California Suite
Earlier this week some friends called with two spare tickets to watch a play at The Mill at Sonning. Fitting it in amid our work week was something of an adventure, but somehow we made it to their door in time, and then made it through horrendous traffic in time to eat before the play started.
The Mill at Sonning is an odd place – part restaurant, part theatre. You sit down to a buffet meal, and are then called through to take your seats. Our late arrival meant we picked plates up immediately after giving our coats to the cloakroom staff, and before we knew where we might be sitting.
Given the choice between steak pie, sausages, and cuts of turkey, and knowing we were probably the last people to be served, I immediately became Mr Cheeky, and asked if I could have some of everything – and then somehow balanced vegetables and roast potatoes on top. W looked at me with a raised eyebrow, and our friend's husband looked at my plate with that “I wish I had done that too” look.
After helping the wonderful food down with a glass of wine the call came from the theatre that we could take our seats for the performance. While eating I had taken a quick look at the programme; “California Suite”, written by Neil Simon. A play in four acts, depicting a few days in the “life” of a suite of rooms in a Hollywood hotel in the 1970s. The cast were all stalwarts of British television over the last twenty years.
For the first time ever (well... I say ever... I've only seen four or five plays in my life), I left the theatre feeling distinctly flat. The second act was by far and away the most entertaining, with Jeffrey Holland playing a middle aged man who wakes up with a huge hangover, a comatose prostitute next to him, and his wife on her way to the room in the elevator.
I'm not quite sure why the play fell so flat. Maybe it was the American humor... or the (at times) woeful American accents. It wasn't awful... it just wasn't great. “Noises Off” still remains the best theatre production I have seen, and it will take something pretty spectacular to beat it.