Laughs Abound in Marquette Theatre’s ‘California Suite’

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Photo courtesy Marquette Theatre

California Suite - Marquette Theatre

Marquette Theatre at Marquette University kicks off its fall season on a humorous note with the opening of Neil Simon’s California Suite. The production has a number of highs and lows, but audiences are sure to feel uplifted after a night of entertaining theater.

Written in the mid-1970s, the play is a series of four vignettes, all set in the same two-room suite in the Beverly Hills Hotel. Similar to its predecessor, Plaza Suite, which is set in New York, California Suite examines the relationships between various couples.

It's not a surprise that Marquette’s theater department would focus on Simon’s brand of surefire humor during the current pandemic. Simon was a prolific playwright who defined humor in the late 20th century, with plays such as The Odd Couple, Barefoot in the Park, Brighton Beach Memoirs, The Sunshine Boys, and They’re Playing Our Song, among others. Many of Simon’s plays were turned into films, including California Suite. In a testament to Simon’s legacy as a comic genius, Plaza Suite is scheduled for a Broadway revival in 2022. Real-life couple Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker will play the main characters.

Unfinished Business

In California Suite. the first vignette focuses on a divorced couple struggling over the welfare of their teenage daughter. Sharp-tongued Hannah (Emma Knott) has flown in from New York to retrieve her daughter (who is never seen) from her ex-husband Billy (Matthew Torkilsen), a successful screenwriter. Their ascorbic remarks suggest that there’s a great deal of unfinished business between them, despite that both have moved on emotionally with different partners. Although the dialogue exchange is supposed to be crisp, Neil Simon’s zingers didn’t fully hit home on opening night. Things will probably gel as the run continues.

Under the direction of veteran Milwaukee actor/director Matt Daniels, the vignettes become funnier as the play continues. In the next episode, a middle-aged businessman named Marvin (Matthew Reed) awakes to find a hooker in his bed. Due to her over-consumption of alcohol, the woman is completely unconscious during the entire sequence. (“Bunny” is played with good-humored somnambulance by Emma Kielgas).  Marvin tries (unsuccessfully) to extract Bunny from his bed as his wife, Millie (Tino Dentino) is on the way up from the lobby. One expects actor Matthew Reed to keel over from a heart attack as he tries to conceal his indiscretion. Dentino also excels as the wife, who must seem clueless to her husband’s odd behavior almost until the final moments of this playlet.

New Identities

The third vignette cleverly pairs up the opening duo, played by Emma Knott and Matthew Torkilsen, but with new identities. Now they are Sidney and Diana, visiting from London. The talented actors (with assistance from costume designer Connie Peterson) are completely credible in their new personalities. They are in town to attend the Academy Awards, as Diana is a first-time Oscar nominee. Emma Knott behaves as one would imagine, fussing over her hair and gown before the ceremonies. As Sidney, Torkilsen tries to calm her nerves. After the ceremony, it’s immediately clear that they are not in a mood to celebrate. Diana tries to appease her despair by lashing out at her husband. Finally, she blurts out cruel remarks regarding her husband’s bisexuality. She realizes how this wounds him and immediately tries to take back her words. Their conversation becomes quite honest and touching as both realize that their relationship—for all its flaws—is one that’s worth hanging onto.

California Suite’s only disappointment is the director’s and set designer’s idea of dressing the hotel rooms with a bare minimum of props and no walls. Unfortunately, their “vision” is inconsistently realized and jarring to the audience. While one room contains a fully made double bed and lamps, the other room contains a “couch” that consists of a set of identical chairs placed next to each other. Black-colored rehearsal cubes make up the remainder of the items, becoming a coffee table, nightstand or ottoman, as needed. Although the designers’ intent may have been to focus on the storytelling instead of the set, it makes the audience’s imaginations work too hard. Even an abundance of floral bouquets in the third vignette (on Oscar night) looks sad and neglected, as if tossed together without a thought.

Thankfully, the fast-paced final vignette leaves no time to consider such matters. Emma Knott and Matthew Torkilsen are paired up once more, this time as Chicago couple Gert and Stu. Likewise, Tino Dentino and Mattherw Read are now their good friends Beth and Mort. Three weeks of vacationing together has set tempers on edge. When a mishap occurs during a tennis match, the gloves come off. With all civility going out the window, the men face off with murderous intentions. Their subsequent grappling is quite realistic, thanks to Jamie Cheatham’s skills as a fight director. Of course, no one Is actually murdered in a Neil Simon comedy. Still, there is much to enjoy in the witty barbs and hand-to-hand combat displayed by these couples. Although one can be relatively assured that these two couples are on their last vacation together, one can only sit back and laugh at their antics.

California Suite runs through Oct. 16 at the Helfaer Theatre, 525 N. 13th St. For tickets, visit helfaer.boxoffice@marquette.edu, or call 414-288-7504.