Gimmick’s the thing in Ayckbourn comedy

If there’s one thing British playwright Alan Ayckbourn knows well, it’s the you-gotta-have-a-gimmick approach to theater. His plays always have a theatrical device that adds to the hilarity of the witty, fast-paced interactions between characters. “How the Other Half Loves,” which ran on Broadway for a mere three months in 1971 and is now playing at Acadia Repertory Theatre in Somesville, is an early installation in Ayckbourn’s bag of tricks. It may not have lasted long on the big stage, but it works a world of fun on smaller, regional stages.

In this farce, Ayckbourn allows two households to coexist at the same time on the same stage. The Fosters are an upscale couple who use linen napkins, serve tea from a silver pot, and mix cocktails in the evening. The Phillipses are a middle-class couple who strain under the pressure of their unruly toddler, eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for breakfast and argue about the unbalanced division of labor. The element that brings them all together is that Fiona Foster and Bob Phillips, who works for Fiona’s husband Frank, have had a fling the night before the opening scene of the play. To conceal their indiscretion, both Fiona and Bob use the alibi of having been out with members of a third couple, the hapless Detweillers. Fiona explains that she was commiserating with Mary Detweiller, and Bob insists he has been drinking with William Detweiller.

Throughout the action, the Foster and Phillips home spaces literally overlap in Ken Stack’s set design. When the Fosters go through their elegant morning routine, the Phillipses are bumbling through theirs. Each set is invisible to the other, but the conversations of the characters have that comic presence so typical of Ayckbourn’s colorful use of language.

And, of course, there is the gimmick. In the climax of the first act, the Detweillers are guests at separate but simultaneous dinner parties, pivoting in their chairs between two sets of conversations. The social disasters that ensue show Ayckbourn galloping at his mirthful best.

The performances by the six-person cast grab hold of the reins from time to time, and when they do, the play is uproariously funny. Director Wayne Loui knows what he’s doing in this forum, and he does it well.

The cast is a mixed bag. Siobhan O’Neill turns in a super performance as the punchy Fiona. More than any of her co-actors, O’Neill has a sense of the English idiom. Kathleen Lake, as the betrayed and frustrated Teresa Phillips, is also entertaining. Michael Sears, as Frank, is often very funny, though tends to be overly fussy with his cleverness. As in the last production at Acadia Rep, Daniel Vespa, as Bob, seems to be in a different show from the rest of the troupe. He’s either mugging or emoting, but doesn’t have the comic spark the role needs. Luckily, he has some lines that are funny in spite of his delivery and fluctuating accent. Alan Gallant and Kimberly Horn, as the Detweillers, are amusing in a quirky and cartoonish way.

Opening night, the cast stumbled through too many lines and into too many set pieces to actually give this script its due. But this is one of the more tricky shows to perform, for sure. Presumably, the cast will continue to speed things up as well as maintain the fluidity and awareness it takes to move around in such a challenging set. If they do, this may well be the hit of the theater’s season.

“How the Other Half Loves” will be performed 8:15 p.m. Thursday-Sunday through Aug. 6, and 2 p.m. Aug. 6 at Acadia Repertory Theatre in Somesville. For information, call 244-7260.