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Scott Terrell

MOUNT VERNON — When it comes to theater productions, there’s always a demanding cast member.

Some are unfriendly and aloof. Some are loud and in your face. Some are high maintenance.

But in RiverBelle Dinner Theatre’s production of the comedy “Kitchen Witches,” which runs through June 28, the toughest member of the cast has actually been, well, the food.

Wendy Bell, director of the production, can only roll her eyes as she plops down yet another bag of groceries — flour, peppers, celery, milk, bread — to replace the food that’s gone bad since the last rehearsal.

“Every week we have to buy fresh produce, fruits, bread, you name it,” Bell said, rolling her eyes. “It’s major shopping each week. We have a mini-refrigerator, but it only holds so much.”

And that’s just what people see onstage, she said. Take a walk backstage and you’ll find two large tables overflowing with kitchen supplies.

Whew!

But that’s to be expected in a play that revolves around food — well, food and the hilarious antics of two culinary divas, who after spending the past 30 years stewing over a romantic feud find themselves working on the same cable-access cooking show.

Chef Isobel Lomax and her nemesis Dolly Biddle have been hosting separate cable cooking shows for years, until their shows are cancelled. On the last day of Dolly’s show, “Cooking with Babcha” — Dolly’s a native of Buffalo, N.Y., but portrays a Ukranian chef and teaches her viewers how to whip up peroges — Dolly slams Isobel on air, not knowing that Isobel is in the studio audience. Isobel furiously jumps on stage and the food and insults fly.

Then a sponsor who saw the on-air fight — and thought it was a hit — suggests the two women together host another cable cooking show. Empty of options, they agree, and spend the rest of the play trying to one-up and embarrass the other.

Meantime, viewers get a glimpse into the curdled history of the two chefs. Turns out, they were once best friends until the man they both dated in high school decided to marry Dolly and carry on an affair with Isobel for years.

Caught in the middle is Dolly’s daughter, Stephanie, who struggles to keep the two women from ripping one another to pieces during the show and who discovers a secret that changes her life.

All of the characters contrast starkly, including the nose-in-the-air Isobel, the earthy and boisterous Dolly, the uptight and fretting Stephanie, and Goth Girl, a mostly silent character dressed primarily in black and purple who tapes the cable show as part of her “Keep Our Kids Off the Streets” campaign.

Isobel in some ways resembles homemaking and culinary diva Martha Stewart, said Kelly Pollino, who plays the character in “Kitchen Witches” and performed in RiverBelle’s first production last fall, “Swingtime Canteen.”

“She’s studied abroad, she thinks she’s just very high-class, but she really has some very humble beginnings,” Pollino said, while sporting a tall, white chef’s hat.

Isobel ends up studying cooking and hospitality at the world-famous Le Cordon Bleu academy in France, while Dolly ends up slinging hash and burgers in Buffalo’s diners, Pollino said.

Dolly is the quintessential ’50s woman of old comedy sitcoms who drinks too much, is quick-witted and raised her daughter mostly by herself, said Kelly Siebecke, who plays the character.

Stephanie Biddle, played by Carolyn Travis, has a tough time trying to control her mother, who spends time snacking on the food on set and downing shots of liquor.

All the characters agree that handling the food has been their biggest challenge.

“You have to be cutting carrots and playing with beets and onions and doing a few other things with food, like making a salad, while you’re reciting lines and trying not to mess any of it up, and trying not to cut off my finger,” Siebecke said, with a smile.

“Trying to remember the script and the order of what they say, and grab the real food has been tough,” Pollino said.

As always, the RiverBelle production includes an interactive element, this one requiring the onstage chefs to whip up a dessert in about two minutes and then pull someone from the audience to judge their culinary skills.

In addition, the audience will be treated to showings of old television commercials and ’50s sitcom pilots, including “I Love Lucy” as the preshow entertainment, in keeping with the old sitcom-esque style of the play, Bell said.

“It’s like a cross between ‘I Love Lucy’ and ‘The Carol Burnett Show,’” Bell said.

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Want to go?

• What: The RiverBelle Dinner Theatre production of "Kitchen Witches," a comedy by Canadian playwright Caroline Smith.

• When: Doors open at 6:30 p.m. each Friday and Saturday night now through June 28.

• Where: RiverBelle Dinner Theatre, 100 E. Montgomery St., Mount Vernon, in the Old Town Grainery Building (just north of Skagit Station).

• Cost: $40, includes dinner and the show.

• Tickets, information: 360-336-3012 or http://www.riverbelledinnertheatre.com.

• Beverly Crichfield can be reached at 360-416-2135 or .