Communicating Doors

Why does director Diane Howden love this play? “It has a bit of everything: thrills, comedy, murder, mystery and farce.” Add an accumulation of complications as unsuspecting dominatrix, Poopay, is carried from 2036 to 2016 to 1996 in a revolving hotel box room, and two wives trying to avoid their own murder, and you have a play that stretches the imagination as much as it stretches the set designer and the cast.

Set in the same hotel suite over the forty years, the play begins in 2036 with elderly businessman Reece asking Poopay, procured by his friend Julian, to sign a confession that implicates him in the murder of his two wives. When Reece collapses, Poopay makes the mistake of calling Julian for help, not realising until too late that he is the murderer implicated in Reece’s confession. Taking refuge in the box room, she is transported back 20 years to the night of the second wife’s murder and a complexity of warnings and time travel that results, eventually, in changing the past.

Karen Pattinson plays Poopay. Tall, slender and long-legged she confidently strides the stage in spandex, studs and leather until her ‘cool’ is thrown by events over which she no longer has control. Pattison moves from confidence to concern to bewilderment as her character moves in and out of danger – and takes on the task of convincing Rubella Reece (the second wife) of her impending death. She is strongest in the second act, when the pace quickens and her relationship with other characters is more intense.

Jacqui Field plays the second wife, Ruella, self-assured and ready to divorce her husband anyway. Field warms into the character by the end of the first act, making Ruella more convincing and forceful. She too comes into her own in the second act, pushing the pace and the pitch of the action, even when she hangs out of sight from a sixth floor window clinging to a bed sheet.

Laura Tate plays Reece’s first wife, wealthy Jessica. Ruella encounters her in 1996 on her wedding night, chasing the young Reece around the hotel room in her nightdress.

Tate finds the assurance of both youth and wealth in the character. She establishes the character quickly and believably – and joins in the farce of the final scenes with gusto.

The ageing and youthful Reece is played by Dan Ferris. Grey and lined in 2036 when he confronts Poopay with his confession, he is shaky yet determined to assuage his guilt. In 1996 on his wedding night, he is much more youthful and full of life.

Dave Went plays the heinous Julian. No stranger to farce, Went makes the most of the melodrama that Ayckbourn suggests in this role, using all the wiles of the villain. He fixes Poopay with glinting eyes and intimidating poses, his voice threatening and menacing, his command of the stage obvious.

The hotel security man, Harold, is played at first with a brash sense of control by Michael Richmond – until he is confronted by three strong women in a situation way beyond his experience, when he becomes much more diffident and agreeable!

This is a production that audiences will enjoy. Though the first act drags a little, due to Ayckbourn’s lengthy dialogue, longish scenes and perhaps the insecurity of opening night, Howden has pushed the pace of the final scenes so that the action, as well as the characters, find the tempo and the farce. The set, too, does its best to accommodate the time ‘capsule’ in which Poopay and Ruella do their time travelling.

Carol Wimmer

Images: Des Harris @ The picture desk