‘SCR encores ‘Intimate’

Tom Titus

If at first you do succeed, why not try again anyway?

That was the feeling at South Coast Repertory when the company

scheduled an encore production of Alan Ayckbourn’s comedy “Intimate

Exchanges,” opening next weekend on the theater’s Julianne Argyros

Stage after a week of previews beginning Sunday.

SCR first mounted the comic labyrinth of a play 10 years ago with

Richard Doyle and Kandis Chappell comprising the cast. Both are

returning for the encore under the direction of Martin Benson, one of

the company’s two founding directors. Among them, Doyle, Benson and

Chappell have amassed 13 awards from the Los Angeles Drama Critics

Circle.

One might assume they would need all that talent and experience to

negotiate their way through Ayckbourn’s farcical work, familiar as it

might be for them. The playwright describes it as “a play in four

acts with 16 possible variations.”

“Intimate Exchanges,” set in a small English village, examines the

lives and relationships of six men and five women -- all played by

the same two performers -- and the course their lives may have taken

had different choices been made at certain times.

As written, there are 30 scenes, 11 characters and approximately

16 hours of dialogue. But don’t worry about getting home after

midnight -- SCR will present only one of the 16 potential outcomes.

However, the show still will require Chappell and Doyle to create a

half-dozen distinct characters.

“It’s always a joy to revisit Ayckbourn, because it’s a lot of

fun,” Doyle said. “This one is special because it was my first time

playing opposite Kandis and my first real Ayckbourn outing, and it

turned out very well.”

That first venture was played out on the old Second Stage, with

audience on three sides.

“There are elements we won’t have to worry about this time because

we’re working on a proscenium stage,” he said. “Also, it’s more

farcical, with more comedic elements than first time, more bizarre

situations.”

Chappell, who’s actually doing the play for the third time, said,

“I must say that the comfort level in the room (with Doyle and

Benson) is terrific. We have a really good, comfortable relationship,

which is nice.

“It’s been an interesting process,” she said. “I remember certain

things that worked, but not why they worked. It’s a very complicated

play, and an incredibly busy show with props. I’ve been wondering,

‘Why don’t I write down what I’m doing in case I do it again?’ When

each of us runs offstage, we should have a list of what we do next.”

“This version has more turnarounds than the original,” Doyle

agreed. “We play three characters at a time, changing backstage. It’s

a lot of work, but a lot of fun.”

Another reason for the play’s difficulty, Chappell said, is that

Ayckbourn writes specifically English rhythms. “Learning the lines is

so difficult because of the Englishness of them,” she said. “He uses

slightly different words than we would use.”

Both Doyle and Chappell are well versed in the Ayckbourn style.

Doyle was featured in last season’s “Relatively Speaking” and played

the title role in “Man of the Moment,” while Chappell had the title

role in “Woman in Mind” and headed the cast of “How the Other Half

Loves,” all performed on the Costa Mesa stage.

Each has been honored in this column’s year-end “man and woman of

the year in theater” tribute (as has director Benson, back in 1976),

and both were seen in the current season-opening production of “The

Last Night of Ballyhoo.” Their individual credits at SCR alone are

somewhat staggering since Doyle has been around virtually since day

one in the mid-1960s and Chappell has performed regularly there over

the past two decades.

* TOM TITUS reviews local theater for the Daily Pilot. His reviews

appear Fridays.