Archive

South Simcoe Theatre presents: ‘London Suite’

January 29, 2014   ·   0 Comments

It’s freezing out there, so come in from the cold and experience the warmth of live theatre at the Old Town Hall in Cookstown!  

South Simcoe Theatre proudly presents the delightful four-part comedy London Suite, written by acclaimed playwright and screenwriter Neil Simon (The Odd Couple, The Goodbye Girl, Brighton Beach Memoirs, The Sunshine Boys).  One of Simon’s famous “suite” series – among them Plaza Suite and California Suite – the setting for this play is a posh and sedate London hotel.  Occupying one of the establishment’s deluxe suites in succession are: a drunken writer who is holding his long-time business manager at gun point; an American widow and her daughter in England on a shopping spree; a former husband and wife seeing each other for the first time in years; and a couple from New York who have lost their tickets to Wimbledon. At times, farcical, romantic and bittersweet, the humour of these four vignettes is punctuated by Simon’s trademark wit and hilariously sharp observation, providing an evening of entertainment not to be missed!

Veteran SST performers Janet Lord-Genyk from Utopia and Christine Murray from Barrie (most recently featured together in The Kitchen Witches) are reunited as mother and daughter in “Going Home”, directed by long-time SST stalwart Sally Wente.

Also taking a first-time outing as director is Sandy Bishop who has performed in many capacities both on and off stage over the years. Her segment “The Man on the Floor” features Barrie residents Tiffany Heydon (Footloose, Curtains), Stephen Dobby (Curtains) and John Ritchie (Footloose) as well as Dan Summerfield (Fireworks, The Pajama Game) from Tottenham and Susan Walker (Our Town) from Bradford. The final two vignettes are in the capable hands of returning director Candy Pryce (Fireworks, Thirteen Hands): “Diana and Sydney” showcases the talents of Nancy Chapelle-Smokler (Thirteen Hands) from Beeton and Baron Watson (Lucky Stiff, The Pajama Game) from Phelpston (as well as Christine Murray in a second role!); “Settling Accounts” features John Gabriel (The Pajama Game) from Innisfil and Frank Kewin (Wizard of Oz) who is coming to us from Barrie.  All three of our directors also hail from Barrie and we are very fortunate to have veteran producer and Elmvale resident Bernetta Starkey on hand to keep things running smoothly!

And for the second time this season, four wonderful local restaurants all want you as their guests. To accomplish this, each one is offering specials to all who make reservations and bring their show ticket for that day’s performance. It can be for brunch, lunch, dinner or in some cases, after the show for nibbles – just have your ticket (or stub) for that day’s show and voila – the deal is yours.  The eateries in Cookstown are LOL Café & Bistro (705 291-1010), The Cookstown Pub Co (705 291-2000) and Iron Horse Bar & Grill (705 458-2500), and, in Lefroy, Harbour House Grill (705 456-3663). Please contact them respectively for more information.

London Suite runs Thursday to Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. from January 30th to February 16th. Performances are at the Town Hall, 1 Hamilton Street, in Cookstown and tickets can be ordered/purchased through the box office: 705 458-4432. This play is rated PG13 for some profanity and adult content.

For more information about the theatre and our current season, please visit the website at:  www.southsimoetheatre.com

Readers Comments (0)