Hilarious new comedy premiering the Tabard this July

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Ad - Dressing Gown demonstrates how even the most innocent conversation can land you in deep trouble

Dressing Gown is a riotous comedy that demonstrates how even the most innocent conversation can land you in deep trouble. And how hard it is, some days, just to get dressed…

Tom Asher has two immediate aims. To prevent his life tipping into catastrophe. And to get dressed. It turns out neither will be easy — in fact both rapidly escalate towards impossibility — as he fends off a series of eccentric visitors whose sole aim seems to be test his patience, his professionalism, his sanity — and his resolve not to be dragged into a disastrous liaison with an alluring young woman who really just wants revenge on her boyfriend, who just happens to be Tom’s best friend and his business partner. What unfolds is an hilarious series of events, underscoring the significance of the simple (or complicated) act of getting dressed.

Writer Andrew Cartmel is well known for his celebrated tenure as script editor on Doctor Who and his Vinyl Detective and Paperback Sleuth series of crime novels. Mercurius Theatre’s Offie Nominated Jenny Eastop is on board to direct, with recent shows at The Park Theatre, Finborough and Riverside Studios.

We spoke to Jenny and Andrew about the show:

Andrew, why did you want to do Dressing Gown?
Plays arise from all kinds of strange sources but this one came directly from personal experience. Now and then I’ve found myself getting out bed, perhaps to answer the phone, and pulling on my dressing gown. And then the phone just keeps ringing. Or, worse yet, people keep turning up on the doorstep. And before I know it’s past noon, I’m still in my dressing gown, and feeling like a degenerate… So I always knew there was comic potential in that material, because frustration — in this case the frustrated attempts to get dressed — are a powerful engine of comedy.

Jenny, What excites you about Dressing Gown?
I love directing comedy because it can be so much more truthful than some ‘serious’ plays. Life at its heart is absurd and usually without dramatic status. The essence of farce is that the peril the protagonist is struggling with, which is life or death to them, is utterly ridiculous to anyone else. It might ‘just’ be comedy but it holds a mirror up to humanity perfectly.

Andrew, what were your main influences when you wrote this play?
Well, all the usual suspects, by which I mean my favourite comic playwrights, who include Noel Coward, Simon Gray, Neil Simon and Alan Ayckbourn. But I also have to say that our director Jenny Eastop was an enormous influence on the script. Normally I hate rewrites with a passion. Getting me to do them is like trying to give the cat a bath. But in this case, Jenny’s suggestions were so acute and astute, and so obviously improved the play, that it was a pleasure to make those changes. She’s really made an enormous contribution.

Jenny, how are rehearsals going?
It’s a great cast who are a joy to work with and we’re having a lot of laughs. But actually rehearsing comedy is a very serious business, particularly a farce, because there needs to be incredible rigour in pinning down every moment and finding the truth of every beat. Thankfully this amazing cast are not only really detailed but also wonderfully creative so this play is bursting with brilliance!

Jenny, is this your first time working with the Tabard?
It’s my first time working at the Tabard but definitely not my first time as an audience member. I always know when I go to see something at the Tabard that it’s going to be a quality production and a really interesting play, there aren’t many venues you can be so confident of.

Why should people come and see it?
Jenny: I think everyone needs entertainment and a really good evening of comedy, particularly nowadays. But it also lifts the lid on the world of theatre – the perils, the insecurities, the eccentric characters and how madly they behave under pressure. And in doing so, just as importantly, it lifts the lid on how we all struggle with the pressures of modern life.

Andrew: Because they need a good laugh and I need the money!

Dressing Gown plays from 10th to 27th July. Sign up for the Tabard’s mailing list, see the full listings and book tickets at tabard.org.uk or call 020 8995 6035

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July 11, 2024