turner) new self-help book. Taking a leaf out of popular topsy-turvy dinner-party scenarios such as Six Degrees Of Separation, The Cook, The Thief, The Wife & Her Lover and, yes, Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner, Paige’s dinner party takes a sudden turn – one that is way sinister than those stories’ subplots combined.

She is rude to practically every guest, belittles her husband rather than celebrates him, serves inedible dishes, insists on an intruder staying to dine as some kind of cheap entertainment, and… well, we’ll leave the twisted ending for you to discover for yourself.

The motley crew of guests is as colourful as you’d like to witness sharing the one stage: a sexy celebrity reporter (Rebecca Davis), her out-of-sync nerd of a husband (Greg McNeill), a hippy going through separation anxiety (Alison van Reeken), and an intruder who practically steals the show (and possibly some of the wealthier folks’ belongings – Note: you’ll be left wondering in the end whether Stuart Halusz’s Mike is a con-artist or genuinely charming guy).

The set is simple but smart: a long dining table, decadently decorated, the diners set around it as it slowly spins so that each character gets equal ‘face time’. It’s the perfect arrangement for a story in which no one character is pivotal and yet each is as important as the next to deliver the full story of honesty vs. deception, trust vs. distrust, greed vs. humility, rich vs. poor.

Paige’s guests are kept more like prisoners than party-goers, literally fed recycled garbage, forced to confront their own self-perception and to reveal their darkest secrets.

But while the audience plays witness to a dozen or so sordid sub-tales squeezed out of her guests, Paige’s cruellest trick is left to the very end.

Without giving it away, I will say that what starts out as a celebratory scenario soon disintegrates into something altogether sinister. Come to think of it, that started to happen two minutes in…  Antonino Tati

Black Swan State Theatre’s production of ‘Dinner’ is on at the Heath Ledger Theatre until March 29. Tickets are available through www.bsstc.com.au.

Pictured, above: Greg McNeill, Tasma Walton, Alison van Reeken, Stuart Halusz, Steve Turner and Rebecca Davis.