The Suite Life of Kirkland House Drama

You’d be surprised at what can happen when you spend two hours a hotel suite. In the Kirkland House Drama Society’s production of Suites—based on a collection of Neil Simon plays—four sets of characters love, fight, and forgive in four different storylines that all take place in a hotel suite. Alcohol flows, expletives fly, and arguments rage—check out all the drama (and a surprise cross-dressing guest star) after the jump.

The first act, which takes place in a Los Angeles hotel suite, tells the story of a man, Marvin (Mark Isaacson '11), who has to hide a sleeping hooker (Krystal Cantos '11) from his wife Millie (Alison Schumer '11). FlyBy thought Isaacson’s Marvin was a bit of a ham, but his exchanges with Cantos were often sharply funny. One of our favorite moments: when he tells her, “I love you,” she quips, “Please, not in front of the hooker.”

The second act spotlights two sets of preppy couples who are supposedly friends but are constantly fighting during their vacation together. Far more action-packed and funny than the first act, FlyBy especially loved the Asian jokes and the possibly sexual double entendres. Watch a clip from Lisa Rosenfeld '09, Hannah Frank '09, Andy Choi '10 and Loren Amor’s '10 (who is also a Crimson sports chair) performance below.

The third act is about Diana (Kelly Quinlan '11), a television executive who meets up again with her gay British ex-husband Sidney (Kenneth Saathoff ’09), only to find out that he is dying of lung cancer and is requesting her to support his lover financially. FlyBy has to admit that we're completely smitten with Saathoff’s Sidney, who totally stole the show.

The final act involves a couple trying to coax their soon-to-be-married daughter, who suddenly has cold feet, out of the bathroom on the morning of her wedding day. Ernest Fontes plays a very convincing mother, but the best cross-dressing performance without a doubt comes from Kirkland House Master Tom Conley.

Photo and Video by Michelle Quach