[November 19, 2009] Travel through time -- and genres Tweet Nov 19, 2009 (Daily Camera - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Click photo to enlarge * " * 1 * " LONGMONT -- British playwright Alan Ayckbourn's "Communicating Doors" is one of those plays that doesn't fit neatly into a category. It feels like a whodunit, but the audience learns who is murdered within the first 10 minutes. It's a comedy and a thriller that involves, of all things, time travel. The play is structured like a farce, but the final payoff isn't in laughs. Instead, we're rewarded with a surprisingly sweet, almost magical moment at play's end. What's clear is the Longmont Theatre Company's current production is the stage version of a page-turner. So, what is a communicating door? Apparently, it's the British term for the door that separates two rooms. Ayckbourn's play is set in a posh London hotel room. The particular hotel room's communicating door also happens to be a time-traveling device. When leather-clad Poopay (a spunky and comically vulnerable portrayal by Jennifer Gaydosh) shows up at Room 647, the dominatrix thinks she's there to perform her usual services. But Reece (a playful Ricky Lee Landrum) has another task in mind. He's an aging baron who is looking for redemption after living for years with choices he now regrets. Namely, at Reece's urging, his business partner, Julian (a menacing Robert Mess), killed Reece's two former wives. Spooked by what she encounters, Poopay tries to escape through the room's communicating door. But instead of leading to the next suite, she's shuttled mysteriously back to the same room, only it's 20 years earlier. There Poopay finds Ruella (Brie Michaels, in a rich performance), Reece's second wife, on the night Ruella is supposedly to be murdered. The two women set out to change Ruella's fate. Yes, the plot is sometimes difficult to follow. At least for those (like me) not steeped in the mystery genre. And purists may wonder how the hotel room telephone is the same in 1989, 2009 and 2029. But thanks to the fine work by director Jackie Tisinai and her excellent cast, the journey back and forth through time is always interesting, even if you're not always sure where you are. I admit I had no idea where the play was heading, even as the end of the two-acter grew near. And that's a good thing. While the play offers up six interesting characters and a couple of hours worth of laughs and intrigue, its ending is unexpected and is the most rewarding part of the story. Without giving away details it's safe to say Ayckbourn -- and the LTC production -- suddenly opens a window to the past for the audience. "Communicating Doors" allows us to wonder what might be different about our lives if we had made different choices. And it serves as a reminder about the significance that can attach to our choices even now -- all without getting overly sentimental or contrived. Contact Camera Theater Critic Mark Collins at 303-473-1369 or [email protected]. If you go 3 stars What: Longmont Theatre Company's "Communicating Doors" When: 7:30 p.m. today through Saturday Where: 501 Main St., Longmont Tickets: $15-$17 Parent's Guide: Some sexual humor Info: 303-772-5200 or longmonttheatre.org The cast of "Communicating Doors." To see more of the Daily Camera, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.thedailycamera.com./ Copyright (c) 2009, Daily Camera, Boulder, Colo. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]