Acadia Rep’s ‘Absurd Person Singular’ seasonless

Usually, Alan Ayckbourn’s three-act play “Absurd Person Singular” shows up around Christmas. After all, it takes place over the course of three Christmases.

But actually, this wacky comedy has very little to do with the holidays. It has more to do with marriage, class quirks and twists of fate. In the Acadia Repertory Theatre production that opened Tuesday in Somesville, director Wayne Loui keeps his eye on the human interaction and plays down the spirit of the holiday. Except for some seasonal songs and a few set pieces, this could be any time of year.

It couldn’t, however, be any playwright. Ayckbourn’s farcical commentaries on the bourgeoisie are to British theater what works by Neil Simon and A.R. Gurney are to the American theater: dependable, entertaining and ubiquitous. It seems that Ayckbourn opens his eyes and there before him stands a bevy of characters just waiting to be jabbed with a critical zinger.

For “Absurd Person Singular,” Ayckbourn heads into the kitchen where, he rightly observes, so much of life takes place — especially if there’s a boring cocktail party going on in the next room. In a three-year period, he takes us into the kitchens of three couples: Jane and Sydney (Laura Anne Hodos and Alan Gallant), Ronald and Marion (David Wilson Barnes and Kathleen Lake) and Eva and Geoffrey (Leslie D. Smith and Nick Jaeger).

Whether they are gauche social climbers or your garden-variety philanderer with a depressive wife, these couples are in a whirl of domestic difficulties all of which are given Ayckbourn’s spiffy stamp. He’s interested in the humor, but he also digs for the underlying loneliness and despair.

Of course, this play is not a downer. While most of the main action takes place offstage, the good fun lies in people getting locked out of the house, bug spray being used as air freshener, and one character trying to kill herself a half-dozen times in the second act. The final scene is downright ebullient with everyone dancing to a reel.

It wouldn’t be quite right to call this production a barrel of monkeys, though. The farce is often forced and transparent. It may be the pacing or it may be the clumsiness of the actors, but you can see a gag coming a mile away. There’s lots to laugh at in the three hours of performance, but you might find yourself straining to find the humor in some situations.

The bland, suburban set shifts between each act and is thoroughly reconstructed by stagehands who drill, shove and redesign the kitchen to represent each of the couples. Consequently, the set is rather flimsy and sometimes gets in the way of the actors.

Several performances are standouts. Unquestionably, David Wilson Barnes is the most amusing with his tweedy manner. Kathleen Lake comes onstage like a grande dame, and wherever she goes, a naughty kind of trouble follows. Laura Anne Hodos is joyfully vacuous — and her big-eyed, toothy expressions stop just short of being cartoonish.

“Absurd Person Singular” will be performed 8:15 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday through July 25 and 2 p.m. July 26, at Acadia Repertory Theatre in Somesville. For information, call 244-7260.