ABOUT THE PLAY
Richard Willey, a Labour Junior Minister, plans, under the cover of an all-night Commons sitting, to spend the night in Suite 648 at the four star Westminster Hotel, London, with Jane Worthington, one of the opposition party's junior secretaries.
So the seeds are sown (or in Richard's case, not) for this hilarious Ray Cooney farce which won the Olivier Award for Best Comedy of the year in 1991. Things start to go disastrously wrong early on; when expecting only to handle Jane's body, Richard (or Dickie as he likes Jane to call him) discovers the body of a man trapped in the suite's unreliable sash window.
Desperately trying to get out of what has suddenly become an extremely sticky situation, Richard summons his trusty Parliamentary private secretary, George Pigden, to the Hotel to sort things out.
The Hotel boasts the typical assortment of stereotypical farce characters, such as a pompous interfering Hotel Manager, a sly old hotel waiter whose seen it all before and knows he can earn hush money, and a Maid of suspect Mediterranean origin who has little command of the English Language. With their help and a few other surprises, things go from bad to worse.
ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT
Ray Cooney began his theatrical career as a boy actor in "Song of
Norway" at the Palace Theatre in 1946. He served his apprenticeship by
playing in various repertory companies from Worthing to Blackburn before
graduating to Brian Rix's company at the Whitehall Theatre in 1956. He
played "Dry Rot" and "Simple Spymen" and then began a writing career
which, to date, has produced seventeen West End plays including "One for
the Pot" (co-written with Tony Hilton), "Not Now Darling", "Move Over
Mrs. Markham", "There Goes the Bride" (all co-written with John Chapman)
"Chase me Comrade", Why Not Stay For Breakfast?", "Wife Begins at
Forty", "Run for your Wife!", "Two into One", "Out of Order", "It Runs
in the Family" and "Funny Money".
As Producer and Director he has been responsible for over thirty London
productions, including "Lloyd George Knew My Father", "Whose Life is it
Anyway?", "They're Playing Our Song", "Duet for One", "Bodies",
"Chicago", "Clouds" and "Children of a Lesser God". In 1983, Ray formed
the Theatre of Comedy Company (bringing together the founder members
consisting of Thirty West End stars) and he became its first Artistic
Director. During Ray's tenure the company produced over twenty plays
including "Run for Your Wife", "Out of Order", "Two into One", "Passion
Play", and the acclaimed revivals of "See How they Run", "Loot", "When
We are Married" and "Pygmalion" starring Peter O'Toole and John Thaw.
During Ray's hectic theatrical career, he has always found time to
continue acting and played the last year of "Run for your Wife" in
London before appearing in the New York production. Recently he played
the lead in "It Runs in the Family" and "Funny Money" and directed "Over
The Moon" (also known as "Moon Over Buffalo") by Ken Ludwig in
London's West End with Joan Collins and Frank Langella.
Information from http://www.victoriaplayhousepetrolia.com
THE CAST
Richard Willey.........Eric Van Druff
Manager.................John Zinzi
Jane Worthington....Cristin Winegard
The Body................Mike Schott
George Pigden........Paul A. Nelson
Waiter....................Gordon Cross
Ronnie...................David Coatney
Pamela..................Thomasine Crawford
Nurse Foster...........Mary R. Rolick
Maid.......................Kathy Malick
THE PRODUCTION STAFF
Director.....................Minna Badanes
Producer...................Fior Zinzi
Rehearsal Assistant...Corinne Potter
Stage Manager..........Kathy Malick
