Proving its versatility, the Santa Clara Players (SCP) switches from comedy to drama for the close of its 2024 – 2025 season, staging two provocative one-act dramas by British playwrights. The world premiere (yes, in Santa Clara!) of “The Seventh Suitcase” by Phil Mansell and “Heaven’s Paradise” by Derek Webb run for eight performances, May 9-24.
Both are dramas with underlying mystery, hints of things unknown.
“The Seventh Suitcase” is set in a run-down hovel—perhaps in Ireland. An unknown number of small, battered and locked suitcases are stashed under the bed of an old woman who is sleeping. When yet another is delivered, the woman’s two helpers become even more curious. What do the suitcases hold? Who keeps sending them? Why? They connive to uncover this mystery, setting in motion unforeseeable consequences.
“I know it’s called a drama but to me it’s definitely more of a dramedy. It has a surrealist bent which makes much of it quite funny,” said “The Seventh Suitcase” director Sara Hough, a San Jose resident with a degree in Theatre Arts from Santa Clara University.
Regular SCP attendees will recognize favorite actors from past productions and meet talented new ones in the dramas. With “The Seventh Suitcase,” SCP got permission to change the three male roles to female since there were more women than men who tried out.
Palo Alto resident Helena G. Clarkson’s passion for the theater and SCP brings her back to the Santa Clara stage in her 14th role, most recently “The Hound of the Baskervilles.” This time, she is the old woman’s helper Jo in “The Seventh Suitcase.”
“I hope the audience will appreciate my character’s honesty and down-to-earth nature,” said Clarkson. “I also hope they will find it to be a funny but thought-provoking script.”
“The Seventh Suitcase” is so bizarre that I think everyone may take away something different,” said Hough. “When I first read the script, I kind of thought, ‘What the heck…?’ but with a big smile on my face, and I hope we’re able to give our audience that same experience.”
One-Act Drama: Heaven’s Paradise
“Heaven’s Paradise” is set on Lundy, a real island in Devonshire, England. Lundy—meaning “Puffin Island” in Old Norse—is only 1,100 acres. In the play, Lundy is shrouded in mystery, an atmosphere created on the SCP stage by a minimal set with black curtains and a TV backdrop that displays island locations.
“It’s a very powerful story,” said “Heaven’s Paradise” director George Doeltz, who has wanted to produce the show, which premiered in 2017, for the past eight years.
Doeltz was so moved by the drama when he read the script that he wrote to the author, saying, “Derek, this is the best thing I have ever read!”
The drama opens and closes with Michael Hampton confiding in a man assumed to be a psychologist. Highlights of the story that Hampton recounts are enacted. He tells how he and his wife, Ann, came to Lundy to recuperate after her failed business venture. Ann becomes fascinated by the history of the real Victorian owners of the island, the Heaven family. As the couple explores the island, questions arise about Ann’s past—and about Hampton’s present.
“Heaven’s Paradise” is a spooky, supernatural thriller, filled with mystery and tension,” said Cupertino resident Shloka Kini, playing Ann in her first role with SCP.
“This is such a cool part to sink my teeth into, both emotionally and physically,” said Kini.
“Nothing is simple with Ann. Every word forces me to get into her head. Playing her is special and challenging because of the range of emotions I get to explore.”
“The audience will love ‘Heaven’s Paradise’ if they love leaving a theater with questions, with lots to talk about and piece together! They will enjoy this production if they like subtle clues, history, and overall a sense of mystery,” she continued.
“And if you are a theater lover, this play uses lighting in ingenious ways. If your kids like subtly spooky things, this is for them,” said Kini
Visit SCP online at www.scplayers.org or call (408) 248-7993 for tickets to “The Seventh Suitcase” and “Heaven’s Paradise” in the 71-seat Hall Pavilion (behind Santa Clara’s Triton Museum of Art), 1750 Don Ave. at Warburton Avenue.
