Farce is bare essential (From Stroud News and Journal)

Farce is bare essential

PAINSWICK Players are keen to deny rumours circulating locally that they are to present lunch-time strip shows.

"It's all a misunderstanding," claimed a spokesman for the amateur dramatic society, Jack Burgess.

"It's dinner, not lunch and there's no stripping. "Well, not much.

"And anyway, it's all done in the best possible taste." The production which has fuelled the rumours is the French farce Don't Dress for Dinner, the players' first play in the society's 80th anniversary year.

Quite what the Painswick Players' formidable founder Lucy Hyatt would have made of the saucy production is open to debate.

The plot revolves around a frustrated Frenchman's attempts to entertain his chic Parisian mistress for the weekend.

An evening of comic confusion ensues, with a hilarious mix of mistaken identity, secret affairs and cordon bleu cookery.

Don't Dress for Dinner will be staged at the Painswick Centre for three nights from Thursday, May 8 to Saturday, May 10.

Tickets are available from Painswick Post Office or the village's Shetland Shop.