Plaza Suite

by Neil Simon
May 15, 16, 17, 2003
Directed by Ann Westcott
Produced by Alan Watson. Stage Manager: Geoff Stretton

Three one-act plays, full of wit and humour, all set in the luxurious Suite 719 at the Plaza Hotel, New York. The plays are also linked by a common theme of relationships in trouble.

The Eydon Players casting combined experienced actors and actresses with talented but hitherto less ambitious members. The result was a tremendous success, as can be seen from the NODA Review

The Set

Box set. Divided into two main rooms by a cut-away wall USC. Door between the rooms USC.
SR: a sitting room, SL: the bedroom, with door DSL to the bathroom.
Door DSR to the hotel corridor. Windows USL and USR with a view over Central Park and skyscrapers.

Set design by Alan Watson
Scenery by Judith Watson, Sue McRoberts and Marie Eyes
Properties by Don Hussey
Lighting by Terry Bullworthy and Charlie Manton

Act One: Visitor from Mamoronek

Karen Nash (Sonia Hawes) plans a romantic evening for husband Sam, (Mick Hawes) by spending their 24th wedding anniversary re-visiting the honeymoon suite at the Plaza. She gets the year wrong and the date wrong, and sadly, Sam is more interested in work and his young secretary, Jean McCormack (Alison Smith), than he is in spending an evening with his wife.

It all ends in tears.

Act Two: Visitor from Hollywood

Local boy made good, Hollywood producer Jesse Kiplinger, (John Guppy) is in town for a few days and he looks up his high school sweetheart, Muriel Tate (Penny Avery). He invites her to the Plaza.

Muriel is now a suburban housewife, married with three children, but her marriage is not as happy as most folks believe.

Does Jesse take advantage of her, or is he really lonely and misunderstood and just looking for a good woman?

Act Three: Visitor from Forest Hills

A grand wedding at the Plaza, but Roy and Norma Hubley (Tim Williams and Sally Stretton) have a crisis on their hands. The bride, daughter Mimsey, has locked herself in the bathroom and will not come out.

The Hubley's constant dog-fighting is the cause of Mimsey's doubts about marriage, but it makes for hilarious farce.

Above:
It is left to the bridegroom, Borden Eisler, (Mike Jackson) to sort out Mimsey and get the show on the road.

Left:
Mimsey decides to get married after all.
(Lynne Gardner-Jones)

Right: All's well that ends well: the parents of the bride