London.
THE HOTEL PLAYS
Green Eyes, The Travelling Companion, Sunburst
by Tennessee Williams.
Grange Holborn Hotel 50-60 Southampton Row WC1B 4AR To 27 October 2012.
Mon–Sat 6.30pm, 7pm, 8pm,8.30pm
Runs 1hr 30min No interval.
TICKETS: 0207 478 0100.
www.thehotelplays.com
Review: William Russell 6 October.
Calling for Room Service.
The gimmick in this Deflibrillator production is that the three tiny plays set in hotel rooms are staged in hotel bedrooms in a real hotel and the action takes place in two of them at least in real time. The audience assembles in the lobby and is conducted to each suite in turn. They could as easily have been staged in a theatre, but the gimmick works, turning a slight evening into something quite sinister.
Just as what goes on behind lace curtains is endlessly fascinating, so is what occurs in hotel rooms – think Plaza Suite. In the first play, set in New Orleans, a newly-wed couple wake up the morning after. He had got drunk, she had returned before him. He has a question. Why does she bear all the signs of enthusiastic lovemaking he has no memory of being part of? She has a tale to tell – eventually.
In the second one a writer, not a million miles removed from the author, is in a bedroom in Los Angeles with a young hustler he picked up in San Francisco. The boy insists he had been promised a single bed on the trip, the man pops pills, flutters around, makes clear he expects a return for his money. Both are clearly lost souls. Will anything happen?
In the third piece an aged actress, who lives in a hotel suite with her sunburst diamond solitaire ring for company, is visited by a waiter and his friend who turn out to be up to no good. Will she and her diamond survive the night?
Three intriguing situations, decent acting, and the claustrophobic settings make it a night in a hotel one will not soon forget. The plays are undeniably slight, but worth doing and the trio of directors and the players do them justice.
Green Eyes:
Boy: Matt Milne.
Girl: Clare Latham.
Waiter: Royce Pierreson.
Director: James Hillier.
The Travelling Companion:
Vieux: John Guerrasio.
Beau: Laurence Dobiesz.
Waiter: Royce Pierreson.
Director: Anthony Banks.
Sunburst:
Miss Sylvia Sails: Carol MacReady.
Guiseppe: Charlie Hollway.
Luigi: Joshua Silver.
Waiter: Royce Pierreson.
Director: James Hillier.
2012-10-08 01:06:48
