1-What happened
One hundred lycée JulesFil students together with our form '212' went on Wednesday November 26th 2003 to the M.J.C. (Maison des Jeunes et de la Culture) to see a play in English by the Quorum Theatre. The show took about an hour then we asked questions to the English actors and director and we had a little conversation with them. The title of the play was: Playing Mathilde
2- The plot of Playing Mathilde
In a family in England, the father, Harold Carter, a widower for two years now, is meeting some friends for the evening. He's leaving his daughter, Nina, alone at home. She has to work and revise for her exams.
But she takes advantage of her father's evening out to invite her boyfriend, Tommy, who arrives with a bottle of whisky and a lot of ideas about how to spend the time...
A few glasses later, Ninas's father comes back very unexpectedly.
Nina panics and talks Tommy into dressing up as Mme LAPIERRE, the au pair girl and Nina's French teacher who is to arrive from France on the following day. To do so, he'll use Nina's mother's wig and clothes.
Harold also tastes Tommy's whisky...too much! and starts chatting up Tommy in Mme LAPIERRE's clothes. Remember the title: Playing Mathilde
After a while, when the situation gets very embarrassing, Tommy prefers revealing he is not a woman but pretends he is a burglar, treats Harold and Nina very roughly and goes away after stealing some money and jewels. They're both shocked, especially Harold who wants to call the police when Tommy arrives. By chance, he was passing by and found this weird-looking woman with that bag and recognized some of Nina's things. He is their hero and Harold is very pleased with him when he discovers Tommy and the burglar are the same person.
A lot of explanations are necessary then but, all of sudden, there's a knock on the door : it's the real Mme LAPIERRE just arrived from France one day early!