By Neil Simon. Hunters Hill Theatre Company. Director: Moja Band. Club Ryde Ex. 29 May – 21 June, 2026
Reviewed : 29 May, 2026 *
Director Moja Band explains that “Neil Simon wrote Chapter Two in one of the most personal chapters of his life – just after losing his first wife and finding love again … It’s about the courage to open your heart again when life has already broken it”.
The play was written as a tribute to his second wife Marsha Mason’s tolerance for his continued grief over the death of his first wife, Joan Baim, who died in 1973. It premiered in America in 1977.
I first saw it at the Ensemble theatre in1979 directed by Hayes Gordon, then in 2005 directed by Sandra Bates. Seeing it again another 21 years later cements it for me as one of Neil Simon’s best plays. All the ‘gags” are there … the one liners, the quick repartee, the almost stock New York characters … but here they are infused with believable anguish and hope.
All of which is clear in this perceptive and very sensitively directed production. Moja Band sees the play as “a mirror for all of us who have had to start again” – and that mirror reflects life just as clearly today as it did nearly 50 years ago.
The story revolves around George Schneider – who has recently lost his wife Barbara – and actress Jennie Malone, who has just divorced her footballer husband after a marriage of six years. Neither are really looking for a new relationship, but George’s brother Leo, a press agent, has given him Jennie’s phone number in the hopes that he might start getting out a bit. Reluctantly George makes a phone call … and in typical Simon style, one phone call leads to another …
The play is set in their two apartments, never an easy thing to suggest on a small stage, but Band manages it, complete with the furnishing, detail and colour one would expect of New York apartments in the 1970s, including two front doors and three other doorways referenced in the script. The effect is cosy, giving Band room to block the action tightly whilst sustaining perspective, distance and veracity – which she does most effectively, with the help of lighting (Antony Read), and some catchy excerpts from relevant songs and sound effects (Peter Tucker).
Daniel Ferris plays George. Ferris inhabits the character and the space with his usual cool, finding the pain of George’s enduring grief and his almost youthful excitement in a newer love. They are both clear, in his variations of voice and expression, and in his well-defined control of movement and gesture.
Laura Stead brings quizzical scepticism then tender anticipation to the part of Jennie. Stead has the capacity to project sustained, believable emotions. She makes Jennie’s excitement just bubbly enough, her self control prudent, her faith in her feelings – and George – wisely mature.
From the first phone calls, both performers find the rhythms in Simon’s writing and the pace that Band knows is necessary to make the ‘gags’ in his dialogue work. They bring the sparkle of banter, the fizz of friction and the colour of romance to this happily taut production.
Pennie Korths adds to that colour in her choice of costumes that accentuate the fashions of the time as well as the differences in the characters – Jennie’s “with it” florals and stripes, George’s more reserved “writer’s” fashions – and add slightly different dimensions to the characters of George’s pushy brother Leo (Simon Pearce) and Jennie’s stressed, overwrought friend Faye (Margareta Moir)
Moir wears the 70s fashions with flair and somehow uses them to emphasise Faye’s highly strung energy and changeability. Moir is a strong character actor who finds both the pathos and humour Simon has manipulated into the character of Faye – her spirited support of Jennie juxtaposed with her languid, yet very comically expressed, despair with her own marriage.
Pearce, appearing in more stylish 70s “gear” makes Leo brash, a bit loud and over-expressive, especially when he describes his own marriage to George. Pearce too has good control of the stage, and under Band’s careful direction, he and Ferris skilfully manage the elements of space and distance albeit within the restraints of a small stage space
Pearce and Moir make full use of Simon’s more recognisable word jousting and one-liners in one of the later scenes, both relishing the necessary pace and cut and thrust that make the comedy effective.
Whilst Moja Brand has set this production in its own time and place, with a talented and perceptive cast she has made its messages and comedy relevant to a more contemporary audience. It’s a nice tribute to Simon – and a good night out at the theatre!
Also published in Stage Whispers magazine
*Opening performance