Communicating Doors
Last Update 05-Mar-2008
From Monday 8th May 2000
To Saturday 13th May 2000
Alan Ayckbourn
An absorbing comedy mystery thriller. The action of the play spans over forty years and concerns two wives, a change of heart and a neglected child, but this is no predictable family saga!; From the moment leather clad Poopay. a dominatrix with a heart as well as a whip, is asked to witness the confession of a dying businessman, rather than get down to business, you will realise that things are not what they seem. Gripping and hilarious.
Directors Notes
You might think that after penning forty five plays, a writer would be scraping the barrel somewhat. Not so Alan Ayckbourn, Communicating Doors is one of the plays, alongside big London hits such as Things We Do For Love and Comic Potential, making for an Indian Summer for Sir Alan who looks set to continue packing in audiences well into the twenty first century.
Ayckbourn is, of course, famous as the dissector of middle class moves, but while Communicating Doors is definitely a bourgeois (Jessica as the Countess Rizzini is definitely arriviste) entertainment, it is the interest in time and the gamesome way it is treated here that signals we are in Ayckbourn country. Absurd Person Singular takes place over three Christmases; Henceforward is set in the future: and Time of My Life is a play which focuses on turning points in personal relationships by taking action forward and back in the manner of Priestly.
Communicating Doors indeed seems to combine elements of all three of the previous works: it is set over three time periods, the future and how to change it is the main plot thrust, and frustrated individuals searching for family and desperately needing to take charge of key moments in their existences is where the emotional heart of the drama lies. In the latter respect, Ayckbourn plugs away at one of the key themes over the range of his oeuvre: communication. At a late point in the play, Reece says, "At least everyone's still talking. That's the important thing", lines which we are to see as having resonance beyond the political situation immediately under discussion.
The other ways in which Communicating Doors is typical Ayckbourn are the playwright's mastery of the dramatic form (is this a thriller? a comedy? a family saga? a time play? a farce?); the clever way in which he goads audiences (there will definitely be moments where the turn of events surprises you): and the exhilarating playfulness of the complete man of the theatre at the peak of his powers (this is a far-fetched play but totally watchable).