BIRTHDAY SUITE was first produced at the Redgrave Theatre, Farnham in 1983. Subsequently there were two national tours and many provincial productions. It has also been produced in France, Germany, Scandinavia, Italy, Holland, Poland, South Africa, and the United States. The fast moving comedy takes place in two adjoining hotel bedrooms. Geoff Tippett tells his friend Bob, who is unhappily married, that he has arranged a special birthday treat for him. The treat is a hotel room for the night, complete with champagne, a double bed, and a very attractive girl named Mimi. This, however, is not true. Geoff really wants Bob to reconcile with his wife, Liz, and has, therefore, told her to come to the hotel room for a quiet dinner with him (Geoff). The goal is to bring husband and wife together so they can talk in a romantic setting and hopefully work out their problems. Of course everything imaginable goes wrong. Bob expects Mimi, a prostitute, but, because of a room mix-up, instead meets a shy young woman named Kate whom he believes is Mimi. Kate thinks Bob is Dick, a computer-agency date she has never seen. The real Dick is a psychiatrist who has been shown into the wrong room so when Bob’s wife, Liz, appears he thinks she is Kate. Add a connecting door between the two rooms which has mistakenly been left unlocked and confusion reigns as the foursome try to sort themselves out, aided by the temperamental Italian waiter, Tony, until Bob provides a surprising solution.
