Day One. A Hotel, Evening

The first few scenes of Red Stitch’s premiere of Joanna Murray-Smith’s latest work, Day One. A Hotel, Evening, did not get off to a very good start. In terribly clever fashion, the play launched itself sans preliminaries into a terribly witty exchange between two characters, followed by a second scene between two more terribly witty characters, who fired yet more terribly stylish remarks at each other at barely comprehensible speed, with the net result that everybody in the play came across as terrible prats.

Of course, given Murray-Smith’s reputation for exploring the woes of the upper middle crust – in this case, two architects, their wives and their mistresses – it’s probably no surprise that there may be wee bit of insufferability on offer.

Luckily, Red Stitch has a secret weapon, in the shape of Sarah Sutherland, whose turn as the neurotic and slightly prescient Stella was on fire from start to finish. It’s hard to say whether a great performance lifts the standard of those around it, or whether the rest of the performance was just drenched in the glowing haze of residual goodwill Sutherland left behind her, but with the first spontaneous round of applause, an otherwise patchy performance seemed to kick up a gear. (Not least, into a truly epic monologue by Dion Mills, which had the audience actually shrieking.)

The play makes the most of its tiny yet extremely versatile set, managing to find new settings for a dozen or so scenes, as the six characters run into each other in a variety of entertaining permutations. Cafés, hotel rooms, restaurants, offices and alleyways appear and disappear with carefully-lit spots, new doors and a couple of chairs and tables.

Director Gary Abrahams describes Day One. A Hotel, Evening as a comedy of manners; I might go so far as to call it a farce of near-Molière-esqe proportions. Unlike Molière and Wilde, though, rather than being neatly resolved, the sordid tangle of affairs, deceit and affluent ennui just slowly, disastrously and hilariously unravels.

This is an undeniably enjoyable show, with laughs aplenty; however, it must be said that the comedy isn’t terribly well integrated with the plot. Jokes fall from the mouth of whoever is speaking at that moment, turning most of the characters into slightly different versions of the same terribly witty prat. The laughter itself also causes problems, with the cackling audience blanking out the actors’ lines. Important lines? Who knows. But hey, a good laugh is a precious thing.

Rating: 3.5 stars. (But they do leave mints on the pillow, and the service is lovely.)

Red Stitch Actors Theatre
Day One. A Hotel, Evening
Written by Joanna Murra-Smith
Director: Gary Abrahams
Set design: Sophie Woodward
Lighting Design: Stelios Karagiannis
Sound Design: Christopher Wenn
Costume Design: Stephanie Hooke
Production Manager: Linda Hum
Stage Manager: Alex Pryor
Cast: John Adam, Kate Cole, Ryan Hayward, Dion Mills, Anna Sampson, Sarah Sutherland

Red Stitch Actors Theatre
November 16 – December 17, 2011