Theatre in Review: Confusions (Brits Off Broadway/59E59)

	Stephen Billington. Photo: Tony Bartholomew

In "Gosforth's Fête," the funniest of Alan Ayckbourn's quintet of one-acts, a village parish event -- a sedate little do consisting of games, tea and cakes, and a speech by a local dignitary -- collapses into anarchy, thanks to news of an illicit affair accidentally broadcast, via an ill-placed microphone; an amplifier not sufficiently shielded from a thunderstorm; a teetotaling scoutmaster who, wronged by his fiancée, hits the bottle hard; an empathetic vicar with a discomfiting way of blurting out the truth. The skill with which the playwright mixes these elements into a cocktail of chaos would leave one breathless with admiration, if one weren't laughing so hard.

Confusions was written in 1974 and if nothing else in it is quite as hilarious, as "Gosforth's Fête," that may be intentional. The mid-seventies represented a time of transition for Ayckbourn, who was beginning to explore darker themes and in Confusions one begins to get hints of a deeper underlying melancholy in his writing. Indeed, each piece strikes a different and distinct tone. There's plenty of laughter in "Between Mouthfuls," which features one of the playwright's signature technical tricks: In a chic restaurant, a waiter shuffles between a pair of tables for two; the kicker is, the conversation at each table only becomes audible as he approaches. We are left to piece together what is happening based entirely on conversational fragments -- and we gradually become aware that the dining couples are linked by a secret that at least two of them would prefer to leave buried. The piece is a good example of the author at his slickest. "Mother Figure" plays like a Carol Burnett sketch: An overworked stay-at-home mother is visited by the couple next door. The joke is that she treats them in the same peremptory way that she handles her children, reducing them to a near-infantile state in a matter of minutes.

Much less farcical is "Drinking Companion," in which Harry, a traveling salesman, bears down on Paula, a bubbly, blond thing in a provincial hotel. Paula is traveling to various department stores, where she demonstrates cosmetics, and the married Harry thinks he can talk her into bed. It's not for lack of trying, but his already flagging effort is further lumbered when Bernice, Paula's colleague, shows up. The piece is funny, but the longer Harry is allowed to work his wiles, the more desperate, even pathetic, he seems. "A Talk in the Park," a conversational roundelay among strangers sitting on a series of park benches, is largely laugh-free; if it does prefigure the author's later, more penetrating, studies of loneliness and stunted lives, it suffers from a certain mechanical quality.

Still, even if this is a middling example of the playwright's work, there are many priceless moments and one should never pass up a chance to see a company from the Stephen Joseph Theatre, of Scarborough, UK (Ayckbourn's home base), directed by the author himself. For some reason, American actors have never quite gotten the hang of Ayckbourn's comedies, and this production offers a master class in his distinctive comic style. Stephen Billington amuses as one of the bullied houseguests in "Mother Figure," downing a glass of milk (which he loathes) under duress; as a super-skilled waiter bouncing between two warring couples in "Between Mouthfuls;" and as the scoutmaster who chooses exactly the wrong moment to drown his sorrows in "Gosforth's Fête." Elizabeth Boag is especially funny as the cheerful household tyrant in "Mother Figure," dispensing juice, milk, and sweets to guests who just want to go home. Russell Dixon is memorable as Gosforth, whose personal life and event planning spin out of control in tandem; Charlotte Harwood has her best moments as the giggly, tougher-than-she-seems Paula in "Drinking Companion" and as an efficient, but sexually wayward, volunteer in "Gosforth's Fête." Richard Stacey offers the evening's main tour-de-force as the would-be seducer in "Drinking Companion," brilliantly navigating nonstop rivers of clichés and come-ons, constantly modulating his pitch as the circumstances change.

Of necessity, the production features the simplest of designs, with Michael Holt supplying just enough furniture to indicate each location. (The changeovers between the plays are handled with speed and skill.) Jason Taylor's lighting is perfectly fine. No sound designer is credited, but much of the effect of "Gosforth's Fête" hinges on sound effects and whoever did them deserves our congratulations.

Confusions also serves as a powerful reminder that farce is rapidly becoming a lost art in the theatre. Where is the Ayckbourn of today? We should be grateful that he is still at work -- Hero's Welcome, also playing at 59E59, is his 79th play -- and presenting them in canonical productions. Surely we live in farcical times; the playwright's rich sense of the ridiculous is starting to seem more and more like real life. -- David Barbour