Comedy by Hilda Vleugels

3 acts
for 6 women and 3 men
Set: The livingroom of an old, decent manor house

CHARACTERS

The family Cooper
ALICE : Mother of Charlene, Judith and Rhonda. Age: about 60. Optimistic, charismatic lady.
CHARLENE : Age: 38. Dissatisfied housewife. Bourgeois.
JUDITH : Age 36 years. Clever, with strong character. Smart and witty.
RHONDA : Age: 34. Sophisticated, chic, young lady. Easily irritated.
The husbands
ERIC : Charlene's husband. Cool businessman. Introvert.
BENNY : Judith's husband. Sensitive, affectionate, clumsy.
FRANK : Rhonda's husband. Smooth talker, clownish, egotistical braggart.
The relations
SABRINA : Rhonda's pretty girl-friend. Sweet, polite.
ELVIRA : At first -- a cool, silent housekeeper. Later -- a clever girl and voluptuous vamp.

SYNOPSIS

Alice has invited her three daughters and their husbands for a weekend. For whatever the purpose(s) could be, in all respects she counts on their understanding...

The guests arrive. For mother's sake, they all pretend to be hapilly married, while in fact none of the three marriages is really perfect. Then Alice proclaims indifferently and cool, that dad took off with his secretary and that, when he introduced his lover, she had said airily: "You can have him!"

For the daughters this is the signal to sigh they would like to dump their husbands. Consequently the ladies set up a trap to catch their husbands on adultry. For that purpose two ladies brought in: Renate's girl-friend and Elvira, the housekeper. Meanwhile Alice keeps on surprising their daughters by her frivolous utterances. She, who has always been such a distinguished lady!...

Although Elvira was a dark, silent character at first, she reveals herself as a competent seducer. Yet, not everything happens as planned.

Eric isn't interested in Elvira, but in his sister-in-law: Judith! Seducing Benny turns out to be hopeless as he messes things up constantely.  Francis, who was predestined for Renate's girl-friend, is in the third heaven about Elvira! Still the end of the story is unpredictable. The three couples end up with different results. And Alice has a final surprise in reserve.

COPYRIGHTS

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