Neil Simon brings four different stories to the Denver Victorian stage

Darius Fatemi and Zach Cantor in The Man on the
Floor Photo by Dell Domnik

The Denver Victorian Playhouse is one of those staples in the Denver Theatre Community that you just have to make time to visit. The theatre was built in 1911 and legend has it that it was the first theatre west of the Mississippi to stage all of Shakespeare’s plays. The intimate basement theatre has gone through some name changes and a few different owners, but it’s been under the ownership of Wade and Lorraine Wood since 2005 and they’ve been presenting diverse and quality theatre ever since. Right now, they are currently presenting Neil Simon’s London Suite, and it certainly maintains the high quality of entertainment that “The Vic” is known for.

Directed by Denver main-stay Robert Kramer, London Suite is Neil Simon’s return to the award-winning format of his earlier successes Plaza Suite and California Suite. It is a collection of four one-act plays set in a deluxe London hotel. The only thing that ties these unrelated plays together is the setting and the reoccurring presence of the bellhop. In Settling Accounts, the suite is occupied by an inebriated Welsh writer who is holding his long time business manager, caught absconding with the writer's money, at gun point. The villain concocts increasingly farfetched explanations of what he was doing at Heathrow with the cash. Following that, we meet an American widow and her daughter who have traveled to England to buy shoes in Going Home. At the daughter's insistence, mother spends her last evening in London with a rich Scotsman. In the second act we meet Diana and Sidney, which explores another chapter in the lives of two characters from California Suite. Diana, the Oscar winning actress, and Sidney, her bisexual husband, are now divorced and are seeing each other for the first time in years. He needs money for his lover who is dying of cancer. The money is not a problem for Diana, but the realization that she still loves this man is. The final play in the evening is The Man on the Floor. We meet a married couple from New York who have lost their tickets to Wimbledon and are about to lose their suite to Kevin Costner who absolutely must have it now.
 

Kellie Rae Rockey and Jan Cleveland in Going Home
Photo by Dell Domnik

The four plays all work well independently of each other, and the cast for each does a very good job of supporting such a short scene. While all of the performances are strong, there certainly were a few actors that stood out. In the first play, Settling Accounts, Wade Wood plays the struggling writer with a delightful commitment to both sanity and insanity at the same time. He revels in the language of the scene, making for a very strong and convincing portrayal of the struggling writer. Equally strong is Jan Cleveland as Sheryl Semple in Going Home. Her understated and heartfelt performance is completely dedicated and real. Both Cleveland and Kellie Rae Rockey, who plays Cleveland’s daughter in this scene, give a very believable and committed performance as mother and daughter. The relationship is real, the performances are dedicated, and the result is a wonderful play that ended too soon.

In the second act we meet Diana and Sidney and are treated to a heart wrenching and beautiful story that is told by two actors that are deeply committed to the premise. Julie Hansen and Joe Wilson bring Diana and Sidney to heartfelt life, providing both laughter and tears in a very short time. The second act also brings some strong moments by Boni McIntyre who takes a role in both of the final two plays. In Diana and Sidney she is the dutiful secretary to Diana, yet it is her performance as Mrs. Sitgood in The Man on the Floor that is a perfect example of character-acting-done-well. She is truly committed to the extreme and allows the audience to completely believe her over-the-top performance and zany antics, yet she never overshadows the rest of the cast or fails to blend in. Brian Brooks is the Man on the Floor, and he displays a very strong understanding of physical comedy and the timing needed to pull of such difficult humor. Brooks has been making a name for himself in comedy lately, with some very strong performances all over town. Having seen him in Firehouse Theater’s Incorruptible, Spotlight Theatre’s Don’t Drink the Water, and now this – it is a delight to see his comedic skills growing and developing with each role, though comedic timing is something that can’t be taught, you have to be born with it – and Brooks is born with it.
 

Joe Wilson and Julie Hansen in Diana and Sydney
Photo by Dell Domnik

Director Robert Kramer did a very good job of fleshing each scene out fully, giving full attention to each of the stories, and ensuring that all the characters have believable relationships. He also allowed each scene to carry its own theme, without trying to infuse physical comedy where there really didn’t need to be any. There is a common misconception with these types of plays that you have to keep the same level of drama or comedy present throughout the show, but Kramer let the serious moments be serious and the funny moments be funny – resulting in a very strong and well rounded evening of entertainment.

The vast diversity of the stories and plots being performed on stage make it difficult to believe that one writer was responsible for all of them. They really are very different. Ranging in theme from heartfelt drama to zany physical comedy, there is a little bit of everything in this one. It does make the transition in between scenes a little difficult to follow, especially as you are just getting time to really care about the characters and their circumstances. However, I suppose if hotel rooms could talk, these would be the types of stories that the rooms would tell.