Don’t Drink the Water

The Minstrel Players presents Woody Allen’s Don’t Drink the Water, with special agreement with Samuel French, Inc. Ray Palen directs.

It’s a cavalcade of comedy and hilarious slapstick farce and it all takes place inside an American embassy behind the 1960’s Iron Curtain. An American caterer Walter Hollander, with his wife Marion, and daughter Susan, are visiting the exciting communist country on vacation from their humdrum lives in New Jersey and stumble upon a communist missile site and are accused of being spies. They rush into the American embassy two steps ahead of communist police officer Krojak who suspects their picture taking as spying. Unfortuantely, their hope of refuge and asylum are met by newly appointed Ambassador Axel Magee who has just been left in charge while his Daddy–the real Ambassador–is away campaigning for his run for governor back in the States. Axel is a blundering ne’er-do-well who has the unfortunate gift of making everything he touch turn to chaos. He’s been banned from a dozen and one countries, including the entire continent of Africa, and is on the road to incarcerating the hapless tourists. And while Axel and Susan fall in love, the bizarre mix of characters that only Woody Allen could conjure, including Father Drobney–the catholic priest with magician aspirations, an over-efficient assistant Kilroy, the very important and very serious Sultan of Bashir, an exasperated, under-appreciated Chef, and Consul Mrs. Burns, all conspire to try and help the Hollanders escape the embassy and the country to return back to their humdrum lives, which they now long for.