‘Intimate Exchanges’ a score

Tom Titus

Producing Alan Ayckbourn’s “Intimate Exchanges” is somewhat like

ordering from a Chinese menu. You can pick what you like, and if you

change your mind, you can always substitute.

South Coast Repertory mounted this English comedy -- which has no

fewer than 16 separate plot variations -- 11 years ago to great

success on the old Second Stage. Now the play is once again at SCR

with the same two-character cast. Nothing has changed -- except the

plot devices, the entire second act being completely different from

the 1993 version.

If anything, the current incarnation, this time under the

direction of Martin Benson, is even funnier. Particularly the first

scene of the second act, in which Ayckbourn steers his witty,

sophisticated comedy into the tossing shoals of pure, frantic farce.

It’s always rewarding to see a pair of old pros at work, and SCR

has two of the best in Richard Doyle and Kandis Chappell, reprising

their characters (or at least some of them) from the company’s

previous staging. These two are particularly knowledgeable in

navigating through Ayckbourn territory, and their sprightly

two-hander is an absolute treat.

The play begins, as does all its versions, in an English garden

and whichever path it takes depends on whether or not Chappell’s

character, Celia Teasdale, decides to have a cigarette. Here she

does, which opens the door to Doyle’s gardener character, Lionel

Hepplewick. During this sequence, Chappell also transforms herself

into Sylvie Bell, her Cockney servant, and Doyle morphs into Toby

Teasdale, Chappell’s stuffy headmaster husband.

It’s mostly verbal tennis in the first act, with the upper and

lower class characters popping back and forth, but after intermission

all hell breaks loose. The scene shifts to a tent, under which

Chappell’s Celia is gradually being stretched to the end of her

tether as she attempts to cater a tea for officials of the school’s

athletic events.

Here we meet two new characters, both of course enacted by

Chappell and Doyle. Chappell reappears as Irene Pridworthy, a

formidable matron transformed much as Marlon Brando was in “The

Godfather,” puffy cheeks and all, while Doyle impersonates Miles

Coombes, a foppish dandy with a knack for doing everything wrong.

Chappell’s hilarious mental ungluing -- as well as her applaudable

turn as the portly visitor -- kicks this comedy into farcical high

gear.

The final scene, in a churchyard five years later, is a brief

afterword to wrap things up tidily, and possibly to let the audience

catch its breath after the merciless hilarity of that third scene.

Since there are only two actors in the play, one often is called

on to “fill time” on stage as the other changes characters, and both

Doyle and Chappell are quite accomplished at this task. These are two

of SCR’s finest performers, and to watch them in full comic flight is

an exceptional treat.

Scenic designer James Youmans has fashioned three different

settings, two of which are deliciously detailed. The costumes of

Angela Balogh Calin (particularly those for Doyle’s “Miles” character

and Chappell’s doughty “Irene”) are splendid.

Unfortunately, “Intimate Exchanges” was originally ticketed only

for a brief, three-weekend engagement on the Julianne Argyros Stage,

but four shows were added because of the popularity of the

performance.