A Fool for Dinner

A Fool for Dinner is a hilarious French comedy by Francis Veber, directed by Jiří Menzel, presented by Divadlo Bez zábradlí at Měšťanská beseda in Plzeň. Pierre and his friends regularly invite the most eccentric guests to dinner, at whose expense they entertain themselves all evening. This time, the victim of their cruel prank is supposed to be François Pignon, a ministry of finance official. However, Pierre is struck by severe back pain and must cancel the dinner at the last moment – but he forgets to inform François, who unsuspectingly arrives at Pierre's apartment, only to find his wife leaving. This sets off a chain of unpredictable situations. The main roles are played by Václav Vydra (Pierre) and Josef Carda (François), along with Rudolf Hrušínský, Jana Boušková, Jana Švandová and others. The performance lasts 125 minutes. The play has been performed on the Czech stage since 1998 and is one of the longest-running productions in the Czech Republic.