Neil Simon’s The Dinner Party

Six unknowing guests have RSVP’d to a dinner at a private dining room in a first-rate restaurant in Paris. Arriving in a staggered manner, they eventually realize they are the three divorced couples-providing makings of the farce Simon intends the first half of the play to be. Five of them were mistaken into thinking a man they hold in high regard (who happens to be their divorce lawyer) is hosting the party, but he never shows up, and appearances prove to be deceiving.

Claude Pichon and Albert Donay are the first to arrive, and Claude asks what the party is for, but Albert does not know either. As the three male guests arrive first and the female guest later, it only gradually unfolds that they are three divorced couples and that somebody has designs for them to be together. After the shock wears off, the characters inevitably begin to analyze and emotionally process their past marriages, and the play ends on a hopeful note.

The Tellico Community Players present Neil Simon’s The Dinner Party at the Patricia Smith Theatre in Tellico Community Playhouse. Directed by Steve Mayberry. Tickets are $21 each and there are seven performances. For more information, go to www.tellicocommunityplayhouse.org or email tellicocommunityplayers@gmail.com.