Although Noël Coward’s Suite in Three Keys is a trilogy, commencing with the full-length play A Song at Twilight and continuing with a double-bill performed across two nights, the fact that the three tales have no connection to the others, save for being set in the same hotel suite in 1965 at the Hotel Beau Rivage in Lausanne, Switzerland and boasting the same Italian waiter, Felix (Steffan Rizzi), means that audiences can happily take in the Shadows of the Evening and Come Into the Garden, Maud double bill without any danger of feeling lost. That said, this Orange Tree Theatre production, touring to Theatre Royal Bath exclusively, is a masterpiece which deserves to be seen in its entirety.
The casting of Tara Fitzgerald, Emma Fielding and Stephen Boxer is an inspired choice, with all three masterfully tackling three separate roles a piece with so much confidence that each play has its own ambiance, wit and poignancy. In Shadows of the Evening Linda (Tara Fitzgerald) and the now-dowdy Anne (Emma Fielding) used to be best friends. That is, until Linda had a passionate affair with Anne’s publisher husband, George Hilgay (Stephen Boxer) and broke up their marriage. Naturally, this rather severed the friendship, especially given that Linda has now lived with George for seven years and Anne still refuses to divorce George. We first meet an agitated Linda as she awaits the arrival of Anne to whom she must explain that the doctor caring for George in the Swiss clinic, has diagnosed a terminal melanoma and estimates that he only has three months to live. Can these two strong-minded middle-aged women bury the hatchet in order to give George, whom they admit loves them both, the support he needs through the difficult days ahead?
And there’s another problem, George doesn’t know of the diagnosis. Should they tell him, and if so, which of the women is going to break it to him? The women are startled when a jovial George bursts into the suite looking incredibly well and wondering what Anne is doing there. But he’s teasing them, having wangled out of his doctor the true diagnosis and relishes Linda and Anne tying themselves in knots with excuses as to the reason for this somewhat awkward reunion. Linda is the emotional one of the trio, although they all have their moments, including Anne, who confesses that it will be harder on Linda as she is the one who has been living with George, while she, Anne, has had no choice but to become accustomed to loneliness in the wake of her husband’s infidelity. It’s hard not to make that sound bitter, but by the end there is an understanding between the trio and you sense that Linda is as much in need of Anne’s steely, common sense as the fatalistic George.
Emma Fielding and Stephen Boxer are married in all three plays, including the hilarious finale, Come Into the Garden, Maud in which they play a terrifically ill-suited wealthy American couple, Anna-Mary and Verner Conklin from Minneapolis. Emma Fielding dazzles as the nagging Anna-Mary, with a pitch-perfect whining accent and tantrums which put me in mind of Beverly from Mike Leigh’s Abigail’s Party. It must be hard for Fielding to keep a straight face while she lambasts the beauty parlour on the telephone, hollering that they failed to give her the blue rinse she asked for (it’s purple) and cut rather than pushed-back her cuticles. The social-climbing Anna-Mary is frantic due to the dinner party she is hosting that evening in the hotel, with a two-bit prince as guest of honour. Boxer comes into his own as the golf-loving, gold-watch-wearing Verner who merely pays the bills and has no interest in schmoozing the great and the good of Europe. If I was married to Anna-Mary I’d take up golf too.
When their acquaintance, the flamboyant hippy-styled Maud (Tara Fitzgerald) pops by for a drink and, flirting with Verner all the while, refuses Anna-Mary’s last minute invitation/demand to attend the party to avert the cursed number of 13 at table, the gushing Anna-Mary turns nasty, but only like a toddler throwing their toys out of the pram. Anna-Mary feels no compunction at telling Verner he must dine upstairs in the suite for the sake of even numbers and he certainly has a more exciting evening when Maud reappears some time later. Coward ensures that no one in the audience feels the least sympathy for Anna-Mary when, returning from the dinner with complaints and bitchy attacks on guests, Verner takes her at her word and leaves her alone, waving his passport as he goes through the door.
Coinciding with the 50th anniversary of Noël Coward’s death, and not only doing full justice to the playwright’s intended swan song but offering Coward fans a new insight into his genius, it will be a tragedy indeed if this Orange Tree Theatre production, directed by Artistic Director Tom Littler, doesn’t head to the West End and perhaps even Broadway.
Suite in Three Keys – Shadows of the Evening / Come Into the Garden, Maud at Theatre Royal Bath until 13th July 2024. For more information and to book tickets please visit the website. Production images by Steve Gregson.
