COMMUNICATING DOORS: Salisbury Playhouse to 15 February 2003

Communicating Doors
by Alan Ayckbourn

Salisbury Playhouse, 23rd January 2003 to 15th February 2003 at 7.30 p.m.
Runs 2hours 33 minutes: One Interval

Tickets 01722 320333: http://www.salisburyplayhouse.com

Review Mark Courtice: 27th January 2003

Futuristic time travel comedy meets 1950's rep.
After pantomime hell and facing the cold, grim post-Christmas period, Ayckbourn seems a good choice; he's fun and you get something to think about, too. Communicating Doors fits the bill as it has one of the usual clever tricks the action takes place in the same room with the same people, but at three years, 1982, 2002 and 2022 it also explores truth and redemption.

Salisbury's attempt to cheer us all up is, however, a confused and confusing affair. Everyone seems to have been overcome by the difficulties of time travel. A fatal inability to get theatrical timing right is made worse by the design, the communicating doors themselves that move us through time are slow, serving to stop the flow, not define scene changes.

The design too often gives up; no attempt is made to create a world outside (except some inept sound) which matters because Ayckbourn writes of a London descending into chaos by 2022, nor does anything physical change over time; even if the uniform of the dominatrix remains the same over 40 years surely everyone else's fashions will change by more than a few stuck on stripes?

The general acting rule seems to be, as you get older you get hammier. This is a shame as one of the pleasures of Ayckbourn is his splendid writing for and about women and both Lexi Strauss and (especially) Lyn Christine give us a glimpse of something better from time to time. Otherwise, the most successful time shift is the actors, braying at us, defying us not to laugh, relying on bad wigs and doddering to signify old age - effortlessly taking us to repertory theatre c.1952.

The problem with a comedy about murder is that if you get it wrong you just have a nasty night out. Despite the jokes, (incidentally, why do British audiences always laugh at bidets?) too often here we were laughing at something horrible. At one stage someone announced (there was rather a lot of announcing) We've died and gone to a hotel in hell; I felt we'd gone to a theatre in hell.

Julian: Malcolm Rennie
Poopay: Lexi Strauss
Reece: Julian Forsythe
Ruella: Joanna McCallum
Harold: Morgan George
Jessica: Lyn Christine

Director: Tim Luscombe
Designer: Steven Yull
Lighting: Peter Hunter

2003-02-01 20:14:16