ELK POINT - Elk Point Regional Allied Arts Society’s spring dinner theatre presentation of ‘Whose Wives Are They Anyway?’ hit the stage this weekend with the first three of five performances, and while audiences soon found out whose wives – or at least stand-in wives – were whose, they were definitely wondering, “What next?” and “What if…”
It all happens when the Ashley Maureen Cosmetics Company acquires a new CEO, and to clear their heads before the newcomer arrives on Monday, company vice presidents David McGachen (Udo Mueller) and John Baker (Braden Campeau) decide to enjoy a weekend at a golf resort and send their wives on a shopping spree.
It’s a lovely resort, but one with telephone challenges that keep club manager Mrs. Carlson (Velma Hudson) and handyman Wilson (Roger Smith) busy fielding calls that are supposed to go to a bookie… which strangely enough, bothers Mrs. Carlson, who knows nothing about horse racing, far more than it does Wilson.
Hmm… it makes one wonder, but that’s the least of this golfing weekend’s conundrums.
What they didn’t know was that the new boss, D. L. Hutchinson, is a lady (Dixie Coleman) and a feisty lady at that, one who declares she not only wants to meet their wives that very evening, but that she “can’t stand it when men go golfing without their wives” and any men who would do that would be out the door!
What to do, what to do?
John convinces the club’s receptionist Tina (Amber Cook) to show up as his wife, but what will David do? Remembering that John once masqueraded as a woman in a play, he talks him into becoming a fast-change artist who would be both himself and David’s redheaded wife for the evening, switching back and forth at brief intervals.
Still, everything’s going along reasonably well – the new boss sending Wilson out for roses for David’s missus and champagne for John’s brand new bride, and then, the real wives – Karly McGachen (Barb Hymanyk) and Laura Baker (Jan Young) come strolling in with laden shopping bags, to surprise their husbands! Well! That definitely had the straitlaced Mrs. Carlson laying down the law “to those two hussies” about lascivious behaviour, wife-swapping and other forms of misbehaviour.
All this goes on while Tina slurps the champagne that her presumed husband’s new boss advises will put her in the mood to consummate the marriage, and chronic complainer Wilson, with more aches and pains than any six people, does his best to get the telephone glitches sorted out, at least until one of the real wives, wanting to make her husband jealous, makes a move on him!
There’s no wonder at all that everyone wonders ‘Whose Wives Are They Anyway?’ in Michael Parker’s hilarious farce directed by Don Conrad with production assistance by Velma Hudson, lights and sound by Rob Walker, sets by Lavern Kittlitz, Dean Rogal and Don Schultz, programs by Lawrence Pidluzny and posters by Braden Compeau, Doris Osinchuk overseeing the dining room and Shirley’s Catering providing the wonderful meals enjoyed by all before the show starts.
There show will be back this coming weekend, April 12 and 13, to entertain, and quite likely puzzle, two more audiences with all the fun of this on-stage frolic.
