Mouse River Players present "Plaza Suite"

A Night at the ‘Plaza’

Mouse River Players present Neil Simon’s classic comedy of love, marriage and other problems

By CEECY NUCKER, Correspondent, ccnucker@yahoo.com

The Mouse River Players are inaugurating their new stage at the Arlene Saugstad Theater this weekend with the classic Neil Simon comedy "Plaza Suite."

"The stage is lower and larger," said David Bradley, adjunct professor at Minot State University.

Bradley is entering his fifth year with the company as Sam Nash, the husband half of the first couple to occupy Suite 719 at the Plaza Hotel in New York. His wife, Karen, is portrayed by Holly Eidsness, a veteran of many years with the Players.

Following them in Suite 719 are Carl Smith and Kÿmn Quill as a Hollywood producer and his childhood sweetheart, now a suburban housewife. The final couple renting the room, played by Terry J. Aman and Heather Tallman, are Roy and Norma Hubley, who are parents of a bride-to-be, Mimsey, played by Heather Schneibel, and her groom, Borden Eisler, played by Matt Dempsey.

Marital discord

"The first is certainly the heaviest," Bradley said. "We are having our marital discord. It's humorous, but with a serious side. Simon wrote it in 1968, and there are a number of contemporary references, mostly about actors, like Yvette Mimieux, who were popular and well known at the time. The most obscure reference is to Rose Franzblau, a writer for a New York paper who was equivalent to Dr. Ruth today."

The second act concerns a three-time divorced man who is looking for a fresh conquest. He calls his old friend Muriel Tate for a little sexual diversion.

"There is definitely strong sexual tension," said director Ryan Haider. "It gets hot and heavy, but nothing explicit."

When the third couple take over the suite, they're coping with a daughter who has cold feet about her wedding, and they fight about the best way to get her out of the bathroom and down to the ballroom where the guests are waiting. This act has a lot of the standard Simon slapstick adding to the hilarity of the situation.

Haider said, "I personally feel that every play has a woman with some attitude, and the three women we've cast have shown it remarkably well. The period plays a part too, in late '60s and early '70s, when feelings toward relationships were starting to change."

Stage manager and assistant director Jennifer Brandt commented that the only real connection between the three couples is the room in which their stories play out "life-changing" was the adjective she used.

Brandt is a newcomer to Minot with her husband, Tech Sgt Nathan Brandt, and their two daughters, but checked in with the Players immediately upon arriving.

"We've just come from Ramstein (Germany), and I was artistic director and producer for the two years there," she said.

"You don't think of a stay in a hotel as being life-changing," Haider said. "It's not a magical room. But in this luxury hotel across from Central Park, these poignant events happen in these people's lives."

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