Alan Ayckbourn is one of the most unsparing and shameless writers of contemporary farce. In his 1994 comedy “Communicating Doors,” he makes the lead character a dominatrix who stumbles into territory that could curl the nails on even the most committed “specialist sexual consultant” (her preferred job description). Just to add some fun, Ayckbourn names her Poopay and puts her in a time warp. The wacky outcome — a kind of “Back to the Future” with a British twist — is a loopy adventure she hadn’t imagined possible for a brutally busy working girl such as herself.

Poopay heads for a trick one night at The Regal Hotel in London, finds herself enslaved in a compromising legal position, runs to a closet to hide and comes out in the same room 20 years earlier. Before her wild night is over, time travel expands the plot by another 20 years to include three women and one wicked killer, all of whom are bonded — or is the right word bondaged? — by their relationship to the same man. In the end, however, this is Poopay’s story.

Amy Robbins, who plays Poopay in the Belfast Maskers production running through next weekend, tells the tale with commanding nuttiness and, at times, tender emotion. Her Poopay is pert and particular, snappy and smart, and she carries the show with a leading-lady charm that gets right to the heart of an Ayckbourn comedy.

More than anyone in this industrious community production directed by Christopher Bates, Robbins has the rhythm and cues of an actor who understands timing and humor. The other players — Michael Fletcher, Jim Reitz, Andrea Itkin, Peter Conant and Kim Tripp — all have moments that rock, but can sometimes slow down the beat with clunky cadences and elusive accents.

Linden Frederick’s hotel room set lives up to the Belfast Maskers’ reputation for attractive and sturdy performance spaces. Technical control sometimes slid off track at the performance last Saturday, but the cast carried the inconveniences with admirable patience.

Ayckbourn’s great skill is that he hilariously combines the class cleverness of Noel Coward and the high-principled murders of Agatha Christie for a show that nudges the brain and tickles the funny bone. While Bates’ direction of the Belfast Maskers is largely playful and reliable, the pacing is sometimes a bit sluggish. Still, this is community theater in action, and the results are a good break from a night of British comedies on TV.

The Belfast Maskers will present “Communicating Doors,” 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 2 p.m. Sunday through June 18 at the Railroad Theater in Belfast. For information, call 338-9668.