AMATEUR THEATRE REVIEW: Plaza Suite - The Garrick Theatre, Stockport.

It was great to finally return to one of my favourite local theatres after such a long break. If you've never been there before, the Garrick in Stockport have been presenting high quality productions for many years and is a friendly and welcoming place with a nice bar. Some shows are performed in the bar area itself and others, like this one, in the main auditorium.

'Plaza Suite' is actually a series of 3 one act pieces, set in room 719 of the Plaza Hotel in New York. It was good to see that the full width of the stage was used to give the feel of a large hotel room – on one side, there was the lounge and on the other, the bedroom.

There was good use of incidental music to help set the action in the late 1960s. It's a personal foible of mine but I always prefer to have the curtains drawn before the start as I like to see the 'reveal' as the play begins. I'm only going to outline the plot of each story to avoid too many spoilers.

In 'Visitor From Mamaroneck', Karen Nash (Sarah Field) enters the suite; she is awaiting the arrival of her husband Sam (Morgan Edwards) as it's their 24th wedding anniversary and this is the room they spent their honeymoon night in. There is an opening element of farce where Karen ends up wearing a shoe and a galosh (she struggled to get the other galosh off) as she answers the two phones placed on either side of the stage. Workaholic Sam eventually appears and the tension between them is obvious from the beginning as he constantly corrects her – according to him, their anniversary is the next day and it's the 23rd, not the 24th! Sam regularly exercises to keep his weight down but Karen prefers him a little 'flabby'. This is a wry tale of a marriage on the rocks and is sensitively played with touches of humour throughout. During the melodrama, we also briefly meet the bellhop (Chris de Mercado) and Sam's secretary Jean McCormack (Bronwyn Bull).

Act 2 - 'Visitor From Hollywood' - is completely different and is centred around successful Hollywood producer Jesse Kiplinger (Chris Rogerson). He takes the opportunity of being in the city to ring his old flame, suburban housewife Muriel Tate (Hazel Pargeter). Muriel is fully aware of his reputation as a smooth-talking ladies' man; she is an avid reader of glossy magazine gossip columns and has followed his stellar career ever since he left their home town. However, she has only come for a chat between old friends, constantly promising herself (and the audience) that she will not stay too long. Jesse, however, has other plans in mind. A very funny “will they, won't they?” tale.

After the interval, the third and final act - 'Visitor From Forest Hills' – was played out; this revolved around married couple Roy and Norma Hubley (Morgan Edwards and Jess Nichols) on the wedding day of their daughter Mimsey (Bronwyn Bull). In a rush of nervousness, Mimsey has locked herself in the suite's bathroom and refuses to leave. This is definitely the most comedic of the three acts, which is filled with increasingly outrageous slapstick moments; we see the parents' frantic attempts to cajole Mimsey into attending the marriage ceremony while the guests are gathered in the green room downstairs, impatiently awaiting the trio's arrival. I particularly enjoyed Roy's laugh-out-loud portrayal which stayed just the right side of believable farce.

All in all, a very good evening of entertainment. This highly recommended production runs nightly from Monday 20th to Saturday 25th.

Reviewer - David Swift
on - 18.9.21