In England, playwright Alan Ayckbourn is known as the master of the puzzle play, thanks to his 70-plus comedies and dramas with intricately crafted and often-overlapping dialogue, surprise twists and often unusual staging devices. On the flip side, Ayckbourn's work has also been criticized as breezy, lightweight fluff without much heart.
But in his 1994 sci-fi comedy "Communicating Doors," making its San Diego premiere at Cygnet Theatre, audiences can have their laughs and substance, too. In the assured hands of director Esther Emery and led by the bright, feisty performance of San Diego's Jessica John, "Communicating Doors" is a laugh-filled play, chock-full of surprising twists and turns and with a bittersweet ending that will leave you with a lump in your throat.
Ayckbourn's inspiration for the play was the time-traveling film "Back to the Future," but instead of a souped-up DeLorean sports car, the characters in his play travel back in time via a communicating door (the British term for the connecting doors between shared hotel suites or hallways).
The play opens in war-torn London 20 years in the future as "Poopay," a low-rent dominatrix arrives at an upscale but generic residential hotel suite for an assigned tryst with the dying, 70something billionaire Reece. But once Reece's sinister business partner, Julian, leaves the room, Reece reveals to Poopay that he's hired her not for sex but to witness and spirit away his near-deathbed confession about the long-ago murders of his two wives by Julian.
But before Poopay can agree, Julian returns, uncovers Reece's plot and tries to kill Poopay. When she flees through the communicating door, she spins back in time 20 years to the very night Julian killed Reece's second wife, Ruella, in that same hotel suite. Once Poopay and Ruella (who we all learn is mere hours away from being pushed over the hotel balcony) have sorted things out, they realize they must set things right by traveling back in time another 20 years to save Reece's wealthy-but-dim first wife, Jessica, from the same fate.
There are so many surprises in store for the audience that to tell too much more about the plot would give away much of the fun. Figuring out how each of the subtly dropped clues, dates and characters fit together in 1987, 2007 and 2027 is half the fun, and you probably won't see the ending coming, even if you've seen Ayckbourn's cinematic source material.
For a comedy, "Communicating Doors" is still a bit long, at two hours, 30 minutes (with intermission) and a couple of expositional scenes seem to last longer than necessary, but mostly it's a delightful ride through time and space, and the Cygnet production is all aces.
Keeping three coherent timelines straight, and coaching the actors through subtle age- and class-related shifts from one time period to another, is handled superbly by director Emery, who keeps the energy high, the jokes steady (the audience laughed so much it drowned out many of the actors' lines on opening night), and the physical humor light and silly (the woman-over-the-balcony heave-ho bit is a hoot).
With Nick Fouch's hotel room set (complete with a nifty spinning door special effect), Eric Lotze's eerie lighting and George Ye's film-scorelike score, the play has the hybrid feel of a 1940s screwball comedy and a 1960s horror spoof (watch for the homages to Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho" and "The Trouble With Harry").
Leading the cast as Poopay (the orphaned hooker with a heart of gold) is John, who has proven her chops as a dramatic actress at Cygnet and Carlsbad's New Village Arts. Here she shows off her comic side, with her big, expressive eyes and animated howls. She may look tough as nails in her sexy leather outfit (designed by costumer Shulamit Nelson Spilkin), but John lets you see her character's vulnerabilities underneath.
Sandy Campbell is warm and maternal as the level-headed, no-nonsense Ruella, and Brenda Dodge is reserved but ditsy as Reese's first wife, Jessica. Tim West is endearing as the easily manipulated Reece, and Manny Fernandes is dark and imposing as the murderous Julian. Craig Huisenga is a terrific comic foil as Harold Palmer, the hotel's long-standing and long-suffering concierge.
"Communicating Doors" will keep you guessing right up until the end, and you'll drive home still trying to fit all the puzzle pieces together. It's a show that will stick with you, and thanks to Cygnet's well-directed production, it's a puzzle play with heart.
"Communicating Doors"
When: 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays; 2 and 7 p.m. Sundays; through Sept. 23
Where: Cygnet Theatre, 6663 El Cajon Blvd., San Diego
Tickets: $27-$29
Info: (619) 337-1525
