Transported to the California Suite

In the Dixon, there were two simple rooms set up with an adjoining door. A telephone in each, and a bed in one with a chaise-longue in the other. The decor was a little Golden Girls - pastels, kitschy - so this was the California Suite...

Four vignettes followed, charting four different scenes within this one hotel suite. Adapted from the Neil Simon play by the East Essex Players, it was a treat. The first scene was between a divorced couple, sparring in the hotel room while trying to decide which parent their 17 daughter should live with: the clipped society mother in New York, or the laid-back, tennis playing father in California? The barbs they threw at each other delivered more zingers than a KFC at school chucking out time. It was snappy, funny, and poignant all at once.

The scene then switched to a string vest-sporting man who wakes up hungover in the suite, next to a limp and lifeless stranger - a woman - scantily clad and clutching an empty vodka bottle. He leaps to the telephone to tell reception to stall his wife who's flying in from Philadelphia, but... what's that? She's on her way up to the hotel room? The following scenes of him trying to hide the bed-bound woman and covering up his hangover were immensely stressful, with slapstick abound. This really lived up to the screwball comedy style, as did the farcical scene where a rowing pair of married couples gain various injuries in the suite following a particularly nasty tennis match.

My favourite scene was where a British actress and her husband are getting ready - and then subsequently return home from - the Oscars, where she doesn't win. The acting in this scene was spellbinding from both actors. Diana, the nominated actress, feels simultaneously hopeful and realistic about winning/not winning, and her closeted husband Sidney attempts to offer support while they pretend their marriage isn't a fake. When they returned, pissed as farts from the ceremony, I roared with laughter as Diana staggered in one high heel, spitting out confetti from her hair, trying to focus on Sidney and grabbing at her jewellery, attempting to remove it. She acted 'drunk' so well, it was hilarious, but the laughs melted into sadness as the reality of her losing the gong, and that her husband met a handsome young actor at the afterparty, hits home.

I really was impressed with how I felt transported to a hot, tense West Coast hotel suite in all of these vignettes; glimpses into lives that felt relatable despite the sometimes brash, cartoonish elements.

Some of the American accents needed a tiny tweak from a dialect coach, and I wasn't sure the modern nods (mentioning Meryl Streep's many Oscar wins or referencing Steve Jobs) quite translated within this very 1970s script - but those are tiny criticisms, and this performance definitely charmed me. I look forward to the East Essex Players' next turn.

It's easy to get your tickets for the 'main event' things going on at the Cliffs or Palace, but don't forget to support your local theatre companies doing what they do best. They might not have the biggest budgets or the main auditoriums, but sometimes that's just fine when they can really deliver on the magic.

To read all of Ray's previous blogs, please click here